We traveled to Chicago for 3 days at the end of the summer. Remember, we used our $500 in American vouchers to fly there. During our stay, we did a ton of sightseeing, ate amazing food and as always, explored the city with our own 2 feet by walking, jogging and biking.
We stayed at the Westin (on SPG points) on Michigan Avenue. We loved the location of the hotel as it was very close to the lakefront where we spent a lot of our time. It was conveniently located to many of the destinations and restaurants that we visited as well. One morning I awoke to watch the sunrise over the lake. It was a short walk to take to be rewarded with this treat.
Our days were spent wandering the city. We made it to many of the parks, including Millennium Park, Grant Park and Maggie Daly Park. We took the token shots with Cloud Gate (aka The Bean), Crown Fountain, Buckingham Fountain and we walked over the very cool BP Bridge.
When we weren’t on the ground, we spent some of our time above the city. We visited the top of the John Hancock Tower (across the street from our hotel) and experienced TILT. It was a very scary attraction 1500 feet up. Kids, I did lean all the way into the window! We were high up again to watch the Chicago Air and Water show from a friend’s mom’s building. The view was incredible as we watched the planes twirl and spin through the air. Thank you again Marjorie, Rhoda and Fred!
As always, we got a ton of exercise during our stay. In addition to walking to mostly every destination, we took a 3 mile family morning run from our hotel to the end of Navy Pier. The skyline views were amazing as we ran back in the direction of the hotel. We walked the River Walk along the Chicago River, a path definitely worth checking out. We also did a Parks and Monuments bike tour with Bobby’s Bike and Hike. The scenery was gorgeous along the lake, but we wished it was a bit of a harder bike ride. Chicago is very flat!
Now that my kids are older, our evenings are as exciting as our days. One night, we watched the 9:30pm fireworks display on Navy Pier. This show is offered both Wednesday and Saturday nights throughout the summer. After the fireworks, we took a late night walk along the lake back to our hotel. Another night, we saw a show at Second City which was a combination of short skits and improv and was very funny, despite being a tad inappropriate for my young teenagers at times (They didn’t mind). The Second City venue is in Old Town, a neighborhood where I would want to live if I resided in Chicago. I loved it.
And the food! I had the benefit of getting restaurant recommendations from Chicago peeps and they did not fail us! We went to the infamous Gibsons and Joe Torre followed us there :-). We feasted on Mexican at Frontera Grill, one of a handful of Rick Bayliss restaurants in the city. We also tasted deep dish pizza at the original location of Ginos East. FYI, this is the only Ginos location that takes reservations. If you have impatient family members, know that deep dish pizza takes a long time to make. We waited about 40 minutes for our pizzas (the restaurant was quite crowded as well). Personally, I did not like it as much as regular pizza, too much bread and sauce!
My favorite meal was lunch at Little Goat in the West End (loved this neighborhood too). This is the little sister to the ever so popular Stephanie Izard’s Girl And The Goat. Heads up, if you want a reservation at the latter, you better try to book way in advance.
Finally, how could we be in Chicago without trying a Chicago style hotdog and seeing a baseball game at Wrigley Field? So we had hotdogs at Wrigleyville Dog right by the stadium and then headed to see the World Series champs, the Chicago Cubs. Photo with the Wrigley Field sign-check. My boys would like to visit every baseball stadium. I’m GAME. I look forward to more cities, stadiums and hotdogs with them. And I will get them there for free!