• Welcome to the Contour Enthusiasts Group, the best resource for the Ford Contour and Mercury Mystique.

    You can register to join the community.

What to do in Chicago?

T

Tex

Hard-core CEG'er
Joined
Jan 8, 2008
Messages
3,168
Location
Fort Worth, TX
I kind of blew off a trip to Virginia with my girlfriend this weekend, so to make up for it, I'd like to take her to Chicago next weekend. I've been in Chicago HUNDREDS of times, but never outside of O'Hare.

We'll be driving in from Grand Rapids, and I haven't yet decided if we will stay overnight or just make it a day trip.

Where should we go? No matter what, I'd like to do the Sears Tower.

Is there enough to see downtown within walking distance that I could just park the car somewhere and not have to buy L train tickets? Speaking of which, is there any place to park that's convenient but doesn't cost an arm and a leg?

Are there any places that I should look out for or avoid?
 
WHEELSPIN said:
The Ledge is pretty sweet. Kinda chill out ao the Sea Dog is probably out of the question
Click to expand...

Navy Pier is always good, Water Tower Place is good, Sears Tower observatory, Shedd Aquarium, Field Museum, Museum of Science and Industry, Wrigleyville Bars there is SO much to do in Chicago, I have lived there for all 23 years of my life and I'm sure I haven't seen it all!
 
Parking is going to be expensive no matter what since Daley sold the rights to some private company. It's a little chilly to do some of the best Chicago sight seeing stuff, but I might take a walking tour if you don't mind the fall weather. Sears Tower is even better now that it has the glass bottom observation deck/balcony. There are several comedy clubs, Second City is usually pretty fun. There are also a lot of good restaurants on the north side. I don't get into the city as much as I'd like to, so I'm sure there are others that can weigh in.
 
Couple suggestions.

If you want to park and see a few things within walking distance, consider going to the John Hancock observatory instead of Sears/now Willis Tower. You could then walk around for quite a while, taking in Water Tower Place and maybe work your way over to Millenium Park. The Hancock has an arguably better view of the city anyway. And you could score some extra points with g/f by having lunch at the 95th in the Hancock. Hancock and Milenium are about a mile away from each other so you could park between them but it might be more walking than you want to do. A cab could get you back and forth though.

As far as paying for parking goes, you're going to have to bend over and take it like a man. Just plan on forking up about 30 to 40 if you go the Hancock route.

If Sears/Willis is a must for you, you could actually luck out with some free or almost free street parking on Wacker, south of Jackson, or a block over south on Van Buren. The not so great thing though is that you're not really close enough to other points of interest to walk there.

One other-I think-very cool thing you could do, and happens to be between Hancock and Milenium is hop on boat for an architectural tour of the city on the Chicago River and or Lake MI. At this time of year though I'm not sure what the boat tours schedules are.

I could go on, depends what you like. There really is a ton of stuff to see here.
 
It might be a little chilly for a boat tour, but it is also one of the best ways to see the city. As for parking, find somewhere to park that has tour bus stop near it. I think there are some hop on/hop off buses that should save you on some of the long stretches between some of the sights.
 
Post up a little bit more about what you are interested in and I'm sure we could get you to the places you want to see!
 
Well, it will be my girlfriend and I, obviously. I'm not opposed to walking a ways for good sights.

I really don't know what I'm looking for. Just some things to see and do. I'll probably con my grandfather into loaning me his SLR to get some nice scenery shots.

I know that I'll want to go to either the Sears/Willis or John Hancock for sure. I'll need somewhere to go for lunch, and dinner. Authentic Chicago Deep Dish Pizza for lunch and a nice dinner would be great.

I of course love cars and all things mechanical, and we are both mechanical engineers (if that gives you a picture of our mindset :crazy:), so any car or airplane museums would be considered. The GF is a former band nerd, so anything to do with wind music would be great for her. The Museum of Science and Industry that you mentioned sounds interesting. I love the Ford Museum in Metro Detroit for all of the industrial history.

I've never been to a comedy club, but I can see it being fun for us. On the other end of the spectrum, nightclubs aren't my thing.

Like I said, I'm not opposed to walking, taking a bus or train, or spending some time downtown then driving somewhere else. I think that I just want to make one big day out of it.
 
Well, I'm looking around online, and I think that I might go with a City Pass. For $69, you get a pass to Hancock or Willis, Shedd Aquarium, The Field Museum, Adler Planetarium, and the Museum of Science and Industry.

Alternatively, I might just buy admission to Hancock, Adler, and MSI.

The GF will go nuts over the Adler Planetarium. Let's put it this way, they are one of like six houses in the state that have observatories attached to them. I tried to take her to one in Dallas last year, but it didn't work out.

The Museum of Science and Industry sounds like it would be fun for both of us. The Shedd Aquarium would be fun, but with dinner and some shopping for her, we're kind of pushing the limits of a one day drip.
 
What kind of dinner are you interested in? My family and I do a LOT of fine dining in Chicago....
 
Wien_Sean said:
It might be a little chilly for a boat tour, but it is also one of the best ways to see the city. As for parking, find somewhere to park that has tour bus stop near it. I think there are some hop on/hop off buses that should save you on some of the long stretches between some of the sights.
Click to expand...
The hop on/hop off tours are operated by the CHICAGO TROLLEY & DOUBLE DECKER CO.
It's a great way to see a lot of Chicago in a short time for a reasonable price.
Enjoy!
-Dave
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top