You'd have to head west or significantly north of U of C to be someplace you wouldn't want.

You can take the Number 6 or 10 bus to Museum of Science and Industry (57th Street and Stony Island Ave), then walk west on 57th street to Woodlawn. I've done it and you'll be fine.

You can also take the Metra Electric line from Millennium Station to 56/57th Streets, although it runs less frequently than the buses on weekend.

The area is easy to navigate as all the east-west streets are numbered. While you're down there, you may want to pay a visit to the Oriental Institute. It's free and you can tour it in about 90 minutes.

Thanks, Citylghts! The 6 or 10 plus walking was what I was thinking, so I appreciate the reassurance. I figured we'd be fine, but it never hurts to check! I'll check out the Oriental Institute as well - thanks!

I was looking at the Robie and/or Oriental institute also. About how long of a walk is it from the 57th Street and Stony Island Ave stop? And is it safe? There will be 4 of us, including 2 kids.

I hesitate to ask the safety question. We walk everywhere downtown. However, approximately 20 years ago I took one of the trains south out of the loop, as far as it would go, thinking I could walk to the Sci/Ind museum (it appeared relatively close by on the map). I don't know if that was 57th, but I found myself in what appeared to be a less than desirable area, with no museum in sight. I don't want to repeat that experience.
Thanks.

The Robie House and Oriental Institute are about 7-8 blocks from the Metra station.

Probably most areas of the city have changed since 20 years ago. Most for the better and some, unfortunately, for the worse. Since there are no less than six different trains that run from The Loop to the south side and beyond, you have to make sure you know which system (Metra or CTA) and what stop you want.

Hi Bitter - we ended up taking a cab down on Saturday, just to save time (plus there were five of us, so it was pretty cheap!). We took the bus back to the Loop from MoSI, though. I felt perfectly safe walking that route, as well as a little around the UC campus, on a Saturday afternoon - there were people out and about and we had no trouble at all. It probably took us 10-15 minutes to get to the bus from Robie House.

Citylghts, we were running too late to get to the Oriental Institute - I'll have to check that out for next time! Robie House was really interesting to me, though. I'm glad we made the trip.