Headed to Chicago, tell me what to do
 

You guys have been full of good suggestions when I've asked in the past about other areas, so in this volume of the MT.net Travel Guide, tell me what and where about Chicago.

Taking my gf there for her birthday the first weekend of October, staying downtown, not renting a car. We plan on biking around as much as possible with the Divvy bike rental system and using public transit the rest of the time. We typically like to get a feel for the city when we go some place new, not just hit all the touristy crap in our stars-and-stripes jumpers. I'm a Frank Lloyd Wright fanboi so we'll be seeing as much of his work as possible, we'll hit a couple of museums because culture, etc.

What else?

So I do not know the laws on booze in Colorado, but boy was I shocked when I walked into a CVS in Chicago to buy my bus pass and they sold liqueur there.

hit up the bean.. Always a good spot to see. then head down to navy pier. lots of cool little shops. you can take a taxi between the two. after that head over to soldier field and walk down to the planetarium. even if it's closed. the view from the planetarium of the skyline is epic.

Art Institute has a Magritte special exhibit until 10/13 if that overlaps for you. Otherwise I don't tend to do anything in the city... work and get out :p

Cafe Baba Reba near DePaul Uni for great tapas and paias (sp?), fresh made sangria.

Walking around by the planetarium and aquarium around dusk is great. City skyline is very nice at night time. The museum and solider field are all within walk-able distance as well.

You absolutely need to bike-ride around wacker and if your feeling frisky, lower wacker. Such cool architecture. Key streets to remember with interesting stuff, roosevelt, congress, michigan, lakeshore, and randolph. Kinda the bigger surrounding streets for downtown.

Food. Chicago has the best food variety in the country. You need to go everywhere. Key things, points of interest. People will say get deepdish pizza from Giordanos. This is wrong, you need to go Lou Malnati's up in River north off well st. Best pizza you will eat ever.

Jim's Original Maxwell st. it's not amazing food, but you need to experience it. Go at 2 in the morning when people get out of the bars. It's right near the UIC college campus right off Roosevelt. Classic cheap polish with good fries and 24 hour service.

Same style of chicago hotdog and fries place, The Weiner's Circle. This is that place where they cuss out their customers and insult you as you order. Go in the evening, there will be a line out the door. It's in lincoln park.

Bars, ummm pretty much anything in the Gold Coast and check out breweries. Lots of cool breweries to look.

http://www.yelp.com/search?find_desc...cflt=breweries

2x on Lou Malnati's being better option. It is one of many argued 'best' Chicago deep dish, but definitely the one I prefer above all others (Ginos/Unos/Giordanos and others).

100% yes

Having been to Chicago many times. This guy is right...

I have a different take on food though... Normally the plan is to just walk around until something that looks like a tiny little hole in the wall and eat there. Eat at the little not well labeled place next to the place that has all the people in it. Shockingly this has always brought me luck. I found the worlds greatest Italian restaurant this way. I would never be able to find it again if i tried.

Oh, and stay off the Mile unless you have an unlimited credit card.

If you're feeling fancy, have a cocktail at the bar on the observation level of the Hancock Building. Especially cool if there's a thunderstorm.

+1
I recommend this. The 95th at the John Hancock building. Try to time it about a half hour before sunset. Get a seat near the window, order a couple of drinks and enjoy the sunset over the city by the lake.
Cheers,
-JB

Thanks for all the responses so far!

This is the reflective sculpture, yes? That's on the list for sure.

Yep, gonna be there Oct2-7. Never seen any of his work in person, sounds like a plan.

Thanks for taking the time to spell that all out! Everything sounds great. We are staying at Wacker and Michigan, so that bike ride will be close by. Not sure 4 days is going to be enough time though lol.

Nope, so good to know.

Perfect, sounds like a great place to have a birthday drink with the gf at sunset.

More questions:
Somebody had mentioned doing a boat tour, is that worthwhile? Seems kinda meh on paper.

Also, how's the downtown area/Loop for being out on foot at night? We've been to NYC and stayed out till the early hours walking around lower Manhattan and the East Village with no problem finding plenty to do. Is Chicago as "night friendly" downtown, or is most of the nightlife in the outlying 'hoods?

If you like ice cream, even a little bit you must go here:

Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams
3404 N Southport Ave
Chicago, IL 60657

Seriously, one of the best ice cream places in the country.

Will

blow

your

mind

At night it depends on the neighborhood. If your like downtown/downtown theres not a whole bunch to do that's not super expensive. You have to hit up like goldcoast or oldtown. But those are north of where you'll be staying. Only like a mile or so, you could walk there pretty easy. Or just ask someone how to get to oldtown/goldcoast. You pretty much can just walk north on michigan and you'll end up in goldcoast. You'll be able to tell when you get there because the streets will be lined with bars etc.

Attachment 235311

Also, because this is a miata forum. Over by Wrigley field is boys town, which honestly has some awesome bars over there too. But that's more then likely out of walking distance.

The only thing to remember is anything south of Roosevelt is considered southside, north of it is downtown. In my opinion, you don't really want to be too far south of roosevelt when it gets dark out. UIC campus are is nice but it gets sketchy pretty quickly.Anything downtown or north/west of downtown you're fine.

I'd also suggest you try to check out all the little different ethnic areas like chinatown, greektown, little italy, little mexico etc. You can pretty much google those names and find directions.

I've done the boat tour. If you're interested in history, design, and some decent sight seeing it's a great time. Otherwise it's kinda boring. But i'm a huge nerd so i loved it.

I also went out on the lake in a diesel powered jet boat or something when i was younger with my parents. That was something that i won't do again.

Sky deck on the Willis tower?

Aquarium was good. We ran out of time for the planetarium.

LOL

Jeni's finally made it to Chicago, huh?

Last time I was in Chicago, I was still in college. I was an art major. We spent 3hrs there and I don't think we even saw 1/4 the place. People I were with were ready to go. I wanted to stop and stare at every piece.

On Michigan Ave we ate at a place called the Grande Lux Cafe. We got lucky and got a window seat because some people had just canceled their reservations when we walked in. Awesome food, nice elegant atmosphere.

Architectural boat tour is definitely worth it if you are the type that would go to the Art Institute. Wife and I went on one last year and really enjoyed it. Lots of architectural design history in Chicago, really wide range of styles to check out.

I spent so many years of my life as an art student/major (2yrs of college as a major) and the free days down there for students were most excellent. Lots of time to sit and sketch the scupltures/paintings and look over different techniques.

Yes, they have one store in Chicago, one store in Charleston, SC and a seasonal store somewhere in NYC.

I don't know what their plans for expansion are but I hope they don't get too big for their own good.

Jenni's ice cream and raising canes are some if the very few things I miss about Ohio.

Ohh snap, I know where I am going this weekend to get some ice cream.

FOR SURE.

We (wife, kids and I) went down to Isle of Palms in July to go to the beach and we made sure to go into Charleston one evening to get ice cream there. We were a little worried it wouldn't be as good as the original stores in Ohio, but it was.

Go and try ALL of the flavors. All of them. Seriously, they are not stingy on the samples so try as many as you want.

Wait you were down at IOP in July? What week? I was out there during the week of 19-26 with family.

Lolz, we were there the 26th-28th. Just a quick weekend to burn up some Hilton rewards points.

I get along great with ice cream, will definitely check this out.

Thanks for the map! We do usually like to use transit to get to new neighborhoods, even if they are close like those, because of all the walking we'll do once we get there. Another friend locally had suggested Old Town, too. I appreciate the word on where not to typically be.

My neighbor just talked about this boat tour last night, so it looks like we'll be trying to do it. I definitely geek out on art/architecture and this seems like it would be fun.

Yeah, Skydeck looks cool. I definitely want to do this or the previously mentioned observation deck so we can get a good panoramic view.

If you use the EL at all... check the seat before you sit down...

Just want to follow up and thank everyone who suggested places, food, etc. We had a great visit. We were upgraded to the 31st floor with a riverfront room at our hotel (Club Quarters, Wacker/Michigan) upon arrival and the rest of the weekend did not disappoint; ate tons of great food, did the arch. boat tour, visited 3 museums, toured the Robie House (a bucket list item for me), spent a lot of time in The Loop just walking around and checking out cool shit, even saw the (failed) Great Chicago Fire Celebration from out of our hotel window.