Things to do in the Windy City

DaMoonRulz

I'll be heading to Chicago on Tuesday and was wanting some suggestions for things to do there. Whatcha got?

Honk

There's the Formerly-known-as Sears Tower which was pretty impressive to go up in.

There was a lot of impressive stuff at the MOMA when I was there last time.

Lots of cool music bars and improv places, though I do not possess the name of one.

Liquid Hellz

Have you been before? Millennium park is cool, Navy Pier, top of Sears tower, a baseball game at Wrigley or where ever the White Sox play, Museum of Natural Science and history is awesome, Lincoln Park Zoo was cool, deep dish pizza at Unos was AWESOME, make sure its the original, not Duos.

MichaelLC

Looking a little cooler this week, around 50s, so bring some sort of jacket.

All the tourist stuff mentioned above is good. I'm not big on Navy Pier; better for the fireworks later in the summer.

Ketar

What area are you staying in? How long will you be here? Will you have a car? What kind of activities/food/bars/whatever are you interested in?

Second City is still my favorite option for improv. A ridiculous number of SNL cast members have been recruited there over the years, and their
shows are always entertaining.

When it comes to pizza, i'd recommend Pequod's by far over Uno's or any of the other usual tourist recs. Might be a little too far from a train line if you're relying on public transit though.

Try Franks n Dawgs for unusual hot dogs and sausages with gourmet toppings. Similar to the always recommended Hot Dougs, but with little to no wait typically and likely a more convenient location for you.

Search some of the old Chicago rec threads from this forum too. There've been several in recent years, with plenty of good info that shouldn't be out of date.

John Matrix

Chicago is probably my favorite city in the US.

My favorite attraction is the Shedd Acquarium. I was in Chicago a few months ago and spent 8 hours there. 1 or 2 of which were spent just watching the dophins and beluga whales from the underwater windows while listening to music.

The Sears Tower, or whatever it's called now, is neat, but I avoided it because the weather was a little iffy that day and they charge $17 to visit the observation level.

As for pizza, I am in love with Giordano's. It was, without question, the best pizza I have ever experienced. We ordered the deep-dish Hawaiian and could only eat two slides before I was full. The location downtown on Jackson Blvd. was awesome.

Enjoy your time there; Chicago is badass.

QuantumTurk

I loved the field museum, because you know, DINOSAURS! Lets see, there was an architecture/urban planning free exhibit that was really cool, had a scale model of all the cities buildings, told about how chicago was planned, and made you desperately want to stomp around like godzilla.
I have never not eaten myself half to death in Chicago. Get a deep dish pizza, my chicago contact loves Lou Malnati's so that is where we always go, and I have always been happy.
I'll second touring Millenium park, see if they are having any free concerts there, I was lucky enough to be in the city during a week of concerts, was great to sit on the lawn, have a bottle of wine and listen to the symphony.
I personally say skip Navy Pier entirely, maybe I was missing something, but it just seemed like a touristy line of restaurants and shops. There was a cool Tiffany Stained Glass window exhibit at the end of it, but that strikes me as a bit of a niche interest, and rather out of the way.
I've found the CTA trains are pretty consistent, and if you are using them enough a multi day pass is defiantly the way to go, you can get most anywhere you will want to, though don't discount walking.

If the timing/weather are right, I have heard good things about doing the kayaking architectural tour, though I have not yet done this myself.

If you want to go someplace that is to hip to fucking live to eat, try Sushi Samba. When we started I was...nervous, but in the end let the server take us through a tasting menu, where everything but one thing was delicious, and that he replaced at no charge. The sommelier knew his stuff and made a great rec as well. Was a lot of fun between the great food, hip to death atmosphere (just let yourself go with it), and plate after plate of shareable food.

DaMoonRulz

Congress Park hotel from Tuesday leaving sunday afternoon. Coming in by train so doing public transportation mostly. The Lurie Garden looked pretty cool, are there other botanical wonders to check out?