Put on Your Travelin' Shoes: CHICAGO

Chicago, Chicago......Sunday through Saturday at the beginning of September. Perfect weather. Sunshine. 70's and low 80's. Greeness and plantings everywhere. Close friends. What more could I ask for?

What were my favorite things?

The architecture. The skyline. The views. The history of the buildings and the city. We took an architecture boat cruise down the Chicago River, which was superlative. We craned our heads looking up. We viewed the city from the Hancock Observatory (somewhere on the 94th (or so) floor. We saw two models of the downtown area - one at the fantastic Museum of Science and Industry and one at the Chicago Architecture Foundation on Madison Avenue.

The art.
I could move into the Chicago Institute of Art. It is immense, it is lovely, it has more art - the kind I personally love - than anywhere I've ever been. Kandinskys and Van Goghs and O'Keeffes and Matisses and Picassos and on and on.
There's also the public art - by famous and not-so-famous artists. We saw refrigerator art and a brand new installation in Pritzker Park, just beside the library, of a 30 foot tall eyeball!

The food.
We only had one meal that wasn't great - but we were compensated by the best table in the house - front corner, with the windows open to the street - with the occupants of Lincoln Park jogging, walking, rushing by after work. We loved Harry Carays (we split a number of different, incredible dishes), the Original Pancake House (thanks, Emily, for suggesting the 49ers Flapjacks) the deep dish pizza at Gino's East, where the tables, booths, walls are all covered with grafitti. We loved the margaritas, beer, and pub fries at Bennigans, which revived our aching legs more than once. We even found the perfect breakfast spot at a nearby Marriott, where I enjoyed one egg (broken and over hard), bacon, toast and home fries for $3.50! We stumbled onto Nookies Too and had a restaurants.com coupon for Bijan's Bistro - we either lucked out all week or there's nothing but great food in Chicago!

The Entertainment
We laughted until we were crying at Second City. We saw "Spoiler Alert: Everybody Dies."
We saw "Billy Elliot, the Musical" at the Oriental Theater Ford Center (we got half price tickets at HotTix at the Water Tower Visitor Center).
We saw the Hubble mjovie at the IMax theater at the Museum of Science and Industry.
NOTE: The city itself would have been enough entertainment!

My five favorite places (in no particular order):
The 9-story Harold Washington Library in downtown. I spent quite awhile riding up and down the escalators, sitting in the 9th floor Winter Garden, and checking out the new books in the 2nd floor children's room. Room? It could have been 20 rooms! And the librarians (and the security guards) were really, really nice.

The observation deck at the John Hancock Observatory. The views of the city and downtown were breathtaking.

The Art Institute of Chicago. Enough said above, I guess. Even the cafe --- we sat (and ate) there twice, outside beside the fountain. I could have sat there with a book and/or journal all day.

The Wendella Boat Cruise down the Chicago River was definitely a fave. When we got off, we walked through and around the Wrigley buidling and over to the Tribune building, where, imbedded all around its outside walls, are pieces from other famous buildings all over the world....
The Amalfi Hotel, at 20 W. Kinzie Street, was the perfect location for us. Accomodations were wonderful, free drinks and lavish appetizers served every evening on the 6th floor. Rooms were spotless and housekeeping was extra-good, making us feel like our room had been thoroughly cleaned upon every return. One block north of downtown, one block to the buses, two blocks to the red line, right across the street from Harry Caray's.....a real delight.

The only downers, we decided, were the constant horns blaring and the multitude of beggars. You couldn't seem to avoid either. And the Adler Planetarium was a bit of a disappointment. We were glad that we went on free admission day (although we had to pay for the two extra shows we saw). Aching legs for me and knees for Fran. And we left on 9/11, which is such a sad day anyways. Other than that primo, primo, primo!