Facebook icon Twitter icon Instagram icon YouTube icon
Residents call the Joliet area a mini Chicago. There’s a large train station; a couple of colleges; a theater, the Rialto; a baseball team, the minor league Joliet Slammers; and a successful football team at Joliet Catholic High School. (WTTW News)
,

The southwest suburb is home to several racetracks and is the birthplace of Dairy Queen. The area also has two prisons – one of which closed in 2002 and recently opened as a haunted house.

UniverSoul Circus (Photo by Boon Vang)

Circus acts, a prison tour, barrel-aged brews and a powwow usher in the weekend. Here are 10 things to do in and around Chicago.

Illinois Department of Natural Resources biologist Justin Widloe holds a bighead carp. (Chad Merda / Forest Preserve District of Will County)

If Asian carp invade the Great Lakes, experts say the fish would have a devastating effect on the marine food chain and the region’s $7 billion fishing industry. We get a look at efforts to keep them out of Illinois waterways.

Scaly creatures, vintage vinyls and cheesy bites usher in the weekend. Here are 10 things to do in and around Chicago. 

A wave of swimmers start their race in Lake Michigan at the 2015 Chicago Triathlon. (Courtesy of Transamerica Chicago Triathlon)

Cheer on Chicago athletes, shop for fall accessories, take in an outdoor movie, sip sangria on a sprawling lawn, run through mud, watch dashing dogs and more this weekend.