My wife and I are heading to Chicago this Friday and coming back Monday. Wanted to see if anyone had any recommendations on things we should definitely try to do while we are there. We have reservations at The Girl and the Goat and we are going to see the White Sox/Red Sox on Sunday. Other than that, we are pretty flexible.

Edit--I just saw that Chicago was included in the stickies above. I will start there. Sorry for not looking first.

[This message has been edited by jwnichols (edited 7/26/2011 10:29a).]

Eat at Rosebud on Rush.

Jog along the lakefront.

Shedd Aquarium, Museum, etc. if desired.

Wrigleyville
Eat at a deep dish pizza place
Millennium Park is pretty neat

Garrett's Popcorn...get the Chicago mix.

Architectural boat tour.

Aquarium and boat taxi to Navy Pier.

Thanks for the ideas! We are looking forward to it.

I agree with all of the above. Especially the deep dish pizza.

Get a Go Pass/Card. Well worth the money. The boat tours and museums are cool.

Second Rosebuds. There are several deep dish pizza places so that is a debate. Hugos Frog Bar is good. Eat a steak. There are plenty of choices. I liked Keefers and Gibsons over Gene & Georgetti

For pizza try:
Giordanos
Geno's East Pizza
Uno Chicago Grill

White Sox game?

I'd try Gino's East for your first Chicago Pizza experience. You'll get a million different suggestions, but the atmospheren at Gino's is fantastic. Last time I went I ended up sitting by some other Ags on vacation.

[This message has been edited by cubsin11 (edited 7/28/2011 9:36a).]

My wife, two sons (8 and 10), and I were in Chicago one month ago and had a blast.

Do NOT miss Giordanos. Best pizza I've ever had in my life and it isn't even close. You don't need to order much though. My sons and I are big eaters. The four of us ordered a medium and struggled to finish it. Gino's East is also VERY good. At either place, of course, get deep dish.

Be sure to walk the riverwalk and magnificent mile. BEAUTIFUL. Navy Pier is fun. Fireworks on Wednesday and Saurday nights (I think Sat.). Live bands at night. Ferris wheel ($6) is huge with pretty view.

Wrigley field is a must see if you like baseball at all, but you need to book tours ahead of time and they are expensive! ($25). Tours are great though. If you go to Wrigleyville, eat at Lucky's (amazing sandwiches seen on Man vs. Food). Drink an Old Style beer. There's a couple of more interesting bars on the street too (Cubby Bear, Sluggers has batting cages upstairs).

Oak Street Beach is fun and very pretty too.

On Magnificent Mile, Water Tower is something to see, Hershey's store. The El is interesting.

Sears Tower observation deck and skydeck are awesome. Go first thing in the morning to avoid crowds.

Milleneum Park and Grant Park are cool. Do NOT miss the Bean. Art Institute. Get the chicago blend at Garret's popcorn. Thank me later.

Buckingham fountain, Soldier Filed, GREAT hot dogs at Portillos.

Yep, we did all that and more in less than three days.

Forgot to mention the Billy Goat Tavern for burgers. We stumbled onto this super favorite spot. It is NOT to be missed! Cheap and tasty burgers, but the experience is what you go for!

Giordano's...Mmm!!! I think my husband and I got the small and couldn't finish it. Ridiculous...don't think about the calories and fat. Just eat it!!

We also did a sunset river tour. It was really entertaining. We took a bag of Garrett's popcorn on the tour. Good stuff.

Enjoy Chicago...I'm ready to go back!

Now I just wish we were staying longer.

Here are some threads I used when planning my trip:

http://texags.com/main/forum.reply.asp?topic_id=1422074&forum_id=54p

http://texags.com/main/forum.reply.asp?topic_id=1398850&forum_id=54

http://texags.com/main/forum.reply.asp?topic_id=1490152&forum_id=54

Pizza - Giordanos & Gino's East are good picks for deep dish. If you desire, there are also pizza tours in the city. We went on this pizza tour which we both really enjoyed.

Most people told me Navy Pier is way overrated, so we skipped that.

My wife liked the time we spent walking down the Magnificent Mile, shopping and such. We spent a few hours shopping and looking, then went up to the 94th Floor in Hancock Tower before dinner, it was a relaxing evening.

Millennium Park is a must do, you won't miss the iconic bean. They had ice skating when we were there which was fun.

The Field Museum, Soldier Field, the Aquarium and Planetarium are all grouped together. We only went to the Field Museum and took a few pictures outside of Soldier Field. It was time well spent.

We went on the Architecture Tour (by bus because it was winter). My wife thoroughly enjoyed it.

Chicago Cultural Center is a free site with decent exhibits.

We took the Red Line to Wrigleyville just to check out the area, pubs surround the ballpark. On the way back, we also stopped at Armitage for a little bit more shopping. Vosges has a chocolate store there.

We went to the Art Institute on a free day. It's huge. If you like art, I'm sure you could spend a whole day there. This site lists free days for area attractions

Heard from others that the Museum of Science and Industry was really good. It's right down the road from University of Chicago who has a beautiful campus (we saw this as part of the architecture tour)

Al's #1 Beef is a popular and excellent place to grab a sandwich. I really liked Ni9e for upscale dining. MK Restaurant is pretty good. Cafe Spiagga was a complete bust in my opinion, hated it.

Andy's Jazz Club and Rockit are right next to each other. People raved about Rockit, but we did not go. I loved Andy's though.

I loved Blue Chicago for blues. There's a cool Irish Pub across the street called Celtic Crossing.

Stay downtown, take the very efficient train system during the day (you can get multiday passes) and take taxis at night. We didn't even have to get a car.

Rosebud on Rush

Oh yea, if you were considering doing the Sears Tower, don't. Do this instead:
http://www.signatureroom.com/Signature-Lounge/

It is FREE (although you should probably get an expensive drink or two). That beats paying whatever $20-$30 to go up the Sears Tower.

quote:

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Oh yea, if you were considering doing the Sears Tower, don't. Do this instead:

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How would you know it's better? Have you even been to Chicago??

+1

Architectural boat tour.

Hancock Center

Lou Malnatti's for pizza

Take the train whereever you can

Lincoln Park Zoo

Millinium Park
Wirgleyville get hammered

Signature room is free btw but you should by a couple over priced cocktails and enjoy the view. Sears is overpriced

quote:

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Forgot to mention the Billy Goat Tavern for burgers. We stumbled onto this super favorite spot. It is NOT to be missed! Cheap and tasty burgers, but the experience is what you go for!

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make sure to go to the one thats on the lower level of michigan.

don't ask for fries, pepsi, or anything smaller than a double.

Second the Hancock Signature Room for a drink.

I frankly thought the boat architecture tour was boring. So did my wife and daughters.

Wrigley Field and Wrigleyville is a must.

If you really want a fine meal check out Everest.

Good views also.

Last March we stayed with the basketball team at the old Palmer House.

They had a deal where if you paid an extra/40 bucks a night you got a suite upgrade.

Me and Mrs. derm got a 1500 square foot room with a fireplace, 2 full bedrooms, dining room, kitchen, 4 bathrooms,, etc. and it was only about 189/night.

Have never stayed down there before.

Always had stayed up on or by the Mag Mile.

I actually enjoyed it.

And Al's beef was right next door.

Also really enjoyed staying at the House of Blues hotel one time.

Funkalicious.

Just got back from a week there with the family and thought of a couple things people didn't list.

-If you like the ponies, Arlington Park is a really nice setting/track.
-If you are going to do the Hancock Tower, consider going on Wed or Fri night to view the Navy Pier fireworks from above. Get there by 9 for the 9:30 pm show though.

heading there this Friday-Tues...their famous Taste of Chicago is this weekend and it's driving hotel prices thru the roof. Can anyone comment on how difficult it would be to stay the first two nights close to O'Hare and use public transit to get downtown, then make the move on Sunday when the hotels get back down to a reasonable price? Otherwise we're looking at about 350/night for a hotel.

Piss in Osama's mailbox

From memory, it's probably a 45 min train ride from ORD to downtown and will cost aboit $3 each way.

Must do things in Chicago.

1. Afternoon game at Wrigley
2. Dinner at Ditka's
3. Dinner at Gibson's on Rush
4. Signature Lounge at the Hancock Center

I would like to suggest a pretty memorable visit to the Sears Tower Glass Balcony !

Blue line to downtown takes about 45 mins. $2.25. I'm staying there 1 night this week in the loop.