Minneapolis/St. Paul Nesties
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Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Quick road-trip vacation to Chicago...what to do there?
My DH and I are planning on a quick, road-trip to Chicago mid-June.
I'm thinking we'll leave at about 6am on a Thursday, planning to get there mid-day.
Friday morning we're going here for a few hours. It's in Woodridge which is about 40 minutes from Chicago.
My DH wants to go to Bass Pro Shops which is about 10 minutes from Woodridge.
What should we do/see in Chicago? The rest of our day on Friday (after the Wilton sale) will be available for touristy things. I plan on leaving mid-day on Saturday and driving back, getting back home around midnight or so.
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Re: Quick road-trip vacation to Chicago...what to do there?
Are you planning to stay downtown? If so, there's a million things to do. Go to the top of the Sears Tower (or whatever it is called now) or the Hancock Building. Go to Navy Pier. Go to the Art Institute (my personal favorite). Go to Shedd Aquarium. Go to the Museum of Science and Industry. Walk down the Magnificient Mile. Go to Navy Pier. Really, it is like going to NY, but on a smaller scale. You won't lack for things to do.
Also, you can usually get a pretty good rate on a hotel on priceline or hotwire. Go to Betterbidding.com to figure out which hotels they are offering.
Thanks! Yeah, I was thinking of going downtown.
Believe me when I say I'm not trying to be ignorant but are there any parts of Chicago to avoid? If we stay downtown are we pretty 'safe'? I am sure it's a beautiful city with 'bad areas' which give it a bad name... similar to Mpls I'm sure.
There's nowhere bad if you stay in the downtown area where the tourist things are. Public transportation is safe. Feel confident in taking the EL to get around. Just be smart about not leaving your bag open for all to just help themselves to anything in it. Just pay attention like you would anywhere.
I don't think Minneapolis is particularly unsafe either, though, compared to other cities with truly unsafe neighborhoods.
Oh have fun!
We've both been to Chicago separately, but never together. Hoping to go sometime in the next few years. When we do we will be eating here:
http://www.fronterakitchens.com/restaurants/restaurants.html
Yes! We did this last summer and really liked it. We did one through the Chicago Architecture Foundation, I highly recommend it!
Mr. Sammy Dog
We love Chicago!
I'm a big fan of Ma & I Thai (yelp reviews are mixed but we enjoy it there!)
. If you are nice and without attitude, people really are genuine. Millenium Park is fun and trendy and it's close enough to the Art Institute that you could do both.
The Art Institute of Chicago is great, as is the Shedd Aquarium (although their holiday dolphin show sucked.) I've always wanted to do the Devil in the White City tour. I woudln't be concerned about 'nice' areas - if you are downtown everything is fine.. and if you aren't downtown, you'll be fine too. We stopped off the expressway once in a shady greekish neighborhood because I HAD to pee and I ran into some really shady bodega and had zero problems using their employee restroom
jack | born 9.13.12 at 40w4d | 9 lbs 12 oz | 23 in
my puppy loves - chloe & jenson
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A few things that we did on our last trip there:
Millennium Park, Lincoln Park Zoo, Cubs game @ Wrigley, Navy Pier, Architectural Boat Tour, Giordanno's for deep dish pizza
I also have pics and more info in my blog if you want to check it out
My Cooking Blog
DH & I went a few years ago and did: Shedd Aquarium, Field Museum, Planetarium, Hancock Bldg, Museum of Science & Industry and a White Sox game (we wanted the Cubs, but they were not in town.) Really enjoyed the Science museum & the aquarium. I was there last fall by myself for a class and I took the red double-decker bus tour. I think it's intended for you to be able to get on & off and explore the different attractions where it stops.... but I just rode it around to see all the sights & thought it was pretty cool. I've also heard good things about the architecture boat tours, althought haven't done one personally.
For food, there's Gino's East or Giradonno's for pizza. Gene & Georgetti's is an italian steakhouse (think Mancinis in St. Paul) that has been featured on the Travel channel's best steakhouses.
Check out Bye Bye Liver: The Chicago Drinking Play at the Pub Theater. It is hilarious!
Frontera Grill and the architecture tour also great ideas. Pizza is the best. My fave is Giordano's DH loves Ginos and Uno, my best friend loves Lou Malnati's more than anything. You really can't go wrong with any of those (but I say go with Giordanos- deep dish with spinach!!) Sigh...
MY BMs in their dresses
Bio: Updated 1/02/10
Married Bio and Blog: Updated 7/25/2011
Okay. I know I'm super late to this post, and I'm not even sure if you'll check it any more. But I have to give this recommendation. Have breakfast at Orange (sorry I can't make it clicky, just google "orange restaurant chicago"). It is a small restaurant near downtown that specializes in breakfast. Their "pancake flight" is fabulous, as is the rest of their menu. Prices are very reasonable. Seriously worth looking in to. Would be great for brunch before you head home on Saturday (we went on a Saturday morning around 10am and the wait was less than 15 minutes).
Have a great trip!