In The Burbs

As an antidote to stressful schedules and solitary online pursuits, family game nights are back in a big way.

Whether they feature board game classics or playful new offerings, they stand ready to sharpen minds at any age.

“Game nights are more about staying close to family; people are enjoying the quiet, family moments,” says Rosaleen Tully, co-owner of Learning Express of Homer Glen.

She says Gather ‘Round Dinner Game is specifically designed to keep kids at the dinner table longer.

Take your mind off work, family and friends for a moment, and concentrate on yourself with yoga.

Yoga is not only an activity a person can practice alone, but it’s a relaxing activity that can enhance a person’s physical, mental and spiritual strength.

Couples can break the old routine with a bed and breakfast getaway. And you don’t have to travel far to slip into a cozy new environment that matches your taste.

“It’s a step back in time,” says Nina Heymann, co-owner of The Oscar Swan, a 21-year-old bed and breakfast set in a 1902 mansion on eight acres in Geneva. While it draws fans of the vintage architecture and antique-filled décor, modern amenities are plentiful, such as private baths in the guest rooms, each with satellite TV and WiFi.

Fans of B&B stays, Jacqueline and Rich Quantz of Sheridan say they enjoyed exploring an Italianate Victorian home in Dixon, complete with library.

Laura Dwyer is already making plans to celebrate Halloween by going to a haunted house. But the Batavia resident is not going alone.

She prefers the company of friends for a spooky, yet possibly comical outing at a haunted house.

“It’s more fun with friends,” she says. “Your friends are there to laugh hysterically at you when you scream and run away and you’re there to laugh at them. You don’t want to go alone.”

Giggles greet your ears when you enter the DuPage Children’s Museum, a discovery playground designed to engage adults and kids as young as 6 months in a shared partnership of learning.

Founded in Hinsdale two decades ago, its permanent home opened in 2001 in Naperville, a three-story structure full of interactive exhibits that teach young minds math, science and the arts under the guise of pure fun. Some let them float balls in midair atop pressurized tubes, tackle real carpentry, make music, bounce light, splash into water games or encase themselves in a giant bubble. Helping families maximize the experience is a pool of 500 volunteers devoted to the museum’s mission, says Alison Segebarth, marketing director.

A visitor tries out the wind tunnel at the DuPage Children’s Museum. SUBMITTED PHOTO

Nobody’s a wallflower at Thunderbird Singles’ dances.

“No one is sitting down,” says Scott Jones, organizer of the Thunderbird Singles. “Everyone is always up and dancing.”

Thunderbird Singles is the largest dance group for singles in the Chicagoland area, getting up to 300 to 500 people each dance night. Dances are scheduled each week around the suburbs, allowing individuals plentiful opportunities for dancing and mingling.

Couples who bicycle together can shake up their routine with the help of clubs devoted to plotting interesting new routes and social interaction options.

“It’s part exercise, it’s part social, it’s part sightseeing,” says Lynne Neslund, the former St. Charles resident who founded the Leisure Riders Bicycling Group 21 years ago, open to all riders age 40 and better. “You don’t realize how beautiful this area is until you get on a bicycle and go on the bike trails. We’re really fortunate in Kane, DuPage and part of Cook County — we have wonderful recreational trails.”

Linda Lyda of Bolingbrook and Joyce Hughes of Romeoville are longtime friends and players of the number-calling game bingo. In fact, their passion for the game is how they met.

“(We come here) too much,” Lyda says with a laugh at a recent Saturday bingo gathering at First Class Bingo in Bolingbrook. “But it’s relaxing and you’re able to talk with friends.”

“This is our therapy,” Hughes added.

From make-believe tea parties to sharing the company of their moms, aunts and grandmothers over a dainty cup, the ritual has captivated little girls’ hearts for generations.

  “We often find grandmothers with their grandchildren dressed up in their Sunday best; the little girls have their patent leather shoes on and are holding grandma’s hand and skipping,” says Peggy Maness, who manages the gourmet department at The Little Traveler in Geneva, the grand dame of suburban shopping destinations replete with tea times since the 1920s. Today, special mother-and-daughter tea events are held periodically, but the cafe offers an almost daily place to create your own special occasion, Maness says.

“I grew up going to The Little Traveler,” says Barbara Rozner, owner of Vintage Cottage in Western Springs, recalling it was the tea-time experience her mom compared most closely to her native Boston.

630 Singles is a well-rounded singles group.

From picnics to the movies and from sailing to dancing, 630 Singles provides a variety of events for its 150 members. “It’s very much a social club and a very active club,” says president Ken Leibach.

Perhaps it’s active because the club was created by volleyball enthusiasts.