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Maxwell Street
Market.
Experience the dynamic atmosphere
of Chicago's oldest outdoor market. Located adjacent to Chicago's downtown,
the New Maxwell Street Market is a year-round, FREE Sunday event, with over
480 local and international vendors who sell: imported items; fresh produce;
prepared food, "antiques", clothing and household goods and much more
at low prices. Musicians, sketch artists and mimes frequently drop in
to perform.
The New Maxwell Street Market
is a family affair. Moms, dads, kids and grandparents, alike, enjoy strolling
the market looking for bargains and where bargaining is the universal language.
Location. Canal Street and Roosevelt Road
Navy Pier
600 East Grand Avenue, Chicago
Cost: Free
Hours: November to May, 10 a.m. to 8 p.m.; May to October, 10 a.m. to 10 p.m.
Sunday-Thursday, 10 a.m. to 12 a.m. Friday-Saturday.
Stretching more than a half-mile into Lake Michigan, the Navy Pier is a popular
attraction for guests and locals alike. The pier area welcomes more than 5 million
visitors who come to ride its 150-foot Ferris wheel and old-fashioned carousel,
see an IMAX movie, take sightseeing and dinner cruises or simply stroll its
lovely lakefront location. Its concert dome, Skyline Stage, seats 1,500 and
presents performances from May through October. The 170,000-square foot festival
hall hosts several distinguished annual events, and a six-story glass atrium
contains Crystal Gardens, the pier's one-acre enclosed botanical garden.
Art Institute of Chicago
111 S. Michigan Avenue, Chicago
Tel: 312-443-3600
Hours: 10:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday; 10:30 a.m.
to 8 p.m. Tuesday; 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday; noon to 5 p.m. Sunday
Cost: $8 adults, $5 seniors and children
Masterpieces from Monet and Degas are housed in a vast, world-class collection
that also features African, American-Indian and Asian works, decorative arts
and sculpture, photography, prints, textiles, and contemporary American painting.
Free lectures are open to the public on Tuesday evenings.
The Field Museum
1400 S. Lake Shore Drive, Chicago
Tel: 312-922-9410
Hours: 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily
Cost: $7 adults, $3 children aged 3-17 and students with ID
The Field is Chicago's crowning museum of natural history, with exhibits on
everything from dinosaurs to African culture to gems and minerals. Visitors
can observe as geologists work on a million-year-old fossilized dinosaur, painstakingly
removing its bones from the rock and assembling them for display. The "Life
Over Time" display documents the changing weather patterns that contributed
to the formation of the earth's environment, and other exhibits explore the
various cultures of the world's population.
Lincoln Park
Zoo
2001 N. Clark Street, Chicago
Tel: 312-742-2000
Cost: Free; $7 per car to park
Hours: 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily
The oldest zoo in the country, Lincoln Park Zoo is still free to visitors. But
its greatest asset is its vast collection - 1,200 animals - and its dedication
to teaching conservation and protection of wildlife. The zoo's Lester E. Fisher
Great Ape House is considered one of the finest gorilla exhibits in the world.
Other visitor favourites include the Sea Lion Pool, the Bird House (where feathered
friends surround their homo sapiens visitors) and the Penguin and Seabird House.
And of course, there are plenty of elephants, giraffes and rhinos. More
info
Sears Tower
233 S. Wacker Drive, Chicago
Tel: 312-875-9447
Cost: $8.50 adults, $6.50 seniors, $5.50 children aged 5-12
Hours: October-February, 9 a.m. to 10 p.m daily; March-September, 9 a.m. to
11 p.m. daily
The tallest building in North America and still one of the tallest in the world,
the Sears Tower soars 110 stories to 1,454 feet. Completed in 1973, the tower
was built by 12,000 workers in fierce Chicago winds, which became a more significant
challenge the higher the structure rose. The newly opened Skydeck on the 103rd
floor, offers 80-mile views on a clear day. It also presents a number of educational
exhibits on Chicago history, the Great Chicago Fire and the city's founding
fathers and mothers. More info
The Hancock
Observatory
875 N. Michigan Avenue
John Hancock Centre, Chicago
Tel: 888-875-8439
Cost: $8.50 adults, $6 seniors and children aged 5-12
Hours: 9 a.m. to 12 a.m. daily
It's not the tallest building in Chicago, but the 100-story Hancock Tower is
worth a visit for its magnificent cityscapes and the interesting interactive
exhibits on its 94th floor. Visitors take a speedy elevator ride to the observation
level, where "Soundscope" viewers give a narrated account (in one
of four languages) of what you're seeing through the telescope. Adults will
enjoy the Signature Lounge, a 96th-floor watering hole with a lakeside view. More
info
John G. Shedd
Aquarium
1200 S. Lake Shore Drive, Chicago
Tel: 312-939-2438
Hours: June-August, 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. daily; September through May, 9 a.m. to
5 p.m. daily
Cost: $11 adults, $9 seniors and children aged 3-11
Visitors to the Shedd Aquarium should be sure to stop by around feeding time
to watch divers distribute dinner to the various eels, rays, sea turtles and
fish that make its Tropical Coral Reef home. Nearly 8,000 aquatic animals -
fresh and salt-water alike - are part of the Shedd's collection, and nearly
2 million visitors make the journey to the world's largest indoor aquarium each
year.
Magnificent
Mile
North Michigan Avenue, Chicago
Tel: 800-232-5558
A Mecca for shoppers, Magnificent Mile runs along North Michigan Avenue to Lincoln
Park and rivals Rodeo Drive and Worth Avenue for world-class shopping and restaurants.
Comforting names like The Gap accompany upscale Armani and FAO Schwartz on the
list of 60 well-known retail establishments to line this spending paradise.
Three shopping malls are also nearby, and each is worthy of the Magnificent
Mile's high-class shopping reputation, and magnificent restaurants and five-star
hotels are happy to serve weary shoppers.
Hull House
Museum
800 S. Halsted Street, Chicago
Tel: 312-413-5353
Cost: Free
Hours: 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday-Friday; 12 p.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday
Honoured with the Nobel Peace Prize in 1931, Jane Addams did what no one before
her had thought to do. She moved into one of Chicago's tenement neighbourhoods
and opened a "settlement house" to help meet the economic and social
needs of her neighbours and to encourage their involvement in improving their
own community. During the height of its activity, Hull House included a library,
gymnasium, theatre and an art gallery. The museum, snuggled in the heart of
the University of Illinois-Chicago, consists of two of the original 13 buildings,
one an Arts and Crafts-style dining hall built in 1905.
Chicago Botanical
Gardens
100 Lake Cook Road, Glencoe
Tel: 847-835-5440
Cost: Free; $7 per car to park, $5 for seniors
Hours: 8 a.m. to sunset daily
Whatever your taste in gardens, you will find it here. The 385-acre property
includes a suitably romantic English Garden, a thoughtful Japanese paradise,
and indoor greenhouses the duplicate the atmosphere of the desert as well as
the rainforest. A 45-foot waterfall cascades through the Waterfall Garden and
the pools in quiet areas that enhance reflection and relaxation. A visit to
the Chicago Botanical Gardens is a learning experience as well; courses and
lectures are almost always available, and a walk through the Endangered Species
Garden teaches about preservation of plant species hovering on the edge of existence.
Have you been to Chicago and know about some more great highlights worth a mention? Add details for other visitors to read about.
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