Chicago - 10 Things to Do from An Insider Perspective

Chicago River. Photo by Giant Ginkgo

Photo by caribb


Photo by reallyboring

The City of Chicago was incorporated March 4, 1837 and was founded four years earlier upon the location of a portage between Lake Michigan and the Mississippi River watershed. The city quickly became a major transportation hub and the center of finance and industry in the Midwest. The city is named afeter the Miami-Illini Indian word "shikaakwa", meaning wild leek. The city is located on the southwestern shore of Lake Michigan and has two rivers flowing through it - the Chicago River, which flows from the north of the city into Lake Michigan and the Calumet River, found on the city's industrial south side.

Chicago is a city which has something to offer everyone - world famous museums and other cultural attractions, hotels ranging from family-friendly to luxurious, world class dining or neighborhood diners and of course there is the architecture. The birthplace of the skyscraper, Chicago is the ideal place to learn about these buildings. To get a great view of these buildings, take a ride on one of the many elevated train lines which run through the city
center (called the Loop) for a spectacular view from the CTA Brown, Orange, Green or Purple lines. You'll be amazed by the manmade canyons of stone and glass.

Photo by kiss kiss bang bang

Get the best rates from over 80,000 hotels worldwide and make your hotel reservation in Chicago instantly at AsiaTiv.com.

Chicago Air and Water Show

Photo by Patrick - msigarmy.com

The Chicago Air and Water Show presents three fun-packed days of spectacular air and watercraft demonstrations on Lincoln Park's lakefront, with North Avenue Beach as the focal point.Many the crafts both navy and army brought to show to the people

Mexican Independence Day Parade

Chicago celebrates Mexican Independence (which officially falls on 16 September) every year with the 18th Street Mexican Independence Day Parade.The parade performed and move to all landmark of town shows and rememblance the freedom of Mexican on the street.

Children's Halloween Costume Party

Chicago's Glessner House is the one of the landmarks of Victorian architecture in Chicago as hosts its annual children's Halloween party.They have fun in the wonderful party with many friends.

Chicago Humanities Festival

The Chicago Humanities Festival is an annual celebration of the liberal arts that honours the power of ideas in human culture. It brings together scholars, writers, poets, policy makers.

Chicago Thanksgiving Parade. Photo by photoentropy

Chicago Thanksgiving Parade

Dating back to 1934, the Chicago Thanksgiving Parade tempts 350,000 people onto the streets, with another 1.5 million watching on TV. In the nippy autumn air marchers proceed up State Street.

Chicago Jazz Festival

Photo by dsjeffries

The Chicago Jazz Festival kicks off in Millennium Park on Thursday evening with a concert in the Pritzker Pavilion by saxophone legend Sonny Rollins, before moving on to Grant Park on the shores of Lake Michigan.Performances take place in the Petrillo Music Shell and on two other stages.The Gerald Wilson Orchestra and free jazz giant, saxophonist Ornette Coleman. Hundreds of thousands of people picnic on the grass and enjoy the music, making this
one of the most chilled-out events in the city's calendar.

The Arlington Million

The Arlington Million takes place each year at Arlington Park in Chicago and is one of the richest and most famous horse races in the world. Inaugurated in 1981, this was the first race to offer a million-dollar prize.The grandstand is among the best in the world and there are also plenty of activities away from the track, making it a great day out.

Viva! Chicago

The annual Viva! Chicago festival in Grant Park celebrates Latin music and culture, attracting around 150,000 people to the shores of Lake Michigan.The festival consistently provides a great line-up of performers playing musical styles from around Latin America.

Photo by feministjulie

Hot Chocolate

Come for dessert, stay for dinner' might be the motto at this buzz-heavy Bucktown upstart.With five different kinds of hot chocolate available, along with mini brioche doughnuts, you may forget to order any of the other food on offer, such as Kobe beef skirt steak and mussels.

Army & Lou's

If you've never had soul food before, you've got to start at this warm and welcoming Chicago classic. It rises above the crowd of similar local establishments with its fried chicken, catfish, collard greens, sweet-potato pie and other classics at prices that are good for your soul.

Le Bouchon

Photo by ulterior epicure

Classic French defines the menu at this quaint spot, a favorite for neighborhood types seeking a good deal and romantic environs. The lyonnaise salad is a winner, and other faves on the short menu range from escargot to chocolate marquisse (chocolate mousse without the egg whites).

Pizzeria Uno

A light, flaky crust holds piles of cheese and a herb-laced tomato sauce. The pizzas take a while, but stick to the pitchers of beer and cheap red wine to kill time and avoid the salad and other distractions so you can save room for the main event.

Tufano's Vernon Park Tap

Tufano's serves old-fashioned, hearty Italian fare for modest prices. The blackboards carry a long list of daily specials, which can include such wonderful items as pasta with garlic-crusted broccoli.

Arun's

Photo by minvervah


Photo by stirwise


Blackbird. Photo by Nodame

This is the best Thai restaurant in the city .The 12-course chef's menu is your only option here, and different tables receive different dishes on a given night. Thai salad of bitter greens and peanuts with green papaya, tomatoes, chiles, and sticky rice; and a medley of clever curries, including a surprisingly delightful sea-bass-and-cabbage sour curry. When classic dishes appear, such as pad thai, they're always above the norm.The menu is paired with an award-winning wine list

Avec

The menu focuses on a variety of "small plates" meant for sharing (although there are always five or six entree-size offerings as well). This focus on communal dining is reflected in the restaurant's design; the long, narrow dining room, with its wood walls and floors, will strike you as either cramped or cozy, and tables sit so close. There's also a good selection of specialty cheeses. The wine list -- focused on the Mediterranean region

Blackbird

The white, narrow room is dense with close-packed tables, and the floor-to-ceiling windows in front frame the urban landscape outside.Blackbird is fun for people who like a scene (everyone pretends not to be looking around too much), but I'd recommend somewhere else if you're looking for a romantic dinner.

Copperblue

The dining room is warm, with ancient mural scenes on the walls, but it is also bright, with shades of gold and deep blue. There are three tasting menus, one of which is called "the fifth quarter," which refers not to the five courses in it but to the fact that the offerings come from the parts of the animal that normally do not get cooked in fine restaurants, let alone eaten.

Heaven on Seven

If you don't have a taste for Tabasco, the extensive coffee-shop-style menu covers all the traditional essentials:

grilled-cheese sandwiches, omelets, tuna -- the works. Indulge in chocolate peanut butter pie or homemade rice pudding for dessert. they do serve dinner on the third Friday of the month from 5:30 to 9pm.

Photo by ifmuth

900 N Michigan

Chicago Antiques Market.
Photo by PhineasX

This huge mall is home to an upscale collection of stores including Diesel, Gucci and J Crew, among many others. And this is the place where you can choose the goods of the famous brand name.

Chicago Antiques Market

This market has become quite the ta-do in town. It takes place inside the beaux arts Plumbers Hall, where more than 200 dealers hock collectibles, costume jewelry, furniture, books, Turkish rugs and pinball machines. One of the coolest facets is the Indie Designer Fashion Market, where the city's fledgling designers sell their one-of-a-kind skirts, shawls, handbags and other pieces.

Shedd Aquarium

The world's largest assortment of finned, gilled, amphibious and other aquatic creatures swims within the marble-clad confines of the John G Shedd Aquarium.

Shedd Aquarium. Photo by Go Card USA

Field Museum of Natural History

Photo by supa_pedro


Photo by straightedge217


Lincoln Park Conservatory.
Photo by angela n.

The big attraction is the Tyrannosaurus rex named Sue, a 13ft-tall, 41ft-long beast who menaces the grand space with ferocious aplomb. Sue, the most complete T rex ever discovered, takes its name from Sue Hendrickson, the fossil-hunter who found the 90-percent-complete skeleton in South Dakota in 1990.

Chicago History Museum

The recently renovated Chicago History Museum is just the place to get an idea of how this great city grew and developed. The museum's permanent exhibition 'Crossroads of America' contains plenty about the Lincolns, Capones, Daleys and other notables

Shoreline Sightseeing

Shoreline launches 30-minute lake cruises every half-hour from its two dock locations at the Shedd Aquarium and Navy Pier. Shoreline has also gotten in on the popularity of architecture tours. Narrated by architectura guides, they cost more than regular tours. A water taxi also runs every half-hour between Navy Pier and the Sears Tower, Michigan Avenue, and the Shedd Aquarium. Tickets for the water taxi cost $3 to $13, depending how far you travel.

Lincoln Park Conservatory

The Palm House features giant palms and rubber trees (including a 50-ft. fiddle-leaf rubber tree dating back to 1891); the Fernery nurtures plants that grow close to the forest floor; and the Tropical House is a shiny symphony of flowering trees, vines, and bamboo. The fourth environment is the Show House, where seasonal flower shows take place.Even better than the plants inside, however, might be what lies outside the front doors.

Photo by hibino

Unity Temple

Photo by straightedge217

After a fire destroyed its church around 1900, a Unitarian Universalist congregation asked one of its members, Frank Lloyd Wright, to design an affordable replacement. Using poured concrete with metal reinforcements-a necessity due to a small $40,000 budget-Wright created a building that on the outside seems as forbidding as a mausoleum but inside contains all the elements of the Prairie School that has made Wright's name immortal.

Following the example of H. H. Richardson, Wright placed the building's main entrance on the side, behind an enclosure-a feature often employed in his houses as well-to create a sense of privacy and intimacy.

Sears Tower Skydeck

First Sears sold the building and moved to cheaper suburban offices in 1992. Then the skyscraper got an ego blow when the Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, went up and laid claim to the title of world's tallest building. (The Sears Tower has since put up a 22-ft. antenna in an attempt to win back the title.) Tallest-building posturing aside, this is still a great place to orient yourself to the city, but I wouldn't put it on the top of must-see sights for anyone with limited time (and limited patience for crowds).The view from the 103rd-floor Skydeck is everything you'd expect it to be -- once you get there. Unfortunately, you're often stuck in a very long, very noisy line, so by the time you make it to the top, your patience could be as thin as the atmosphere up there.

Photo by mopeyjoe

Six Flags Great America

One of the Midwest's biggest theme and amusement parks, Six Flags is midway between Chicago and Milwaukee on I-94 in Gurnee, Illinois. The park has more than 100 rides and attractions and is a favorite of roller-coaster devotees. There are a whopping 10 of them here, including the ausea-inducing Déjà Vu, where riders fly forward and backward over a twisting, looping inverted steel track, and Superman, where you speed along hanging headfirst (with your legs dangling).