Chicago 2004

These are notes on my family's trip to Chicago, July 1st - July 5th. A little background on my family: I'm 38 and my wife is 40. We have three kids: two daughters, ages 8 (Sierra) and 10 (Alyssa) and a son age 6 (Alexander).

Getting around: Do not drive in Chicago. Especially over a holiday weekend. Public transportation is excellent and parking can run $35+ per night at a hotel.

Normally public transportation (trains and buses) cost $1.75 for adults and $0.85 for children. You can buy passes (for 1 to 5 days) which will reduce that cost if you are going to ride a lot. CTA's website gives more information. It will also tell what bus you need to take to get from point A to point B.

Most busses run direct from downtown to things you want to see and they run often (like every 10min or so).

Getting downtown from the airport (O'Hare) is easy - simply take the Blue Line train which starts at the airport and makes several downtown stops.

there are also free trolleys you can take in the summer. These run less often, but are free :) This website can give you more information on them.

Finally, if you can walk 1-2mi (15-30min), you can get to a lot of sites on foot from downtown. I find this to be especially nice as Chicago's downtown is very pretty with a river running through it and many squares and statues.

Hyatt: There are several Hyatts in Chicago (11 of them actually). We stayed at the Chicago Hyatt Regency. Excellent location. Both the free trolley and the #6 bus (which goes to MOSI) stop in front of it. I believe a lot of other buses do too, but those are the only ones we took. It is about a 1/2mi. walk to the hotel from where the train drops you off from the airport.

We got a rate of $69/night + $10 tax for this hotel by using an Entertainment card.

The Chicago Hyatt is within walking distance to Grant Park and Museum Park. They have a very good, but expensive, breakfast. There is a hot buffet every day (along with normal menu selections) and a larger buffet on the weekends. They also have an excellent pizza place (Connie's). You can stop down and pick it up or get it delivered via room service. In both cases you can charge it to your room.

We stayed on the 30th floor and it was excellent. We had two rooms and they were both large and very clean. Very nice (and large) bathrooms with good water pressure and shower massage heads. One cool (but minor) thing about the bathroom was the shower curtain. The rail it was on curved outwards. So, instead or being a straight line from the front to the back of the shower, it bulged out into the bathroom. The overall effect was to give a lot more room in the tub.

Note that if you stay here you want a room on a higher floor. We saw the 5th floor rooms and these looked pretty old - like from the 80's.

All rooms have floor to ceiling windows.

The hotel is set in a "complex" attached to a bunch of stores - its very pretty. The "highlight" is a 3-story open- air lobby.

One "bad" thing about the hotel is that it does not have a pool.

Taste of Chicago: Someone said, "See Venice and die." I say, "See Taste of Chicago and die." I've only been to one other city's "Taste of", but I just can't picture anything being better than this. There are close to 70 booths. You purchase tickets (11 for $7, although if you get them in advance they are cheaper). Each booth has about 4 "main" items and one "taste portion" item (note that the taste portion is not always a smaller version of one of the main items). The main items range in cost from 4 to 9 tickets and the "taste portions" cost 3 tickets. Virtually every type of food you can imagine is there: Alligator, Turtle soup, Duck, Beef, Hamburgers, Pizza, Sausage, Chinese, Greek, Mexican, Japanese, Veggie, Fruits, (incredible) sweet corn on the cob, etc., etc. And then there are the deserts: cheesecake, ice cream, cinnamon buns, etc., etc. The amount of food you get varies widely with each booth - e.g., a single piece of pizza vs. a small (personal size) pizza. You must pay for the tickets with cash (although it looked like there might have been a place to charge them), but ATMs are all over the place. Soda is 4 tickets for a 160z bottle (5 for Gatorade and more for alcoholic).

They also have rides there (which cost tickets). There is a Ferris Wheel, log ride, and one of the things kids get into and bounce (moonwalk?). There are also (free) concerts and shows there.

We went there twice for dinner and once for lunch. For lunch we spent $21 and each time for dinner we spent $49. Excellent prices for a family of five (and we were stuffed afterwards).

Although it was crowded, we had no problems getting a shady place in the grass to eat and listen to music each time we were there.

Museums: Chicago has a lot of them. If you are a member of an ASTC museum, then you can get into many of them for free (the Field museum, Museum of Science and Industry, the Children's museum, etc.). Or, you can get a City Pass and get into several for one low price.

Field Museum: This is Chicago's Natural History museum. The "crown jewel" here is Sue, a mostly complete T-Rex skeleton. Otherwise it has most of the things you expect to see in this type of museum. Our kids seemed to like it (although it wasn't the favorite part of the trip), but it is better for older children/adults. You can find out exactly what they have from their website, but I will mention some of the highlights: The precious gems exhibit, Egyptian section, African (Senegal) section, and Tibetan section. The mammals section is pretty good too. The only bad thing about this museum is the layout, which can be a little confusing as the exhibits "blend" into each other and curve around a lot. If you are not careful you can enter a new exhibit before seeing the entire one you are in.

Museum of Science and Industry - Having been to many science museums I had high hopes for this one. Unfortunately, it is really geared towards older kids. This isn't to say younger kids won't have a good time here - they will. I really mean that it will be difficult for them to learn much as the exhibits tend to stress facts more than concepts (if that makes sense). The end result is that unless you already have an interest in the subject matter, it is difficult to learn anything (which might be exactly what your kids want!). However, I would strongly recommend this for adults and high school kids. If your younger kids are "prodigies", or they just want a place to play without really learning much, then this place would be good for them too. For the record, my kids had a great time here.

You can find out exactly what they have from their website, but I'll mention some of the more interesting things here. First, the really cool thing is the movie set. Note that you must pay for this on top of general admission (if you have an ASTC pass you still need to pay for this). However, it is well worth it. First you see a short (thankfully) clip about making movies. You might think you wasted your money at this point, but just hold on. When it is done, you go into a large room that has a lot (and I mean a lot) of cool movie things. There is the spaceship from the opening scene of Star Wars (and it is set up so you can pan a camera underneath it to simulate the opening shot) along with a lot of other Star Wars items. They have ET and Indiana Jones stuff (the Ark of the Covenant). There are a bunch of other things too, but to be honest, this is what I concentrated on :)

They have different types of camera lenses that simulate different visual effects. There are some monster masks and TV's all around showing special effects.

They have cool wardrobe costumes from different movies too (like a Spider-Man suit). Basically, think of this as a big movie company storage room.

They also have a clip from a Jackie Chan movie they run to show movie sound effects. They take kids and have them act out the sounds in the movie (by running on wood, beating a trash can lid, jingling a chain, etc.). This is pretty cool and the kids like it a lot.

But here comes the money shot. After you are done here (and you can stay in here as long as you like) you get to film your own movie. Actually, it's the trailer for a movie called "Escape from Zircon". They take people from the audience to work the lights and sound, and also to be in the movie. There are 4 scenes that you film and each scene has 4-5 actors in it. Some are just extras, but two are the "stars" and appear in every scene and two others are supporting stars and appear in most of them.

They take groups in every 15min., so just wait until the line is short and go. That way you (or your kids) can be in the movie.

Once you are done, they screen the movie for you. You can then buy the DVD for $5 or download it from the web for free!

This exhibit alone makes a trip to MOSI worth it. But there is more to see in the museum...

If you like chemistry, they have one of the best chemistry exhibits I've seen in a science museum. They also have a real coal mine that you can take a tour in. Although it was not open when we were there, they will soon have a real submarine that you can go into also.

If trains are your thing, then this is the place for you. They have the biggest toy train layout I've ever seen. And every so often the lights go out and it switches to "nighttime mode". Very cool.

Lastly, they had an exhibit I had never seen before in a museum. It was all about farming. They had huge farm machines you could get into, movies about farming, stuff on cows, etc.

Stained Glass Museum: This museum is in the Navy Pier (see below). I'll be the first to admit that this type of stuff doesn't interest me, but this museum was fascinating. It has "traditional" stained glass works but also "nouveau" works (including one 3D work). My wife and I and our two daughters loved it, but my son was bored. Regardless, it is free, so check it out. You can see everything in 30min. and you'll probably go to the Navy Pier anyway so you'll be right there!

Children's Museum: This is in the Navy Pier too (actually inside of the mall at the Navy Pier and that should explain what I am about to say next), but unlike the Stained Glass museum it is neither cool nor free. It is the absolutely worst Children's Museum I have ever seen. Essentially it is a big playground. If you want to pay a lot of money to take your kids someplace to play, then do it here. Otherwise, skip it entirely. You can find details about it on its website.

For full disclosure, I will note that the Children's Museum, the movie set part of MOSI and ESPNZone (see below) were my kids' favorite places. But this place ranked so high because it is truly like a playground and not a place of learning.

I will also say that in their "Big Backyard" section, they have a really cool virtual raindrops exhibit where you can "catch" them in your hands or arms. You can also get virtual butterflies to land on you if you are still.

One thing I will add. In case you decide to go here because you have an ASTC membership and can get in for free, note that you can only bring in two children. If you are like us, and have three, you'll have to pay $7 for the third one. This really surprised me because all of the other places we have used our ASTC membership at (not just Chicago), our entire family of five has been able to get in for free. I figured the one place we would not have a problem with three kids was at a children's museum, but such was not the case. I should also note that this policy is reflected in their membership too, which only includes 2 kids. If you have more, you need to pay $110/yr (almost the cost of two memberships).

Navy Pier: This is a collection of shops, restaurants, museums (see above), rides (Ferris Wheel, Super Swings, Carousel, etc.), and "other stuff" (a maze, a 4D ride, etc). This is worth a trip to if for nothing else than to just stroll around. Also, there are fireworks here twice per week. You can find out all about it here.

In the mall here they have shows for kids (jugglers, plays, etc.) that are free. Also, you can rent bikes. Right before you get to the pier is a beach where you can go swimming and a park (where you can also rent bikes). The beach is pretty long and deep too and since it is right against the park, this is a great place for a picnic or quick afternoon swim.

Lots of buses to places you'd want to go to leave from down here as well as free trolleys.

Lincoln Park Zoo: Definitely not one of the better zoos I've been to but it is the cheapest (it's free). The best things here are the "non-zoo" rides like the paddle boats and carousel. Free trolleys run to here from downtown as well as normal buses. You can find out all about it at its website. Not much else to say about this other than your kids will probably like it.

ESPNZone: If you don't know what this is, it is a video game/"normal" game place with a sports theme. Lots of video games as well as things like basketball, hockey, football, etc. It's also a chain and you'll find them in many large cities. The only other one I was at was in Baltimore (at the Inner Harbor) and that was much larger (and had things like a rock wall and professional fast pitch batting cage). However, this one was still pretty cool and the kids absolutely loved it.

You must purchase a card for $1 and then buy points on the card. Some games are as cheap as 3 points, but most average 8. The "sports" ones are more expensive - bowling is 16 points, hockey is 12. $25 gets you 125 points and you can get $5 off coupons for them in hotels (and sometimes online). That comes out to $21 ($1 is for the card). $100 will get you 700 points. I believe you can spend as little as $10 to get points.

We went twice and got the $25 card each time. This was enough for my kids to each play about 5 games and they were pretty happy with that. Especially since many (air hockey for example) are 2-player which worked out to them playing more than 5 games.

Summary: If you are still reading this then congratulations! I know it's a little long. Overall we really enjoyed Chicago but felt that other cities are better for families. Baltimore/Washington and Toronto are examples. I have trip reports for these cities on my website if you are interested