On to Chicago!! (Beware Geoff and Jim!!)

[PurpleMustReign]

Tomorrow, my friend from work, her daughter, her grandson, my gf, and I will drive on to The Windy City... Chi-town... home of the Cubs (and unfortunately the Bears and White Sox)... Chicago Illinois!!!

It is about a 7-8 hour trip, hopefully we won't all hate each other by the end of it.

Geoff, Jim: I am staying at the Westin Chicago Northwest. Ever heard of it? Is the Itasca area a good area? Can you recommend some things to do? I want to see Wrigley, Soldier Field, and the Chicago Zoo. And my gf will want to see Chinatown (she is Asian). What else should we look at? We are there until Monday.

[glg]

Geoff, Jim: I am staying at the Westin Chicago Northwest. Ever heard of it? Is the Itasca area a good area? Can you recommend some things to do? I want to see Wrigley, Soldier Field, and the Chicago Zoo. And my gf will want to see Chinatown (she is Asian). What else should we look at? We are there until Monday.

Itasca is fine, but it's definitely the burbs. At best 30 minutes, but more likely over an hour into the city. If you're looking to spend most of your time in the city itself, you might be better off with a place downtown. I know that it's often possible to get downtown hotel rooms for cheap off priceline (see biddingfortravel.com for an idea of recent stuff). May be a bit late for that though.

Wrigley is in a neighborhood. If you're there during the day, it'll be easy to find a spot to park on the street within a block of so and walk around. There's a gate on the Sheffield side (east side) that you can see the field through if they don't close it during the winter.

Soldier is right on Lake Shore Drive. If you want to actually park and walk around, you'll have to pay for it.

Two zoos. Lincoln Park Zoo is right off Lake Shore Drive on the north side. It's free, though parking isn't (street parking possible, but difficult). Brookfield Zoo (aka Chicago Zoological Park) is in Brookfield, which is west, kinda on the way in from Itasca.

Other stuff:
Museum Campus (Field Museum of Natural History, Shedd Aquarium, Adler Planetarium), all right by Soldier
Art Institute of Chicago (on Michigan Ave)
Museum of Science and Industry (south side, by University of Chicago)
Chicago Auto Show starts tomorrow if you're into cars. It's not as big as Detroit, but it's pretty big.
If it wasn't winter, I'd recommend the river architecture tour. If it's warm, just wandering around the buildings can be fun.
Window shopping on Michigan Ave

Food - Chicago is a fantastic eating town. One suggestion, don't go to anything you can get at home (chains, etc). There's better food to be had here. Some local specialties include Chicago hot dogs, Italian Beef, Chicago Pizza (Lou Malnati's is my favorite, but Giordano's, Gino's East, and Pizzeria Uno/Due are all popular, Uno's is not the same as the chain they sold their name to). There are a simply ridiculous number of ethnic enclaves with great restaurants. Some have obvious names like Chinatown, Greektown, and Little Italy, others don't. If you have anything in particular you're looking for, let me know and I can try to point you.

[PurpleMustReign]

Dang! Itasca looked closer than that when I booked. I booked on Hotwire and got a good deal. Oh well.

I can't wait to try the food! I am definitely a pizza person.

Thanks for all the info. The museums sound fun, I'll have to check them out. Which of the two zoos is better? Or are they about the same.


Let me know if you think of other stuff! Thanks!!

[glg]

Thanks for all the info. The museums sound fun, I'll have to check them out. Which of the two zoos is better? Or are they about the same.

They're both good in different ways. Brookfield is a lot bigger, probably more like a "traditional" zoo. Lincoln Park is rather compact, which can be good especially for younger kids (or adults) who would get bored by a bigger zoo. Brookfield is probably a good half day, where you could see most of Lincoln Park in 2-3 hours.

[PurpleMustReign]

Wow, Chicago is a nice town! I didn't get to see nearly as much as I wanted to. I was hoping to go into Wrigley and Soldier Field, butr they were both closed when I was there
Chinatown was really cool. There were a lot of neat stores there.
I ate at Uno's Pizza on Wabash (I think that was the street). It was very good. I wanted to try more pizza places, but the girl we went with wanted us to go with ehr to some of her family's parties, etc.
I can' believe the population isn't all 300 pound people, with all of the restaurants there are there, I would balloon so fast on pizza it isn't even funny.
And you are right, Itasca is a ways out. but the hotel was AWESOME. I uploaded some pics here of the hotel and other things. If anyone has never been, I suggest you go!
Geoff/Jim, are the hotels in downtown always much pricier than out in the suburbs? I Was looking online and they are a lot more, like twice as much or more.

[glg]

I was hoping to go into Wrigley and Soldier Field, butr they were both closed when I was there

Wrigley doesn't do tours over the winter, not sure on Soldier, but I doubt they do either.

I can' believe the population isn't all 300 pound people, with all of the restaurants there are there, I would balloon so fast on pizza it isn't even funny.

The pizza was a good chunk of my "freshman 15" when I moved here for college.

Geoff/Jim, are the hotels in downtown always much pricier than out in the suburbs? I Was looking online and they are a lot more, like twice as much or more.

It really depends on what's going on that weekend. eg, when our biggest convention is in town (radiology, 70k attendees), you can't find a room, period. On off weekends, you can often do pretty well with priceline/hotwire/hotels.com, though the hotels themselves seem to rarely lower their rates all that much.