Chicago with 5 year old!
 

What are some must see sights for a mom and 5 year old son to see while visiting Chicago for a weekend?

Navy Pier and Chicago Children's Museum. Lincoln Park Zoo. Eat at Rainforest Cafe. Shedd Aquarium. Deep dish Pizza at Geno's East!

Don't forget the Museum of Science and Industry. Loads of fun for kids.

Pizzeria Uno or Due is better than Gino's East by far!!YUMMIE.....

I'd recommend the Peggy Notebaert nature museum instead of the Museum of Science and Industry for a 5 year old. It is skewed to a younger age than MSI (which is a great museum for the whole family, but overload for a 5 year old). The Notebaert is just north of Lincoln Park Zoo. Also, there is a great playground on the west side of the zoo opposite the main gate. <BR> <BR>Brookfield Zoo is another great option if you have a car and all day. It's about a half-hour from downtown, depending on traffic. Kohl's Children's museum, on the border of Wilmette and Evanston, is a nice option if you are north of the city. Good beach at Gilson Park in Wilmette, also, right by the Bahai temple (which is fascinating to kids.) <BR> <BR>No disrespect to deep-dish pizza lovers, but a lot of little kids find they are too thick with cheese. If your child gulps his foods or gags easily, try thin crust instead.

Oh, Brookfield Zoo! The last poster brought a smile to my face and a sentimental tear to my eye just by mentioning its name. Is it still as wonderful as it used to be? <BR>I grew up in the western suburbs and we visited there twice a year. I LOVED that place. <BR>Lincoln Park Zoo is also a fine zoo and it's free -- but Brookfield is what spurred my imagination as a child and it is still the zoo I measure all others by. <BR>Thanks for the memories.

Oh dear - no intention of starting a "zoo war" here, but wanted to reply to Edith, with the 'other' viewpoint. I grew up in Chicago, about a 10 min walk from Lincoln Park at Armitage (so, 15-20 mins from the zoo)....and to me, it was what a zoo should be. Didn't get to Brookfield til I was in my teens - or maybe even later....and didn't care for it much at all. Different strokes, I guess. <BR> <BR>Cam - If you are downtown, your youngster will probably enjoy a look at Buckingham Fountain - it's pretty impressive, even more so at nite when the colored light show comes on. <BR> <BR>If he's a fish fan, the Shedd Aquarium is an option....

No war here arjay ;^) It may be that our "childhood zoo" is the one we bond with. My 16 year old son still speaks fondly of Lincoln Park Zoo -- possibly because the first time he remembers visiting there, we walked into the aviary house and a large parrot screamed, "Hullo Matt!" which happens to be his name. My daughter, on the other hand, is partial to the Ft Wayne Children's Zoo; a smallish but nice zoo about 30 minutes from where we lived when she was young. My husband (who grew up nowhere near a zoo)would choose the Milwaukee Zoo as his favorite. It's the zoo we visited on our first out of town date.

I reiterate and repost for Museum of Science and Industry...it's a great place for families AND a great place for kids, with several programs geared toward children. It's no more an "overload" than Notebaert, the zoo or anyplace that will wear out a 5-yr-old.

I took my daughter when she was 5 (7 now) and she still talks about our trip. One tip I will give, I highly suggest you stay downtown. However, here's my list of suggestions. <BR>1. Sears Tower <BR>2. Navy Pier / (Childrens musseum, IMAX theater & a huge 15 story ferris wheel. Not scarry like it sounds-definitely check it out! <BR>3. Disney Qwest <BR>4. Shed Aquarium (Science Museum is very cool but over most 5 year old heads) <BR>5. Take train from airport (Midway or O'Hare) to downtown. <BR>6. Saturdays you can take a train / subway trip that loops the city <BR>7. Just walk down Michigan Ave. <BR>8. Any of the Pizza places mentioned above <BR>Enjoy!

just a note on Disneyquest, it really is great fun. I took my niece, 10 and nephew, 4, last summer for the day and they loved it. It is an indoor virtual reality type amusement park, all DISNEY. However, I heard here in chicago about a month ago that they were shutting the chicago location down (other locations are at downtown disney at WDW). an anyone confirm if this has occurred? It may be that they are closing it after the summer, I really didn't atch the whole story.

We (former Chicagoans) took our then-5-year-old to Chicago last year for a long weekend, and he had a blast. <BR> <BR>Mostly, he loved the city experience (we live in a suburban area outside a small city). We stayed downtown, and took public transportation everywhere. Even the buses were fun, and the El and the taxis were even better. <BR> <BR>Lincon Park Zoo was a must (we used to live right next door), with a visit to the playground just outside the Zoo, one block north of Lincoln Park West and Armitage. Then a visit to Ben & Jerry's on Armitage about 1/2 block west of the intersection of Armitage & Lincoln Park West. <BR> <BR>Instead of the Sears Tower, we visited the bar at the 95th (though I think the bar is on the 94th floor). Just as good a view as the Sears Tower, but you get to sit and have drinks. <BR> <BR>Walk down Michigan Ave. at night, with all the people still out & the buildings all lit up. Don't forget to cross the Chicago River, and point out the place where Chicago was founded (Fort Dearborn, right on the south end of the Michigan Ave. bridge). Also fun is the Tribune Tower, which has artifacts of other buildings around the world embedded in its walls. <BR> <BR>You must see Sue, the world's largest T-Rex, at Field Museum. This was a high point of my son's visit (he now has a Sue T-shirt, book, patch on his jacket, etc.). The other displays at the museum we found to be interesting as well. We considered the Museum of Science & Industry, but given our son's interest in dinosaurs, and the fact that Sue is unique, we spent our time at Field. <BR> <BR>My son likes art, so we visited the Art Institute. We visited the impressionist gallery (having prepared him previously by pictures of the artists he would see) and the armour display. That was enough of the museum for him (and us). There's also a children's center in the basement, which we didn't noticed until just before we left. <BR> <BR>Took him by the Water tower (the real one, not the mall), and told him the story of the Chicago fire. There's also fire museum in the pumping station across the street; I visited it a long time ago, and it's ok, but not great. <BR> <BR>Bought Garrett's popcorn, from the tiny store on Michigan. He agrees with his mom that it's the world's best popcorn. The best: get caramel & cheese, mixed. <BR> <BR>Gino's is our pizza place. While our son tasted a bite of our deep-dish pizza, he prefered the pizza he ordered from the childrens' menu (while we had the deep-dish stuff). What he really enjoyed was lunch at the Chicago Pizza & Oven Grinder, on Lincoln Ave. just north of Armitage. One of our old favorites. MMmmmmm... <BR> <BR>As you can tell, we didn't do much of the touristy stuff. Navy Pier and Disney Quest, etc., even Childrens' Museums, you can find things like that in many cities (not that they're not fun, just not unique to Chicago). Other ideas: take a boat ride or cruise on the Lake or on the Chicago River (there are some fantastic architectural boat tours that kids would enjoy too). Visit the Museum of Modern Art. Eat ethnic food (we had thai from our favorite, Thai Star Cafe); visit some ethnic neighborhoods (though difficult without a car); eat a Chicago-style hot dog; buy some Frangomints at Marshall Fields; examine Calder's statue in the Loop.