When I was younger I once took a trip to Chicago for a Cubs game, but for I cannot remember anything under the age of fifteen. I come from Indianapolis and me and my father are planning a weekend trip to Chicago. We both love big cities and we want to see Chicago at its finest. We want to spend at least a full day there and gather the best experience that we can in merely ten to eleven hours. I guess my question is, is there any advice on how we can spend those hours and get the best experience we can? Any food, entertainment, parks, stores, theaters (huge theater person) ideas to take note of? We plan on spending money, but not too much.
Moving from Cafe Society to IMHO, where you’ll get a good assortment of opinions about visiting Chicago.
My two stock suggestions:
Lunch at the Signature Room Lounge at the top of the Hancock building. For less than admission to the Sears/Willis Tower, you can have lunch and a drink overlooking the city. Dress is fairly casual during the day (at night it becomes a more formal lounge).
Water taxis. You can take a formal river tour and I wouldn’t try to talk you out of it but, if that’s not on the schedule, take time to ride the water taxi either from Union Station to Navy Pier (river route) or from Navy Pier to the Museum Campus (lake route). It’s a great, relaxing and inexpensive ride.
My father was talking about riding on the river. Something else about many people usually taking a river to get to work because of traffic? That signature room lounge looks awesome considering a view; do you know if it is usually packed or not during lunch hours?
It’s typically busy but not packed. You may not get a table by the window since those are obviously the ones everyone waits for (it’s open seating, grab what’s available) but everyone just walks over and spends time at the windows regardless. There’s more interior tables or seating at the bar as well.
During daylight hours you have a lot of people in shorts and people with kids and stuff. Then they clear out the riff-raff at night for the party set.
Just to avoid confusion (but I don’t think they’re open during the day anyway), the Lounge is adjacent to the Signature Room restaurant which will NOT be $20 for a meal. Trust me on this one.
The Hancock has residences and businesses in it and, when you enter, they’ll ask what your purpose is. Just say you’re going to the Lounge and they’ll point you towards the appropriate elevators.
Thank you, much appreciated!