Thanks to everyone for the suggestions which were very helpful!

We arrived in the city a little before noon on Thursday. Parked in the parking garage on Ontario and St. Clair. Next time we would pick the garage a few blocks south on St. Clair and Grand which was not as nice, but $11.00/day cheaper. Checked into our hotel (Best Western Inn of Chicago) and dropped our stuff off in the rooms. We have stayed at this hotel a number of times. We like it because of the great location and not much else. The rooms are pretty small and the bathrooms and elevators are tiny, but it all is adequate if we're not planning on spending much time in the hotel. We called and ordered some sandwiches from Pastoral on Lake St. to pick up later that evening. We had a quick lunch at CND Gyros which was very satisfying and then went on a walk down Michigan Avenue. As instructed, we arrived early for our segway tour through Steve's Segway. After brief, but very thorough instructions we were on our way for a 3-hour tour through the city. This was definitely a highlight of our trip for all involved (two 30-somethings and two 60-somethings). We covered quite a bit of territory that would have been too much on foot and learned some new things about a city. After the tour we made a brief stop back at the hotel to freshen up a bit and then left to pick up our dinner at Pastoral. Then headed over the Millenium Park, spread out our blankets and enjoyed our sandwiches and wine while listening to the Thursday night concert at the Jay Pritzker Pavillion. The music was okay, not exceptional and I can't even tell you who the artist was, but the experience was still great! Good opportunity to be with friends and people watch. All four of the sandwiches from Pastoral that we were exceptional! After the concert we went back to the hotel and enjoyed relaxing on the rooftop patio.

Friday morning we walked a few blocks and had breakfast at West Egg on the corner of Ontario and Fairbanks. Afterwards, we did some window shopping on Michigan Avenue before catching the red line to Wrigley Field. Rain kept the game from starting on time and we commented later that we may have been better off if it had been rained out completely as the Cubs had a miserable showing against the Cardinals. After the game we walking a few blocks north of Wrigley and met some cousins for dinner at Uncommon Ground. Yum!! The only disappointment was that my order apparently didn't make it to the kitchen, so my dinner didn't arrive until the other five people in our party were already done. The management offered (without any prompting) that we would not need to pay for my meal. I must say that my chicken sandwich was well worth the wait and I enjoyed a delicious strawberry margarita in the meantime.

Saturday morning we had breakfast at The Bongo Room. Unfortunately I didn't realize that they don't open until 9:00 on weekends, so we arrived an hour early. However, it did give us a chance to walk through Grant Park. Our breakfast was great and I can see why this place is so often recommended. The best choice out of the four we had was the Lemon Ricotta pancakes. Yummy! However, none of us felt that we had made a bad choice. The only negative to report was that the restaurant was very noisy and we found ourselves yelling just to be heard across the table from each other. Next stop was at the Magnificent Mile Art Festival which we were happy to find was going on during our visit. Huge variety of artwork and I was happy to find a painting that I couldn't resist purchasing. Next we checked out of the hotel and headed home.

Overall, a great 3 days in Chicago!

Thanks for your report! Tell me more about the Segway. How fast do they go? Are the controls, gas and brakes, on the handlebar? Are they easy to ride?

Great report. I love Chicago -- reading this, I think I have to make another trip!

Thanks for your report! Tell me more about the Segway. How fast do they go? Are the controls, gas and brakes, on the handlebar? Are they easy to ride?,

There are no controls, you control every action with body movement. You can actually just stand on it without holding the handlebar and it will balance you perfectly. Towards the end of the tour some of the people were not even holding the handlebar as we were moving. It takes some time to get use to the idea that you don't need the handlebar on a 2 wheel vehicle because our natural instincts tell us that it's not possible, but it sure is.

We did a Segway tour of Sarasota few years ago and it was a blast. These things work just like advertised. Very easy to operate.

2 speeds, controlled by which speed the rental agency picks for you. After a quick lesson, they decided to set ours for regular speed. I don't remember exactly but it's something like 7 mph in slow, 12 mph in regular speed mode.

AAFF Very interesting, I want to do it! How do you stop it with no controls?

Body movement

lean forward, lean backward

stand straight to stand around

I don't mean you have to jerk your body around, just a slight shift of weight will let the vehicle know what you want to do.

You can watch a short video demonstrating the newer model Segway:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=824kF-Dpe78

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=824kF-Dpe78