Chicago Travel | |
| Chicago Travel is a full rich experience including shopping, children's museums, planetariums, and cultural events... |
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Our 2006 News Years stay was for 3 nights at the Homewood Suites downtown. This was a very nice location with a full buffet breakfast included in the stay. There was also a big indoor pool and exercise room on one of the upper floors. One interesting thing about this location was the hotel layout. You entered the hotel from street level with a door man on duty. The hotel lobby was on the 6th floor, but floors 2 thru 5 were not part of the Hotel but part of a office building on the next street over. We stayed in a 2 room suite that was booked through Hotwire for less than $160 per night. This was a really nice hotel. Because we came into Chicago via Amtrak, we did not have to pay for parking, but it can be in excess of $40 per night.
Let me preface this Chicago Travel review by saying that because both of our visits were during cold months, many of the wonderful outdoor activities that Chicago has to offer were not visited. These include the Chicago Zoo and a Chicago Cubs baseball game. Even though the weather was cold during both visits, we found many indoor activities that the kids really enjoyed.
A must see destination with kids in Chicago is the
Sears Tower observation tower. The Sears tower is now the tallest building in the United States
after the collapse of the Word Trade Center on 9/11. The elevator to the top is unbelievably fast and your ears will pop on the way up.
You can also sample Chicago Deep dish pizza at a really good Italian restaurant that is only a couple of blocks from the Sears tower. Giordanos has several locations in the downtown Chicago area. The atmosphere is very simple but the pizza was as good as advertised and very filling.
The Hancock building is the second tallest building and the view from the observation deck is actually more spectacular than the Sears tower because of the proximity of the building to the water front and Lake Shore Drive below. The kids enjoyed the view from the Hancock Observatory and Tower more than the Sears tower.
The kids also enjoyed a trip to the
navy pier. This shopping and dining complex is located on Lake Michigan and most of the shopping area actually goes out into the water. There area number of specialty shops and restaurants including Chicago
Travel souvenir stores. A lot of the restaurants have outdoor seating, in the summer time and there is a huge Ferris wheel at the back of the dock.
The girls really enjoyed all of the shopping opportunities along Lake Michigan Avenue. There a number of malls within an 8 block area.
The favorite mall was Waterpower Place. This is a multilevel mall with 8 or 10 stores per floor. One neat thing that constantly amused the kids was that every business in Chicago has a revolving door. I spent a lot of time in Chicago getting kids out of revolving doors.
We used public transportation several times in Chicago including the “ L” and buses. We found the trains to be very safe during the day, but I have been told that nightime chicago travel with kids may not be a good idea.
One of our trips out of the immediate downtown area was to the Field Museum south of Downtown adjacent to Soldier Field (Home of the Bears) This is a very good museum with the quality of exhibits as good as or better than the Smithsonian. One of the best parts of the museum is a huge collection of stuffed animals from all over the world. The animals are placed in natural type environments and the collection is extensive. There area also many cultural exhibits through out the museum. The Grand Hall as you enter the museum is featured in a recent movie..... Night at the Museum.
The
Adler planetarium is located next to the Field Museum. We
visited there in 1991, but I do not remember enough to offer a
good opinion.
During out first Chicago Travel in 1991, we left town and proceeded on the southern Wisconsin area and spent a few nights exploring. During our New Years stay in 2006, our train did not leave until 8:00 at night, we took advantage of the extra time by revisiting some of the shopping places that we had already been at.
Our last meal was at a Weber Grill Restaurant that we just happened across. This food was really good and reasonably priced. Our next visit to Chicago will be in the Summer or Fall so we can enjoy some of the great outdoor opportunities.
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