Any place I should visit in Chicago??

Hi group, going to Chicago soon for a weekend. Any must-sees there? Any good gadget shops? Any flashaholics that want to meet up for lunch??? ;-)

oh man, what shouldn't you see? The museum of science and industry, the shed aquarium, the field museum, go up the sears tower, The Art Institute, go to a concert at Orchestra Hall, see a show, drive lake short drive north. I grew up there but haven't lived there for 12 years or so so I can't recommend any restaurants or anything, but it's a GREAT city to visit.

Now I'm feeling home sick

It's not gadget or light related, but the King Tut exhibit is at The Field Museum in Chicago until January 2007. From what I have been hearing it would be a very worthwhile visit. I am looking forward to it myself. If you decide to go I would suggest you buy your tickets in advance. The last time I checked availability for the weekends, this month was already sold out. We had to get tickets for a weekday. Most of the tickets are "timed" entry tickets so you must choose the time of day you would like to go as well.

James S said:

oh man, what shouldn't you see? The museum of science and industry, the shed aquarium, the field museum, go up the sears tower, The Art Institute, go to a concert at Orchestra Hall, see a show, drive lake short drive north. I grew up there but haven't lived there for 12 years or so so I can't recommend any restaurants or anything, but it's a GREAT city to visit.

Now I'm feeling home sick

Click to expand...

the Museum has the U-505 a WW2 german type VII submarine that you can walk through and touch, for me it was surreal like the movie Das Boot.

For a gadget lover, Museum of Science and Industry is a must see.

Uno's or Due's Pizza! Great pizza and Martini's by the way. Chicago's museums are a must. Rush Street can be interesting also. By the way, I'm from Chicago.

If you do't have a lot of time but like art, the Museum of Contemporary Art is excellent. Much less crowded than the Art Inst. but full of great stuff. Lot's of great blues and jazz bars if you're into that. Patricia Barber used to be at the Green Mill on Mon or Tues nights, she is great.

Morton's or Gibson's for steak.



Ryan

Wow I'm not sure what to add.

First I echo the suggestions for the Field Museum, Art Institute, Museum of Science and Industry, Sears Tower, Green Mill with Patricia Barber.

I usually recommend the Hancock Tower over the Sears Tower. They have a bar at the top and it's a great place to go with some friends to hang out for a while.

The Green Mill is also home of the original Poetry Slam so if that has any interest for you it's a fun time.

For me personally the stand out was the Field Museum. It is truly a world class cultural museum. I especially recommend the bronze sculptures scattered throughout the museum. The were commissioned and done in the early 20th Century, IIRC. The woman travelled the world and did a representative sculpture of a person from each of dozens of cultures. There is also a very good American Indian section there with exhibits of many different tribes, along with mounted animals (some extinct) and dinosaur bones.

Pizza, of course! In addition to Uno or Due I would reccomend Giordano's, Gino's East and my personal favorite, Edwardo's. They are all chains but are good and make "authentic" Chicago pizza even if they weren't necessarily the first. Try the Stuffed Spinach Pizza.

When I lived there you could look down on the trading pits of some of the trading exchanges. The Chicago Board of Trade was by far the most interesting. I believe that they have restricted that now, since 9/11 so check before going.

Before I lived there I would have never considered visiting Chicago as a tourist. I learned it has a lot going for it and is a really good tourist town.

Enjoy!

Wrigley! True, the Cubs are dropping a deuce as far as the season goes, but even if you don't like baseball, Wrigley is worth it. Actually, this year, it's almost better that you don't like baseball... :shakehead

You are aware that Uno's was sold to some Boston based company years ago and has since been franchised all over the country? Not quite the same these days.

For pizza it's probably better to walk down the street to Gino's these days, or if out in the suburbs to find a Malnati's.

And for my restaurant contribution, try Shaw's Crab House on E. Hubbard. They have a formal dining room, but I try to avoid that in favor of eating in the "bar" (really, less formal, more fun.)

And to do the tourist thing like a local, there's always hot dogs, a Maxwell Street Polish, or an Italian Beef at Portillo's across the street from the Hard Rock.

For shopping, go ga-ga at Water Tower Place on Michigan Ave.

More tourist stuff - Navy Pier

All of the places above should be close enough to be considered walking distance, except maybe Navy Pier.

cyberhobo said:

Uno's or Due's Pizza! Great pizza and Martini's by the way. Chicago's museums are a must. Rush Street can be interesting also. By the way, I'm from Chicago.

Click to expand...

I liked the Shed's Aquarium best. Sears tower was nice as was the natural history museum but I liked the fish best.
Topper

Didn't know that. Last time I was there was in the late 70's early 80's for pizza.

Brighteyez said:

You are aware that Uno's was sold to some Boston based company years ago and has since been franchised all over the country? Not quite the same these days.

For pizza it's probably better to walk down the street to Gino's these days, or if out in the suburbs to find a Malnati's.

And for my restaurant contribution, try Shaw's Crab House on E. Hubbard. They have a formal dining room, but I try to avoid that in favor of eating in the "bar" (really, less formal, more fun.)

And to do the tourist thing like a local, there's always hot dogs, a Maxwell Street Polish, or an Italian Beef at Portillo's across the street from the Hard Rock.

For shopping, go ga-ga at Water Tower Place on Michigan Ave.

More tourist stuff - Navy Pier

All of the places above should be close enough to be considered walking distance, except maybe Navy Pier.

Click to expand...

I suppose we should ask what part of chicago? we're all kind of assuming downtown, but really chicago is HUGE north, south west and downtown (east) but moving around is pretty easy. I'm from the "north shore" really and so am more familiar with those parts of the city, but we did go downtown. chicago has great food. I second the really good pizza recommendation. Chicago style is THICK THICK THICK with pounds and pounds of cheese Pizza that has to be eaten with a knife and a fork! MmmmmmMMMmmmm.

American Science and Surplus is a must-see! All sorts of cool surplus items at excellent prices.

Ah ha! Waited in the street to get seated while they took your order in line? Remember those days well, not a pleasant wait in late-August/early-Sept. Was back there a couple of years ago and they had tablecloths on the tables! That was enough to scare me away

There was a time that I'd drive in from Oakbrook for an Uno's pizza. (I guess gas was cheaper back then as well.) Nowadays, we have an Uno's locally and I just drive right past it

cyberhobo said:

Didn't know that. Last time I was there was in the late 70's early 80's for pizza.

Click to expand...

PhotonWrangler said:

American Science and Surplus is a must-see! All sorts of cool surplus items at excellent prices.

Click to expand...

Yes, yes yes! I re-read the OP and for gadget shops you don't get much better.

Don't bother with Uno's or Gino's pizza! If you're only going there for a weekend, you need a truly memorable pizza experience.

Get a gut-busting, artery-clogging stuffed pizza at Giordano's Famous Stuffed Pizza, Edwardo's Natural Pizza, or Carmen's Pizza. (Links go to Google Maps) My personal favorite is the Edwardo's stuffed spinach.

Whenever I go back to Chicago, I try to visit The Wiener's Circle. Definitely not haute cuisine, but the taste of the char dog brings back so many memories.

Other bad-for-you-but-tasty food to try: a Chicago style hot dog and a Chicago-style Italian beef sandwich. Portillo's Hot Dogs on Ontario St. is a decent place to get both.

There are many excellent museums. The Field Museum, Shedd Aquarium, and Adler Planetarium are located close to each other. I doubt you'd be able to take in more than two of those in one day, though. The Art Institute and Museum of Science and Industry are great, too.

If you can, it's nice to take a night time walk on the lakeshore. I liked walking up by North Street beach or Belmont Harbor, where you could get a good view of the city to the south, like this:

Eat, eat eat! My personal favorite is Lou Malnati's Pizza but that's because I grew up on the stuff. If you like seafood, go to Bob Chinn's Crab House up in Wheeling. Fresh stuff (flown in everyday). Check out italian beef sandwiches as mentioned above also. I could go on and on but most are highly biased based on what I grew up with. Most look like dives but have some of the best eats reserved only for the locals who have the "in"formation Dang, I miss the place. (but not the snow)

WOW, thanks for all the great replies, I do appreciate it. The Science and Industry Museum sounds fascinating, I love these types of things. Actually I have seen the King Tut exhibit last year at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art!!

Looks like a lot of CPFers have common interests... quite the cerebral crowd.

I think American Science and Surplus will be a stop if I have the time. I've never really been to a good surplus/junk shop even though I'm known as the survivalist nut in my group of friends. ("Arm yourselves against the coming tyranny!")

Fortunately my wife loves to eat (100 lb. Asian girl... where does she put it all?!) so I have a feeling we'll be checking out some of the restaraunts, so double-thanks for those dual purpose suggestions too hahaha. My dad suggested Gene and Georgetti (steakhouse), but the on-line reviews I've read are 50/50. At $48 a plate I don't think I'm comfortable with those odds.

I gotta travel light so I'll probably only be packing my U2. Even though some of the other lights don't take up THAT much space, I'm kinda wondering how well I'll survive an entire weekend packing only one low-output (compared to my others) light.