Looking forward to more!

DW and I will be in Chicago on a layover between trains in 10 days. We will find the Old Water Tower. http://www.aviewoncities.com/chicago/watertower.htm
The restaurant I'm planning on visiting is probably a 1 on Yelp.
I have not had a good perogi since I left PA so we are going to Pierogi Heaven on Wells.

tomfuller, if you're short on time and are close to downtown, definitely take the free walking tour if you've never been to Chicago or not in a while. The one leaving from the Cultural Center walked the group through the building itself with the Tiffany glass dome, the Millenium Park, Lake Michigan, the oustide of the Art Institute. It covers all the essential landmarks in that area.

The other one leaving from the Old Water Tower was more about the Magnificient Mile area. The volunteer guide showed up his neighborhood, Hughes Hefner's mansion and lesser known places.

Maybe check their website or call them up to see if there's a tour on the day you're there.

Good luck!

Sights I enjoyed:

* Lincoln Park Zoo (FREE!). Where can you find a free zoo these days?? And this one is big and extensive with a rather impressive collection of animals and displays. I visit zoos all over, and was still quite impressed by this -- a great collection of unusual primates, and most interesting for me on that day were the naked mole rats -- never seen them before. Worth spending a beautiful sunny Sunday afternoon there.

* Lincoln Park Conservatory (FREE!). If you go to the zoo, make sure to visit nature conservatory nearby. Plants and flowers blooming under glass domes. Nice place to hang out for a while.

* Millenium Park (of course). Wish I were there in the summer--lots of free concerts that time. Take a free guided tour (see my first entry in this post) to get more info about the park.

* Chicago Art Institute. We spent the entire Sat here, and were just barely hitting the highlights! Love it. Get the audio tour guide, and hit the highlights in the cheat sheet first. We tried to do this but ended up getting distracted by other amazing pieces nearby. Don't miss the Thorton Minature Room.

* Walk the length of the river. My DH got a free architecture guide booklet, and he got quite a lot out of it. He also took the water taxi (only a few bucks) which runs the length of the river, but no narration. We didn't have time for the architecture boat tour.

* The Signature Room at John Hancock Building. We went up there one night to get dessert and drinks, but the line was so long. Ended up not eating there, but the secret is you can get a great view of Chicago from the women's bathroom up there!

Almost forgot about this:

* Smith Museum of Stain Glass (FREE!. At the Navy Pier. Don't bother spending time at the pier (junky tourist shops and eateries). Just see the stain glass museum -- Tiffany, Alfonso Mucha windows, etc.

Tom - my niece was in Chicago in February and LOVED pierogi heaven...she's still talking about it! Make sure to let us know what you think...

Here's my lost and found story in Chicago. I lost my driver's license and credit card while walking around on Magnificient Mile -- they probably fell out of my coat pocket. I didn't realize I'd lost them until 4 hours later at dinner time. I was worried about not being able to board my flight home (without a picture ID).

But when I called my credit card company to cancel the card, miraculously they had a note from the Chicago Police Headquarter that someone had turned in both cards to the police! What a smart way to notify me. I'm so grateful for whoever it was who found my cards and had the heart to turn them in to the police!

Entertainment

* Blue Chicago. Close to Magnificient Mile and probably one of the most convenient bars to listen to live blue music for tourists. Only $8 cover charge. Beer and drinks were cheap too -- $5. Long, narrow bar and it was riotous that night. The band was great and lead singer had an outrageously foul mouth, but somehow no one got offended and everyone laughed along with him. He came down and flirted with all the females in the audience, including moi. Compared to my also big city, this is a bargain for the quality of the band you get here.

* 1/2 Price Tickets. Make sure check out the same day half price ticket offices -- one opposite the Cultural Center and the other inside the visitor center off Magnificient Mile. Lots of great shows for 1/2 price. Wish I had more nights to try them out. We went to see the Blue Man for 1/2 price. We'd never seen it before, but glad we didn't have to pay full price for it though. Not as entertaining as I thought. Somewhat infantile and boring.

* Second City. Definitely catch a comedy show here. We also got 1/2 price ticket for a show there. Funny and well worth the time and money.

Thank you for this information about Chicago. I am going in the summer and this is very helpful.

Not to take away from the above suggestions, but Chicago is a wonderful city with many options. Take a look at the past threads about Chicago to get some ideas of all your choices.

BTW, about the InstaGreeter mentioned above, which doesn't require reservations. This is only a part of the free Chicago Greeter Service. There are 5 InstaGreeter locations around the city, not just the two mentioned.

If you have sufficient time to do so, you can reserve your own personalized tour based on an area/neighborhood(s) or interest(s). Most first-timers do not know anything about the neighborhoods of Chicago. Take a look at the Explore Chicago website. It gives you some basic information about the various ones and then you can go from there.

Great trip report. It is an undervalued city. I think it's a great place that people of all ages would enjoy.

As Exiledprincess mentions, there is much more than what you were able to see. A few of my favorites you did not mention: the Cubs, the amazing science museum and the aquarium. The Billy Goat Tavern. We loved taking one of the boat excursions onto the lake to see the city lights at night. I always felt that people were friendly there for being such a big city.

Great tips for Chicago.. I love that city! Glad you had such a fabulous time!

Thanks very much for this!

Thank you, all, for reading my trip report. I was there mainly for business and barely had 1 1/2 free days to sightsee, one of which was devoted to the Art Institute, which I loved. Wish I had more time to go to the Field Museum, etc. and other neighborhoods further out from where I stayed.

FOOD

Food in Chicago is phenomenal! Avoid the chain restaurants and your standard hotel restaurants (that's where I had 2 blah meals on the whole trip), and seek out local eateries. You'd be blown away! We didn't strategize our eating plans well, so missed out on some more well-known places. Restaurants are packed everywhere, and at least at every hour that we wanted to eat. We couldn't get in to many places, and ended up eating wherever they'd take us, but the food was still good. We mainly relied on yelp, and, as I'd mentioned earlier, Chicago yelpers are harsh critics! Here's our translation of the Chicago yelp ratings: 3 1/2 * = very good, 4* = excellent, 4 1/2* = out of this world.

* The Purple Pig. My foodie friend raved about this place, and it's conveniently located on Magnificent Mile near Nordstrom. No reservation taken, but we gave our name, walked around and came back and got a table right away. Although there were other offerings, but it's best known for making the most out of "other" parts of the pig -- bone marrows, pig ears, etc. Not to worry, everything was done very tastefully and presented artfully. Good wine, dessert. Like a hip Spanish tapa bar, lively and convivial vibe.

* XOCO. Rick Bayless's casual eatery is our fall-back place when we couldn't get into other restaurants. Ate here like 3x! Not like any Mexican food I'd ever had (no burritos and tacos), but everything was so tasty and expertly cooked. Had a yummy torta (sandwich -- bread was freshly and deliciously baked) with a nice tomatoey dip. And a great soup with excellent pork bellies -- crispy on the outside and tender inside. Hot and crispy churros, Mexican hot chocolate, other desserts and dishes. Just try anything on the menu and you won't be disappointed. And the price is cheap (churros is like 3 for $3, most dishes are $8 to $10), given the quality of the food. Plus, free filtered sparkling water -- what a great concept! No wasted water bottles. Wish he'd open a chain in my city. It'd really show what people what you can do with Mexican food.

The reason we ended up eating here 3x is because we couldn't get into his more famous Fronterra Gril and Topolobampo (sp?) which is right around the block. The wait there was ridiculous -- over 2 hours! We saw people just eating dinner standing up(yes, standing, as there were no seats available) around the bar, while all dressed up for the night out because they couln't *stand* the long wait. We gave up twice and went to Xoco. Apparently, their reservation system is all arbitrary, so you just have to endure the long wait if you want to eat here.

* Chicago deep dish pizza. I had it in 2 different places – Pizano’s and Lou Malnati’s. The latter was favorite. Got both recommendations from an unscientific survey of the locals I met in Chicago. Pizano’s crust of the first one was too hard and the flavors were so bland. Lou Malnati’s (the original one in the neighborhood near Lincoln Park Zoo) got both crust and flavors the way I like it. Still, I prefer thin crust over thick crust though.

* Chicago dog. After my first walking tour, the volunteer tour guide and I went to his favorite Chicago hot dog place (it’s a local chain, forgot the name). He told me to the charred dog with everything on it – mustard, tomato, pickled pepper, and even the neon green relish (I think I can live without that radioactive stuff). I liked the dog charred—all split up at the ends. Much better than boiled.

* Food Life. Inside Macy’s shopping mall on Magnificent Mile. Not your typical food court with boring chain eateries. This one features all local food. Great place to sample different stuff. We tried some yummy southern food – baby back ribs, mac n cheese (baked til surface was caramelized but inside still rich and cheesy), gumbo.

* Italian restaurant. Forgot what this is called; it’s in the neighborhood of Second City. We had dinner here before our comedy show. We took a table outside without realizing it’s a big place indoors with pictures of many past celebrities on the wall. Classic Italian dishes, like clam linguine, etc. but everything was cooked perfectly. Good wine for reasonable price too.

* Catch 35. Seafood restaurant. Went with a big group for business dinner. More on exenpensive side, but the food was very good--quality ingredients, expertly cooked. Not your typica ripped off seafood restaurants catered to tourists. We ordered almost the whole menu and shared everything.

Many other restaurants, and I apologize I don't remember the names. But in general, food is great everywhere I had. I think eating out is one of Chicagoans' favorie pastimes.

HOTELS

To wrap up my trip report, here are some info on hotels I stayed at in Chicago:

* Hyatt Regency in the Loop (on W Wacker)
-- Great location, at the juncture between Magnificient Mile and the many sights in the south (Millenium Park, Art Institute, etc.).
-- Easy to walk everywhere for sightseeing and eating.
-- Right on the river. I got a room with a great view of the river, the bridge, the Wrigley building, Union Tribune building, part of Magnificient Mile.
-- Negative: Check-in staff is very incompetent. Deal with managers instead.
-- Services (like fax, internet) cost an arm and a leg

* Four Points Sheraton near Magnificient Mile
-- Not as good location as the Hyatt Regency, but still walkable to all areas in Magnificient Mile
-- No view from my room, but I was there for the weekend after my meeting, and spent most of the time outside anyhow.
-- Great service -- fax, internet, printing all free. I had to fax 20+ pages, and the front desk staff did it all for me -- twice and it's all free! Wow!