Trip Reports - First trip to Chicago-what a great city!

Chicago truly is"a city within a park"I was amazed at the amount of green open space all the city can enjoy.Our trip was a long weekend at the end of September-the weather was glorious.

United's NS service from LAX was great.Upgraded on both flights to Economy plus and both flights had an empty seat next to mine-lots of space to relax.

Took the very slow blue line into town dparting the LaSalle/Clark station and walked the 2 blocks to the Renaissance.No problem using myMarriott EEO B1G1 cert for thursday and friday night.No real upgrade-just a regular double(not a high floor :( but with a view of the river)room was spacious and well furnished.Great lounge at this hotel-perhaps a little small for the size of the hotel-not open on weekends :(
After my friend joined me at the hotel we just could not wait to explore.Walked down to Grant park http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grant_Park_(Chicago) to see the "spitting"fountains and just got lost walking and walking and walking-by the time we were ready for dinner it was 11 and not a lot was open-settled on the Cafe Lux(lots of chains in "the loop"hard to find really good food at good prices)for a late night(expensive) burger. Then more exploring.

Next day we took another long walk and explored Millinium Park http://www.millenniumpark.org/ and then took the Architectural Foundations river cruise http://www.architecture.org/tour_view.aspx?TourID=8 Which was a great introduction to the wonderful history of archtecture in this city.

We then took the very slow Red line out North Halstead for lunch.The boys of boystown must be a very hard working bunch because no one was playing hooky on a glorious friday afternoon! We walked along Addison to the brown line near Wrigly Park.
Friday night we had dinner at Osteria Via Stata http://www.leye.com/restaurants/rest_home.jsp?id=36 (a lettuce entertain you restaurant)and had the set menu.For $35 a person they brought out some FANTASTIC salad,some very good antipasti,some great pasta,and a main course.with the exception of the main couse the charming young lady waiting on us was very happy to bring us as seconds on all the primi-we left very full!

Next morning we checked our bags in with the bellman-as we had a full day and were moving to another hotel later.We then Walked down Randolph to Intelligentsia coffee http://www.intelligentsiacoffee.com/retail/findus#3 which was a daily(some days twice) routine for us.

We then stopped at the Chicago Cultural Center http://www.cityofchicago.org/Tourism/CulturalCenter/ which should have been our first stop in Chicago.What a gem of a place with helpful staff who have a great love for their city.Also they have a few small but wonderful gisplays that change out frequently.The buildings they are housed in have TWO glorious Tiffany stained glass domes.The Mosaic work in the old library building is just breathtakingly beautiful.
We then took The MERTHA train out to Hyde Park http://www.hydeparksecc.com/community.html .This area incorporates some of the campus of the University of Chicago as well as the incredible Museum of Science and Industry http://www.msichicago.org/ which is wonderful and huge.The Park surround the musem is great-there was a Jazz festival when we were there-it was free and had some great music.The Nearby Robbie House is worth looking at as are several of the great residential streets in the neighborhood.

After the train ride back to downtown we walked to the Sears Tower and went to the Sky Deck http://www.the-skydeck.com/ You really see how large the city of Chicago is-and how flat this part of the midwest is.Touristy-of course!But it is one of the 100 things I have done in my life that I will remember.
That night we took a cab to the Four Points-very nice place upgraded to a two room huge suite(I was exausted-so we splurged on a cab)and then cabbed it to Halstead for dinner and some bar hopping.

The next morning my friend decided to rent a bike for the day while I explored the Art Institute.The MacDonald Bike center http://www.chicagobikestation.com/ rents many kind of bikes at very reasonable prices.
After checking out the Buckingham Fountain http://www.chicagoparkdistrict.com/index.cfm/fuseaction/buckinghamfountain.fountainhome I went to the Art Institute whil my friend took a 20 mile tour of Chicago :eek:
The Art Institute of Chicago http://www.artic.edu/ is one of the worlds great museums.The Collection is outstanding and the museum is adding several new wings.
After the museum I then had a great lunch at The Gage http://www.thegagechicago.com/ -this was the best meal of my trip!

Went back to the hotel to rest and clean up Before heading out for more exporing and a light dinner(HAH!)at Ballo http://chicago.metromix.com/restaurants/italian/ballo-river-north/133065/content

Next morning was drizzly Tool the train to Marshell Fields and looked around=and then a coffee at Intelilgentsia.We then decided to leave for the airport a little early-good thing we did as the Blue line took an hour and 40 minutes to get to O'hare :eek:
The flight back was fine- on time and had an empty seat next to me in Economy Plus.

I really like Chicago and look forward to my next trip.A huge thank you to all of the flyertalkers who helped me plan this trip.

Nice report! I'm glad you referred to it as Marshall Field's, not Macy's.... it's a shame what Macy's has done to a pioneer in Chicago retailing. Have they renamed "Frango" mints "Alfani" mints yet?