jlm_mi

We're (30-year-old couple) thinking of heading to Chicago for a 3 day weekend over the 4th. Have been to Chicago many times and did Taste last year - no desire to repeat that experience.

I very badly want to see Body Worlds at the Museum of Science and Industry while we're there. We could just stop on our way out of town on Monday, but wondered if it might be worth doing it on Saturday on our way in instead and exploring some of the area. I understand it's pretty safe if we stick to the museum campus, hyde park, college campus area. But I am having trouble finding resources for what to do there.

We've seen the rest of the museum so probably won't spend a lot of time there outside of the Body Worlds exhibit. Does the campus area feel like many other college campuses with fun restaurants and shops to explore? Is it architecturally interesting with nice, green public spaces that are fun to walk through?

If anyone has suggestions for a walking tour or areas to check out, I'd love to hear them. Or if you have links or books on the area that you can recommend, that would be great too.

Thanks!

swalter518

My mother in law just did this walking tour and loved it-she had just read Devil in the White City but found the Frank Lloyd Wright parts interesting as well. http://www.architecture.org/tour_view.aspx?TourID=33

swalter518

JLM, you may want to check out this website too...
http://www.hydeparkhistory.org/

jlm_mi

That sounds like a good tour. Unfortunately, the only two dates left for it this year is not when we'll be there. I wish they'd publish their walking route so we could at least have an idea of where to walk, but alas, no.

JJ5

My nephew went to U.of C. and lives there and I visit. The area is actually having a lot of work done on a quad, I hear.

You might want to know that teh M.of S.and Industry has the U-2 inside now and it is supposed to be spectacular. This is now interactive and you just don't look inside- you are inside. I do want to go to that myself by late Fall. This requires a ticket, similar to the Coal Mine.

JJ5

That's the U-2 German submarine captured intact that used to be outside on the water. The money to do this project was phenomenal- more than Sue or any other.

AAFrequentFlyer

JJ5,

The submarine was always attached to the building. I don't think it was in the water. As far as back as the 70's as a child myself I visited the inside of it with an entrance from inside the building. You are correct that there was an extra charge, just like the coal mine.
I took my nephew there around 95 and it was the same set-up. I'll admit I have not been back there since then, so it's possible they moved it, but then why move it again?

swalter518

JLM, this was on another travel website and looks useful as a basis for a self-guided walking tour. http://www.frommers.com/destinations...006021134.html

JJ5

Yes it was attached, but it was not inside. It was exposed to the water/air and all the winter wind/ice conditions year round. It was never part of the building. You could walk to it through the building and also "through" it on this narrow lttle path, but you couldn't get into the instrument room or any of the real working areas. It was more or less rusting away and lots of the equipment and relics of the WWII era inside were literally falling apart. They moved it more than a couple of years ago, and it has been in rehab ever since. I read that they had spent 28 million on just the inside to keep everything authentic and yet make it accessible.

I really do not know how the interaction works, but believe me it was outside and actually on a slab made for it right by the lake. I watched a movie /documentary on how it was brought into the lake. It was before the St.Lawrence Seaway and it was an ordeal. The first time I went through it was when it was "new" in the '50's and they were still not telling you the entire story of what happened to the crew etc. Now they do.

I have a feeling that they have made it hi-tech like the Presidential Museum- Abraham Lincoln that just opened in Springfield, IL at the end of April.

AAFrequentFlyer

You did say it was on the water.

I do understand now. The museum web site has a great page about the history and also the recent move.

But, I will still disagree with you about touring it inside. I do remember touring the entire inside of the sub, the torpedo rooms, the galley, the bridge, etc.etc.,

still, this new exhibit does look very nice.

AAFrequentFlyer

Here is the web site:

http://www.msichicago.org/exhibit/U505/index.html

jlm_mi

swalter - thanks for the links. That walking tour does sound good.

I'll look into the sub as well, but it may have to wait for a future visit. Have to see how much time we end up with there.

swalter518

JLM,
Not quite as far south as Hyde Park but if you are looking for a peaceful area of the city on the lake, a few weeks back my DH and I took the dog and walked south from the Museum Campus toward and passed McCormick Place. We had the area almost to ourselves except for by the boat launch and it had beautiful view of the lake and the city. Try it if you are looking for a little respite. There is a beach south of McCormick Place too where you can take a dip if you are so inclined!

JJ5

We take the little kids to the area swalter518 just described. It's a nice walk. We found the area south of McCormick Place while tailgating for Bears games. That's where we park.

Orcas

The U of C has a lovely campus with lots of quadrangels to explore. The neighborhood has a gritty, urban intellectual feel, and there are not upscale, commerical shops or restaurants in the neighborhood. Still there is plenty to see and do and the neighborhood is really interesting. You will need to talk to people and get a book on it to appreciate it, I think. There is no shortage of bookstores in the neighborhood. There is a large university bookstore on campus and there are several new/used bookstores on 57th St. where you could pick up information on Hyde Park. The original Powell's Book Store (famous in Portland, where its offspring is far bigger than the original) is on 57th St. To get to this area, you just go west from the Musuem on 57th and go under the railroad tracks. Walk up the street and you will find the bookstores. The university will be a couple of blocks to your south (left).

At the U of C, you might enjoy seeing the Oriental Institute. It's a more academic museum in the older style. There are lots of archaelogical treasures from the middle east there. (They have a website.)

The neighborhood has lots of great houses. Kenwood is really a great neighborhood to walk in, attached to Hyde Park. It has many old mansions, such as the Rosenwald Mansion (of Sears Robuck fame), the home owned by the McGills (of McGill University), and on and on.

There are a couple of places to eat along 57th St., including an Edwardos Pizza. There are other good restaurants scattered throughout the neighborhood. There is a good French bakery you can sit outside of in the Coop Shopping Ctr on 55th and Lake Park. (Also there is a good French restaurant there, but the name escapes me at the moment.)

Across Lake Shore Drive from the Museum is an excellent park, the Point. It's right on the lake and is a lovely walk. You can access it from the new tunnel under Lake Shore Drive at the Museum (57th St.) The 56th St beach there is being redone.
You can do a loop at the Point, and go under the drive at 55th St. or can continue down to an overpass at 51st and cross there.

You really don't have to worry about safety during the day in Hyde Park/Kenwood. I don't think I'd wander south of the Midway, west of Cottage Grove, or north of 47th St., but that leaves a huge area to explore.

Orcas

La Petit Folie is the good French Restaurant at 55th that I couldn't think of. Ribs and Bibs on 53rd and Harper has about the best barbeque you could imagine. You can smell the ribs smoking from far away. Valois on 53rd is a really interesting place like a NY cafe with lots of great food. It's a real tradition in Hyde Park. It's close to Lake Park. 53rd is another commercial area.

exiledprincess

jlm_mi, if you are going to Museum Campus and just south on the 3rd of July, you won't be alone. Lots of people camp out there, especially at the Museum Campus area, early in the day, for the city's fireworks that evening.

If you are going to MSI, please take some time for the Osaka Japanese Gardens/Wooded Island in Jackson Park just south of the MSI. There is information about this right on the MSI website.

Have fun!

exiledprincess

jlm_mi, I'm going to get off your original post question to recommend something I think the two of you would enjoy.

The Music Box Theatre on N. Southport is having a Harold Lloyd silent film festival (most showings with live organ accompaniment) when you are here. If it's hot and humid when you are here (as our 4ths are wont to be), head on over there and cool off during the hottest part of the day.

Have fun!

jlm_mi

Thanks for all the great ideas! I'll keep the silent movie festival in mind. I was very sad to have to miss a showing of the original silent Peter Pan with orchestra accompaniment here at home a few weeks ago, so that could be a fun way to cool off.

We're definitely open to any other ideas anyone has for that weekend, or whenever. We're in Chicago typically 2-3 weekends per year, so I keep a file going with all these suggestions.

Kristi

Since it sounds like you will have a car, in addition to all the wonderful suggestions I'll add an offbeat one that is in the Hyde Park area, Oakwoods Cemetery which has the gravesites of Harold Washington, Jesse Owens, an enormous Confederate war monument and the Roland Burris monument that you just have to see to believe (he's still alive). We visited on a Saturday afternoon, parking is inside the cemetery or you can tour by car, and we never felt unsafe there.

http://www.graveyards.com/oakwoods/

I also didn't see Frank Lloyd Wright's Robie House mentioned, you can go on a guided tour or just take a gander at the outside for free. There's also Loredo Taft's Fountain of Time on the western edge of the midway, the replica statue of the Republic from the Coulumbian Exposition on Hayes St. and if you are heading in/out on 41, you can also stop by the South Shore Cultural Center which is currently used as a local community center.

And one of my favorite restaurants is down in that area, Dixie Kitchen for good southern cooking