OK;
Here's my review of Emerald Trails (never done one before so bear with me):
The site is about 5 miles off highway 394 (good highway access). It is really quite and shady, lots of trees. A small lake with a spooky brown color. Bathroom/showers are clean but dated. Management is kind of goofy. English is definately the second or possibly third language spoken here, even though the owner said they'd owned for "twenty years, since the 60's"
Only cash is accepted, no credit cards.
We were there on a Monday and Tuesday night. At least half the sites were occupied by full-timers, a few that stayed thru the week, but most appeared to be week-enders. The sites were very close together and management seemed to want everyone to stay one right next to the other. We were allowed to go one site down from the last parked full-timer although the lady in charge wanted us to butt up right behind him (basically window to window) for some reason. At least 20 empty campsites were adjacent to where we were assigned (more on this later).
My brother, sister-in-law, 4 kidlings ( 2 girlies 11 and 1 boy and 1 girl 13) and my mom visited on Tuesday afternoon/night to check out our new camper. We played no music, the kids played campy type games at only our site and we chatted/ laughed around the campfire. Numerous complaints were supposedly registered about the noise from our campsite and our guests were told to leave by sunset. Wow! Talk about no Aloha.
On Wed. morning as we were eating breakfast outside a guy came to mow the lawn. We were the only people out and about in the campground. He proceded to mow past us then down the line (of 20 empty campsites). This led us to believe that he would mow the other sites first, since they were empty, but nooooooo he circled back around and came closer and closer to our picnic table. We finally picked up our food and went to the other side of our trailer, and he proceeded to follow us and mow closer and closer shooting gravel in our direction.
Overall impression: Although the campground has nice features, I got the impression that transient campers were not welcome.
$28.00 for water and electric. If you want to have a fire you have to buy the wood from them for $5 a wheel-barrow (a good bit of wood and a good deal).
Drove by Windy City, it is right on I-80. It appears there really is no good choice for camping near Chicago. Maybe Indiana Dunes State Park?
Chicago Campgrounds
I'll try to send pictures or a review when we get back, (if I remember, DOH!). 
The owner/manager was pretty nice, just really hard to understand. In retrospect it was the residents who complained and the lawn-mower man that turned us off to this campground. Only two of the sites close to us (both across the road and a couple of sites down) were occupied, both by older couples. None of them even said hello. And just to clarify: the kids and sister-in-law were only there for two hours, mainly to eat dinner. My 79 year old Mom and 50 year old brother stayed for the afternoon. We were not a wild group of partyers.
Successful choice
Nice, clean, attractive campground, very friendly & helpful staff, fairly reasonable cost. Full hookup sites are a bit narrow, but usable. 20 minutes to Metra station, then 1 hour 15 minutes into Chicago - or an hour & 15 minute drive into Chi. if you have decent traffic on I-90. The campground is very close to the Illinois Railway Museum - a must-see if you're into that kind of stuff!!!
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