HAD A BLAST!
United actually treated us nice and in Sacto, the agt. actually put us in the Exit Row so she could give me more leg room.
She threatened to take it back when I tried to kiss her cuz I was so happy! $238 PP/RT.
Non-stop. Very nice.

Hotel: Westin on No Mich-Mag Mile, right across the street from the Hancock Tower.
$75/night thru Priceline.com. Great beds and showers. The hotel was in good condition and the lobby was just finishing up some major remodeling.
The Ariz Diamondbacks then the Minna Twins stayed there while they were playing the Chi-Cubs/Sox.

Events: Cubs/Snakes-Schilling vs. Sosa=HR in the bottom of the ninth but Az wins, 2-1.
The whole Wrigley experience is fantastic even for non-baseball fans. It was our traveling companions first trip to Wrigley.
Sox-Twins. Twins 5-0. Comiskey is one of the last hunks o'concrete ballparks.
Art Institute.
Millennium Park had a great outdoor exhibit of aerial photography of places all over the world that made my buddy say "now I know why you like to travel".
Navy Pier.
Mag Mile where shopping turned into an aerobic event w/ Mrs Kal and her friend. The smell of plastic melting could be noticed down past The Loop.
Blue Chicago.
House of Blues regular venue and then the Sunday Gospel Brunch. Good food. Great show. Got an opera booth. Great service.
Walking tour of the Miro, Calder, Picasso, et al downtown.
Architecture boat tour on the Ft Dearborn. Picked it up over near Dick's Last Resort/North Pier-Ogden Slip. Great tour. This was the short tour that did not go out on the lake, up past the Gold Coast and down by Shedd Aquarium we took 3 years ago but or friends really liked it.
Second City was sold out the nights we were able to go. Good for them.
Hancock Tower Obs. Deck and a few side trips to the Signature Room Cocktail Lounge.
AVP Volleyball tourney out past Oak St beach.
Great walk out there and back after a lunch at Carmine's.
===========

part 2:

Eats/Drinks:
Goose Island at Wrigleyville before the Cubs game-good pub chips. Piano Man after the Cubs game. Fun atmosphere.
Stopped by Harry Caray's afterwards for a few beers...wound up staying. Actually pretty good food. Dinner menu in the bar. Excellent steak. Cooked it Vesuvio Style for me..."like buttah". Ditto the 3 other entrees and the side pasta. Good oysters.
Riva's on Navy Pier. Good fish and excellent view of the city. Great company.
The new "Weber Grill". Actually owned by the Weber Grill Co. All cooking is done on these what looks to be 72" Webers. Great steaks and pork chops. Huge asparagus. Warning: If you sit at the bar to watch the chefs, make sure you hydrate 'cuz it's HOT. We had a table in the bar (suprise!) and we were about 10' away and we were sweating.
Maggiano's Little Italy. In-laws stopped by a few days on the way back to a NASCAR race in TN so we all "family styled it" at Maggianos. A chain, but pretty good BIG Italian food.
The Best Deep Dish Pizza Search included stops at Giordano's on Rush, Uno's and Lou Malnati's. Just couldn't fit in Gino's East-Sorry Kam! "The guys" didn't make it to Uno's as we were occupied at ESPNZone, munching very good buff wings, sunken into the reclining chairs while watching the Steelers/'Skins NFL game, but we picked Malnati's...the gals picked Uno's. Malnati's air conditioner broke so maybe the heat had some effect on their choice?
Carmine's sidewalk cafe on Rush..great lunch..oysters, too.
Jilly's on Rush had the best seafood linguini in a spicy maranara sauce I've ever tasted. Loaded w/ a big lobster tail, too. Couldn't finish it. Got a window seat so we could watch the hub bub on Rush st.
Cocktails at The Talbott. I've stayed there before but never hit the sidewalk bar. Nice. Good people,too.
The Billy Goat.
Did a BBQ below the RF bleachers before the Sox-Twins game. The ladies thought it was pretty cool watching the players very close up shagging flies and watching the pitcher warm up...Hmmm...wonder why???
Lunch at Berghoff's. Still putting out good sausage/taters and kraut.
Desert at Heaven on 7 was very good. Coconut creme cake!
I think we did more but I can't read all of my scribbles on my crumbled cocktail napkins and match covers.
Either walked or took taxis to get around.
NEW PET PEEVE: Cabbies who talk on their cell phones while driving. Our cabbie from O'Hare got into an argument w/ his kid and "drove angry" after that. All but one cabby had a cell phone?!?! My first experience w/ that. Our friend was afraid to fly before this trip. Now she likes flying but is afraid of cabbies w/ cell phones!

Best for last:
Finally got to meet the lovely "alex-hulagirl" and her "Honeymoon in Kauai" bound friend at Hugo's Frog Bar.
Next time, a bit quieter place so we can yack more, yah? Like Yountville? ;-)
Also renewed our friendship with the newly buffed yet still sultry, margot from NJ.
Great city, great people, great trip.
Kal

Glad to hear you had a great time! I live in chicago but have yet to make it to the new Weber Grill restaurant so I was glad to hear the report, will have to get here in the near future.

I agree about taxi drivers on cells as well. They all do it!!!! What 's annoying to me is when they are using the "hands-free" set and are driving along talking and combined witht that and some of the heavy accents, I can never tell if they are talking to me and asking me a question or if they are talking on the phone. LOL!!!

BTW- I concur, Lou Malnati's is the best! Next time try some of our really really thin crust pizza as well. Chicago is famous for extra thick and extra thin not the in between.

Glad to hear the Westin is pretty good as I am staying there is two weeks. (Paid $100 per night on Priceline, but that's better than regular rates) Is it really the hotel in the best location
in Chicago?

I also have a United nonstop flight. ($240 - Rdtp LAX to ORD. Cheaper tickets to Chicago from LAX are now available on Americawest.com.)

How was the weather?

Did you take the El? If so, was it easy to figure out?

Ang-That does it! Next year a Chicago Fodor's GTG..maybe the Giants will have a weekend series next year...if there IS a next year for baseball!

Mrs Kal and kal's-pals were always sitting in the back of the cab (wonder why?) behind the partial plex-glass and they thought one driver was talking away to me in a foreign language and I was responding until they saw the hands free mic. Pretty funny.

deedee,
Great location!
Right on No. Mich and Delaware.
About a 10 min. walk to Navy Pier once you figure out how to get under Lakeshore Drive! Marked tunnels.

The Redline El stop was about 3-4 blocks away on Chicago and State.
Pretty easy to operate even tho it doesn't take a fare card the same way as SF's BART or DC's METRO so I plugged up a turnstyle once. Just ask...Very helpful people, those Chicagoans.

Pretty safe area even stumbling around past midnight. Still have to be on your toes, tho. It is a big city.
We hit the typical "If you don't like the weather in Chicago, wait 5 mins for it to change". On the 8-16 Cubs game, the weather could not have been better. Low 80s, nice breeze.
Ditto Sox game on 8-20. In between, we had a few more nice days but we also were there the day it got around 12" of rain in 1hr and some El stops in The loop were flooded as well as some of the hi-ways and outlying towns.
A real mid-west t'storm/gully washer. That was mostly at night so most of the storm had cleared up by time we came to...I mean, woke up around 10a.m.
Only had one really typical Chicago summer day when it was around 89 degrees and 89% humidity. That's what bars and malls are for!
Good luck.
Kal

Great report, thanks for posting it! I'm in the planning stage for our October trip and I would like to know more about the "Walking tour of the Miro, Calder, Picasso, et al downtown." that you did. Was it an organized tour or a "self-Guided" one? Sounds like you really had a fantastic time on your trip, thanks for sharing.

Great trip report Kal! I think you did more in a week than I have done in 4+ years! It was fantastic meeting up with you at Hugo's and we will definitely have to do a Fodor's GTG next visit! Jeff is just counting down the days to Kauai - I am so jealous! : ) Mr. Hula and I are looking forward to seeing you and the beautiful Mrs. Kal in Wine Country!

Hula-Yes. It was a vacation where I couldn't wait to get back to work so I could get some rest!
Wine Country sounds muy bueno! Keep in touch and let us know the details. We're already booked for Thurs thru Sunday.

As for Jeff, we're only 123 days behind him. Hope he leaves enough Saffire on the island! We did recall he beat us on the "best sunset" story, tho!

seh-When we travel to a big city we drop by the local bookstore and pick up a map called "MapEasy's Guidemap to....". (Hula-they even have Napa-Sonoma/Wine Country that lists most wineries, hotels, restaurants, etc.)
They do all the major cities in the world.
I saw the Calder on Ferris Bueller's Day Off and always wondered where it was and when we bought the MapEasy, it showed where it was and gave you a little route to follow to the others. Self guided, own pace but I bet there is probably some tour for it so you can get more detailed info.

Man, I need a slice of Malnati's for breakfast!
Kal

Kal, what were your fave, fave restaurants? And what did you bring home for your fam & friends for omiyage?

Melissa,
We didn't go to my fave fave...But Riva's is pretty close with view, food, service...
We were very casual this trip and prob would have felt out of place at some of the upper scale restaurants.
Time seemed to fly by while we were there.
Wish we had time for Marche (an old time fave fave), Frontera, Shaw's, Chop Shop, Gibson's et al. So many bars/restaurants, so little time.

The only thing I brought back was a terrible head cold and an empty wallet!
And a few things for the great-nieces.
Kal

Oh! Oh! Kal, what did you bring for the nieces??

Hey Kal (aka Phil)!

Great trip report on my old home town, and let me just say to all the posters logging in to this thread that Kal (aka Phil) and Marisa are a wonderful and fun couple - feel like we've known each other for years, even though we originally "met" through our Kauai postings. This was the 2nd time in 2 years we happened to be able to meet up in Chicago due to (not purposely) coordinated trip schedules, and we had a delightful afternoon at Riva's on Navy Pier, despite some funky weather. Just for the record...even though I moved away from Chicago 20 years ago, the city continues to look more and more impressive each time I return for a visit, which is every year. I'm really pleased that more people are coming as tourists than ever before. The only problem is that now I have to rely on Kal (aka Phil) to give me the skinny on the happening places in Chicago, since I am really literally and figuratively "out of the Loop"! Oh well...