Grab some baked goods at Hewn (in Evanston), visit the Bahai temple, and then walk across the street to Gillson Park to wander the Lake Michigan shore and eat your goods from Hewn.

The easternmost portion of Northwestern's campus also has a nice walking/biking path along the lakeshore with a great view looking back towards the Chicago skyline.

Take off your sandals, and soak your toes in that crisp clear water, but only a little past your ankles or the moment will have spoiled by the crackle of the beach nazis on atvs, "No SWIMMING! GET OUT OF THE WATER".

The recent changes have gotten absurd

I hate Illinois Nazis.

That's a shame. I recall last summer seeing some dedicated and well-wetsuited people swimming much closer to town, along the concrete shoreline to the north of Ohio Street Beach.

That's the difference between the city and the suburbs. Swimming in the city is fine if a lifeguard is on duty.

https://www.chicagoparkdistrict.com/parks-facilities/beaches

Swimming in the Great Lakes is very dangerous, especially if you are not familiar with the behavior of the lakes.

https://glsrp.org/statistics/

Swimming in the Great Lakes is not dangerous at all. They account for 14 drowning deaths per year out of 4500 across the country. That's a quarter of the annual U.S. drownings in the Atlantic despite having more U.S. coastline.

So much for the land of the free.

If you're a tourist, know that you can take the Purple Line elevated train from downtown Chicago. At the end of the train line, it is about 0.5 KM east, along a lovely tree-lined street with sidewalks. The street turns into cobblestones after a short distance; it is a very wealthy area.

I agree. Other than the many beautiful homes and beaches, there are not a lot of things to see in Wilmette. Unlike other large buildings, mainly in the Northwestern (Evanston) campus area to the south, the Baha'i Temple is truly majestic and elegant that blends in well with the surrounding neighborhood.

In Oak Park, there's also Wright's concrete Unity Church from 1906 for extended Chicago area architectural sight seeing. It's about twenty miles.

https://flwright.org/explore/unity-temple