I’m going to visit a friend who lives an hour north of Chicago. But since she’s in school for the better part of the day, i’m looking for stuff to do. Are there any really good sight-seeing tourist attractions i can check out during the day?
Six Flags is in that area. So is the Chicago Botanic Garden. There’s a Frisbee Golf Course in Wakegan and winerys in Grayslake and Vernon Hills. There’s always Lake Michigan, the water might even be warm enough for swimming this time of year. 
Oops, didn’t think that looked right…should’ve been “Waukegan”.
Sorry can’t help much beyond what’s been suggested. SW suburbanite.
So why did I post…?
Oh yeah, because it’s Sunday night and I’m bored.
But they are both good suggestions. If you’re a shopper there is a huge outlet mall about a mile west of Great America…
In Southern IL where my father’s family is from you fish and drink beer. I’ve never been in the north.
You could pop down to Evanston and putz around the Northwestern campus. Otherwise the weather will be killer for visiting the lake depending one how far the trip is away.
I spent about 2-3 hours there with my Mom the other day and I haven’t been that bored in a very long time. Although if you are interested in plants or desire to experience peace and tranquility (or so I am told) it is a pretty good place to go.
I live approximately 1000 feet from the aforementioned outlet mall and it is very large. Unfortunately its large and very poorly designed along with being pretty pricey. If you enjoy shopping it might be worth it however.
As to what there is to do fun in northern Illinois, well theres not much. You are in the heart of suburbia and that means there isn’t much to do beyond your typical Suburban fare. Minigolf, movies, bowling and the like. Outside of Six Flags there really isn’t anything that you “have” to do. Where exactly abouts are you going to be?
Lake Forest, right? It’s absolutely beautiful there, and utterly sterile (in my opinion), but then I live in the capital of utterly sterile, so take that for what it’s worth.
Head down to Chicago and go to the Art Institute of Chicago. You could spend days in that place, not be bored, and not see it all. It’s also just across the street from the Public Library, another great place to hang out, and up the street from the aquarium (whose name I forget). Take public transport into the city, though, rather than driving; you’ll save beaucoup bucks and your sanity.
Round Beach Lake to be exact.
I’ve never been to a major art place. I’m not really of the art-mind and have particular taste when it comes to that sort of thing. I may be able to get into it, but what is it like inside?
I grew up in Gurnee, Round Lake Beach is not too far. You could do Six Flags, you could do the Mills, but hands down the best attraction in the area is the pyramid house The cheesiest place on Earth is actually a few miles sould of the Wisconsin border. The Temple Farms Lipizzans used to do horse shows but my web searches were dead ends so they may no longer run.
If’n you wanted to head up to Kenosha, I know someone who needs rocks thrown at their car. 
One of the things my friend told me about was the Mars Cheese Castle in Kenosha that i have to check out.
If you are heading up into Kenosha there is a good mini-golf, go-kart and arcade type thing right off of the highway. Its called something like Wild Adventure but its right off of the highway so you can’t miss it.
parthenokinesis, Gurnee? I grew up there too? How long ago did you live there?
First left the area in 93, moved back to Waukegan in 98 and moved down here in 02. Didja go to Warren? When the school was a briquette?
What do you mean when? O’Plaine is still the freshman-sophomore campus and the term I like to use is kiln ;). When I want there I think my class had ~800 or so students and the class in front of me had ~700 or so. It was absolutely packed when I was there, wall to wall students in the hallways and staircases. The last time I heard numbers, about two years ago, the freshman class was 1000 students. I can’t imagine how they packed 500 more students into that building.
The year after I left ('03) the community failed to pass a referendum to properly fund the school. When they built Almond they passed the referendum to build the campus but not the one to actually fund the operating cost. Showing true genius they went ahead and built it anyways and started racking up huge debt. Since the referendum failed they had to cut a period out of the day, charge for extra curriculars and cut a lot of electives. Which is unfortunate becuase my sophomore year Warren won the Preisdents Blue Ribbon Award. If I remember correctly only a 100 or so schools get that per year. Its unfortunate that when I went there it was closer to the top schools in the nation like Lake Forest, Stevenson, Naperville et al and just two years later its an underfunded district.
From what I hear the demographics for the school have changed drastically. When I went there it was your typical white bread suburb school like Lake Forest or Stevenson. A couple years ago the basketball team was a bunch of Ambercrombie types and now its more “ghetto rap”, for a lack of a better word, types. Its simply amazing at how fast Gurnee has changed demographically. When you went there Grand and Hunt Club was probably a stop sign right? Now its a stop light with 3 lanes in each direction.
Sorry this wasn’t clear. The initial referendum to fund the school failed when they built it around '98 I believe. They operated the school for a few years and then went back to the community to pass a referendum to increase funding. When that second referendum failed they were forced to make drastic cuts to school functions.
It’s incredible. There’s a great arms and armor display that you could get lost in for hours; they have a miniatures room (little doll houses) that are interesting for about five minutes and then become creepy; and then a wide selection of art, from photography to Asian art, and textiles to old dead European guys. Take a browse through here. Personally, I liked their American art. I haven’t found a museum in LA with the breadth (although there are some nice collections here), and it’s very well laid out so you actually enjoy moving through the rooms.
Two campuses? You kids today. When I was your age, we had 0 campuses, cause some asshat burned the school to the ground. Not a fun as you might think. IIRC the stop sign at Grand and Hunt Club was only on Hunt Club, traffic on Grand did not even stop. And you could drive 120 Mph on Dilleys for like 12 miles straight. Whoo-hoo.