Chicago is a city I thought I’d enjoy but the reality is, I LOVED it. I was not aware of the huge food scene that resides there. I found out a little too late and was unable to get reservations to a place on my Michelin wishlist. That’s fine, we’ll return again…even if it is just to go to that damn restaurant. I’m sharing all of our activities as I recommend these to anyone visiting Chicago. As well as a list of things I wished I had more time to do. 

Hotel Kimpton Allegro

I literally booked this hotel based on how cute it was with the city views. However, I highly recommend probably every Kimpton hotel I’ve ever stayed in. They have since renamed it The Allegro Royal Sonesta Hotel Chicago Loop. The rooms were a bit smaller than I’d have liked, but that’s to be expected with larger cities. There was some work going on in the building during our stay but we were fully made aware of it and honestly, we never noticed much of it.

Architectural Riverboat Tour

This was my absolute favotire activity that we did here and I highly recommend anyone visitng this city to partake in this and see Chicago from a different angle and learn about the history and architecture. You don’t even need to be an architecture fan to appreciate this. It covered everything from the great fire to the reversal of the river. We used Shoreline Sightseeing and had the best experience with our guide, Wendy. She was extremely knowledgable, personable; we loved listening to her and she was eager to answer any question any of us had. I highly recommend the sunset trip to be able to see the city during the day and also at night all lit up.

Chinatown

Every city we visit, I’m sure to seek us out a Chinatown and it never disappoints. This particular place knocked out the guesswork and had a picture menu with a pencil so you could circle what you wanted. For the eggplant dish, we saw someone else have it and just told out waitress we wanted that too. Wasn’t too sure what it was but it smelled good and that’s all I needed to know. We went to the Phoenix Restaurant. We would have loved to go to other places but we didn’t have the time.

Huntington Bank Pavilion at Northerly Island

Did we see a DMB show? You know it. At this point I’m strictly rating the concert venues. Getting here via an Uber was interesting. We went the very long and sketchy route that was completely not the recommended route. It was so wild I reported the entire incident to Uber. We were even dropped off on the side of the road and had to walk into the venue because we didn’t trust this man to figure out where to go anymore. Overall, the venue was ok. For me, the experience wasn’t the best due to the record setting heatwave that came in with temperatures over 100 for these two days when I thought we were going to escape the heat. 

Weber Grill Restaurant

Did you know there’s a Weber Grill Restaurant and all they use is Weber Grills? Because I didn’t…so, here it is.

Sky Deck: The Ledge atop the Willis Tower

Also a must to do in Chicago. We quickly discovered there was a better experience to the Sky Deck…the option to have breakfast on The Ledge. They have since offered other experiences such as dinner, proposals, etc which you can see here.

Wrigley Field

My husband insisted we visit here while in Chicago. I agreed. I initially asked for shaded seating which he insisted we shouldn’t get and sit in the iconic outfield instead. With an eyeroll, I got us outfield seats. I knew I wouldn’t be super thrilled with them, but he would. Little did we know a record setting heat wave followed us to Chicago which resulted in most of us in the outfield bleachers evacuating rather than heat-stroking out. We finished the rest of the gave via TV in our hotel room and was able to see most everyone sitting in the sun was also gone. Wrigley Field was a nice experience, it was just unreasonably hot that day.

Medinah Country Club

This was on my husbands golf list and while we were here, he had to play. I gladly stayed in the hotel room in my air conditioning, had room service and which watching TV and blogging.  His take on Medinah Country Club:

Navy Pier and Giordano’s

Do NOT sleep on either of these. Especially Giordano’s. I know you’ve probably hear Chicago is famous for their pizzas’s but there is truly nothing quite like a Chicago Deep Dish Pizza. What’s even better is you can also get them delivered anywhere in the US. Consider an order already placed by the time I’m finished with this post. It was love at first cut. Ah, the cheese pull.

Shedd Aquarium

This is actually a beautiful aquarium with pretty impressive architectural features. The beluga whales were the most impressive..they were very interactive and naturally curious with the people nearby, including us. 

Lincoln Park Zoo

If you’re into zoos, Lincoln Park Zoo is really neat. It has a convenient location in the city and very well maintained. We enjoyed how playful the animals were and obviously very well taken care of.

Random Tourist Stuff

Of course we went to The Bean, the art museum, etc