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Things to do in Chicago


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Apparently those glass overhangs aren't so cool:

 

Coating on Willis Tower Skydeck's Ledge Cracks Under Tourists

 

 

Click on the link for the full article

 

Oh Shhhhhhhhhhhhh

 

 

I went to Chicago once, back in '97ish, with my dad. He was there on some kind of conference. I spent a lot of the time at the hotel but we did go out eventually. Went to the Sears Tower, a pizzeria that had some bomb ass pizza (forgot the name... Its probably already been listed in here), and went to the movies (to see Batman & Robin).

 

Pretty cool place. Never forgot just how weird it was seeing that river in the middle of the city. I'd love to go back someday.

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Buy a white half with hot sauce from a place owned by this guy.   It is better than crack.  The premises will be filthy, the service will be horrible, the wait will be long, and it is totally worth it.

 

I walk by the Harold's in Wicker Park almost every day and I've never walked in. I might have to revisit that decision. 

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You can take a water taxi from Shedds to Navy Pier and transfer to the water taxi from Navy Pier to the Willis Tower for $11/person. Willis Tower is roughly 6 blocks west of Millenniem Park. Just did this with my daughter, as we spent the day in Chicago on a field trip with her high school. Took the train in from WI. Some of the responses were very helpful in packing a lot in a short period of time. Thank you all!

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Danger - those are two different pizzas.   You want a stuffed pizza from Giordanos or Lou Malnati's.   Thos rock, especially with the huge chunks of fennel sausage.

 

You do NOT want a "deep dish" pizza from Uno's (or Gino's East).   Those are doughy soup buckets, they suck azz, and they have ruined the national repuation of Chicago style pizza.  

 

Well said. I am a Giordano's guy...I having trouble thinking about anything other than pizza now. Lou Malnati's is very good, but Giordano's is just so ridiculously tasty, IMO. 

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  • 2 months later...

So this happened.  Chicago was amazing, I loved it.  Unlike NYC or most of the other big cities I've visited, I could see myself actually living in Chicago.  I really leveraged the advice I got in this thread, as you will see from the pictures . . .

 

We arrived in the morning on Friday, got the the hotel, which was a nice place.  The Godfrey Inn.  Had a really nice outside bar, a little bit trendy for my taste, don't really need bottle service at a hotel bar, but there is a line to get in (for non hotel guests) so i guess it works.  Anyways, we had a few hours to kill before our dinner reservation, so we walked through the Loop to the WIllis Tower, paid for the tix that let you skip the line, and went past a few thousand people standing in line.  Got some dirty looks as we walked by. :)

 

This is the view north from the observation deck.

 

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This is the view straight down from those ledges.  **** IS HIGH.  You will notice that I wouldn't put both feet all the way on it.  This is due to 1) a fear of heights and 2) a 9 year old JUMPING UP AND DOWN TRYING TO BREAK IT about 4 feet away.

 

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So that was fun.  Then we went to dinner at Alinea.  They make food that looks like this:

 

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In the middle of that pile of charcoal burning on the table is a chunk of Wagyu beef.  They didn't tell you that until they dig it out after it's cooked, slice it tableside, and serve it with parsnips.  This is not our picture, i wouldn't let my wife take pictures of the food BECAUSE CLASS.

 

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Here's another thing that was eaten:

 

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This is our actual menu.  They even made a custom one for my wife's bday.

 

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I pretty much drank all the wine in that place, so that concluded our Friday.

 

On Saturday, we did a river boat architecture cruise.  It is important to note here that it is raining cats and dogs.  

 

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We got about 20 minutes into what should have been a 90 minute tour, and they turn the boat around BECAUSE THE RIVER IS RAPIDLY RISING.  We cleared the last bridge on the way back by inches.  So, we head back to the hotel to dry off, and by now it has stopped raining.  We walked to Grant Park.

 

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Then to the Navy Pier....

 

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Then we went to the stores on Michigan Avenue and the wife did some shopping, and we made our way to the Trump Tower.  

 

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We had heard the the Terrace is an outdoor bar about 40 stories up and has good ****tails (THEY TOTALLY DO).  Since we got there sort of early (4:30) they had plenty of open tables and gave us the nicest one.  

 

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So nice that the bride and groom of the wedding  that was being held in the hotel asked if we'd mind moving so they could get pictures from where we were sitting.  Of course we said no problem, telling a bride no would have been epic bad karma.  Evidently, if you are the type that can afford a wedding at the Trump Tower, you are also the type that picks up tabs for strangers that do you a solid, because our tab was picked up.  Keep in mind that each drink at this place was $24, (and i had like 6) and we got food.  Thanks, strangers who we will never see again!

 

 

 

Finally, we could leave without getting some pizza.  We went to Gino's East and got a deep dish pizza.  It was good, but IT IS A ****TON OF FOOD.  Also, we got a reservation 10 minutes before we walked in on OpenTable and were seated immediately.  Outside, there was a line around the building of people waiting to be sat?  Have these people never heard of OpenTable?  WTF?  Anyways, the pizza was delicious.  

 

 

Thanks to everyone who contributed to this thread, we had a great time and now my wife owes me BIG TIME. :)  Chicago was awesome.

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Dude, I'm so glad you enjoyed your trip to the windy city. 

 

Props on going to Alinea too.  I've heard nothing but amazing stories about that place (I'm not really into the foodie scene), but I've yet to go.

 

I'm glad you enjoyed the Willis tower-- and your story is hillarious/awesome.

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  • 6 months later...

I live in Chicago. If you're in town and you want Chicago style pizza, do NOT go to Malnati's, Giordano's, Gino's or any of the tourist places. You want to go to Pequod's. It's not downtown, but's its worth the trip to an actual Chicago neighborhood to check out. http://pequodspizza.com

 

Some other good places to eat:

 

http://www.longmanandeagle.com

http://bigstarchicago.com

http://www.charlatanchicago.com

http://highfiveramen.com

http://auchevalchicago.com

http://avecrestaurant.com

 

If you dig a specific type of food let me know and I can make a couple suggestions.

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  • 2 months later...
  • 2 weeks later...

Chaperoned again for my daughters high school field trip to Chicago. We take the Metra from WI to Chicago. Trying to keep track of 4 girls...yikes! Head north this time on Michigan Avenue from Millennium Park. Being with girls, they wanted to go to Water Tower Plaza (shopping mall), across the street from WTP there is a Hershey Store, Swiss Chocolate Store, Ghiradelli Chocolate Store, plus others. On the way back, we came across M Burgers, pretty good burger, and pretty cheap too. Heading back to the train station, we found yet another candy store Dylan's Candy Bar, which actually has a bar on the inside, plus old school candies. I know, lots of candy stores, we only had about 7 hours to spend there, but had a fun filled day.

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speaking of chicago and rivers, did you all know they reversed the flow of the river that goes through Chicago? 

 

Yeah the Chicago River used to flow into the lake, but at some point they decided it wasn't a good idea to dump your sewage into one of the largest sources of fresh water in the world.  It was considered an engineering marvel at the time.

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