Chicago-Give me things to do this weekend please!

[asleepathewheel]

Apolyton Chicagoans:

Flying to Chicago tomorrow morning for the weekend due to wife's conference. Staying at the Palmer House downtown, not renting a car.

Give me things to do, places to eat.

We make it to chicago every year or two, so have tooled around a bit downtown, but aren't overly familiar.

Have been to: Field, Art Institute, UChicago, White Sox game, and a few other things I can't recall. What other fun stuff can we do to burn some hours?

Can't get tix to a cubs game at this point (or won't due to scalping expense), waited too long as I wasn't sure I was going to along until recently.

Food: Been to goose island, and a few other places, but open to pretty much anything as long as accessible via taxi (reasonable distance) or cta (which we've never used, as we've always had a car).

Thanks.

[asleepathewheel]

Sears tower vs Hancock observatory-which is more enjoyable?

[Aeson]

Tough choice...



or



?

[Kontiki]

Sears Tower

[snoopy369]

Both are interesting. Hancock gives a broader view as it's well north of downtown, Sears Tower you're right in the middle.

If you haven't been to china town yet, go there; it's on the red line (state street subway, right outside the palmer house) south about 5 stops depending on where you get on it, "Cermak-Chinatown". If you can go during the lunch hours (11am-3pm, roughly) you can get some great Dim Sum at either the Three Happiness (you'll see it right outside the red line basically), or the Phoenix (slightly nicer restaurant, slightly more expensive) which is down the street a ways across from the mall (a giant strip mall). Walk around, lots of shops and interesting restaurants (I can spend long enough there to get dim sum and dinner sometimes...)

Museum of Science and Industry is in Hyde Park, near where I live, catch a #6 Jackson Park bus to get there, also on State Street. Very cool museum. Shedd Aquarium (same area as Field museum) is nice also.

Other food places: Greek town, which is basically a mile west of you at the Palmer House and a bit north, has some great restaurants, lots of fun, especially with flaming cheese Shaw's Crab House is fun for seafood (but pretty pricey, you'd look at $100 to $200 for 2 people depending on what you get and your alcohol choices), Joe's Stone Crab is also quite good but even more pricey. Both are just north of the river around Grand and Wabash (Shaw's is one street south of that).
Big Bowl, Ohio and Wabash, is a pan-asian restaurant with some great food, heavy thai influence. Salmon Pad Thai is quite good
Ada's on Wabash just north of the palmer house (I think between madison and monroe, I forget which) is a NYC style deli/restaurant with a great bagel/lox platter.
Go to either Giordanos (just south of the river) or Ginos East (north, on I think Superior?) for pizza.

[asleepathewheel]

Great ideas

china town and greek town sound fun, will have to try out one in each.

we're also thinking lincoln park zoo.

[chequita guevara]

Go visit Ming. He lives at:
1060 W. Addison Street
Chicago, IL 60613

[snoopy369]

Only selected afternoons and evenings

[Ming]

Originally posted by chegitz guevara
Go visit Ming. He lives at:
1060 W. Addison Street
Chicago, IL 60613

While I don't live there, I was there on Monday afternoon

[snoopy369]

Gagne

[rah]

Can't get tix to a cubs game at this point (or won't due to scalping expense), waited too long as I wasn't sure I was going to along until recently.

Actually if go out to the ball park early in the morning you can usually get good seats at regular price. These are the seats the wives turn back in or the seats reserved for scouts and team personel. I've done that for Dodger games the last few years and never had any problem. Usually just a few hours prior to game start. For a weekend game I'd suggest a little earlier.

Then you can wait for the game to start in one of many nice bars surrounding the park.

[Dinner]

I don't like the fact that the teams are able to wrangle huge government subsidies for new ball parks but I have to admit the new stadiums do work wonders for revitalizing areas. They pull in a lot of people during game days and a great many of those people want to have dinner and a few drinks before the game along with a few drinks after the game so lots of restaurants and bars open up to cater to the crowds. Not to mention hotels for out of town visitors.

[Kidlicious]

Originally posted by chegitz guevara
Go visit Ming. He lives at:
1060 W. Addison Street
Chicago, IL 60613

Is that the poor house or something?

[Ming]

Originally posted by Kidicious
Is that the poor house or something?

1060 W. Addison Street
Chicago, IL 60613

[rah]

If you're a Cubs fan, yes.