My kids and I went to Chicago for the first time during the pandemic. I just figured we could explore downtown and walk around outside and we did! It was a lot of fun, but Isaac asked if we could go back when everything opened back up? I said of course, so we took the fun road trip back to the great city.
This time, I bought a Go City pass. I found out about it in a Newsweek article about things to do in Chicago and it suggested to buy the City Pass. So, four tickets were sent to my phone after I paid and downloaded the app. All we had to do is choose from a pretty large list of what we wanted to see, which is also displayed under the app. I could even organize our daily itinerary. On Monday, I chose for us to see the Shedds’ Aquarium and we also went on a double decker bus called The Big Bus and toured the city. We loved the tour and were given earphones to plug into what looked like a little radio next to each seat to hear about different buildings we were passing along the way. We were able to pick up the bus at the Aquarium and take a 2 hour tour and then land back where we started at the Aquarium. For dinner that night, we went to the beloved Giordano’s, at the Navy Pier, for their famous Chicago style pizza. We ordered the recommended pizza called The Special. It had sausage, mushrooms, green peppers and onions. We loved it and ate all of the large pizza, besides three pieces that we took back to the hotel. After dinner, we decided to walk along the Pier just to see where it went. It wrapped around the building along the water and took us back to our car in one of the parking lots.
Next day, we parked at the same parking lot by the museums. First, we checked out the Field Museum. All of us loved it. They gave us a choice of going to a special exhibit and Isaac and Josie chose the Jurassic marine exhibit. Isaac told me he felt like he was six again because he used to love to look at books about Megladons (the huge prehistoric sharks) when he was in kindergarten. There were tons of skeletons, videos, and artifacts for him to check out. Next, we went to a Native American exhibit, which was beautiful. My favorite room was a room filled with carved totem poles from Alaska. We also went to the dinosaur exhibit on the second floor and saw a T-Rex skeleton and an entire room full of dinosaur skeletons. Pretty incredible. After the Field Museum, we walked along Lake Michigan and over to Millennium Park to see the Bean. since the last time we went, it was gated. This time, we were able to go under it and discovered that’s where the magic happens. The kids looked at their reflections against the shiny contoured silver and up to see their reflections again along with the other tourists looking at their reflections. We all understood then why it was so famous. Next, we walked down to the incredible Crown Fountains that my kids and the local kids loved (grown ups too, really!). It was a hot day, so perfect to play in the water and then get doused by a huge spray of water out of the mouth of a gigantic face displayed on a tall rectangular tower made of glass block. We learned there are 1000 different faces displayed, all them Chicago natives. After that, we stopped at the magical Maggie Daley playgrounds also in Millenium Park. I highly recommend this playground to anyone with kids. Josie loved climbing up a wooden tower and running across a huge wooden bridge and sliding down seven silver wide slides all in a row.
After that, we walked even more to Navy Pier. I recommend renting a bike right at Millenium Park, versus what we did. We were worn out, but headed straight to Billy Goat Tavern, another Chicago classic, and got Italian Beef subs served with hot peppers and au jus, fries and frosty cold Pepsis. Just what we needed! After dinner, we took a Skyline Lake boat tour with the handy Go City Pass. It took us around Navy Pier and had nice, recorded fun facts about the Pier and Lake Michigan. After the tour, we went on four carnival rides including the Ferris Wheel. On the way back, we walked along the lake. At one point, there was what looked like a parade. Tons of people were walking the same way with feather boas and rhinestone sunglasses. I asked a couple where everyone was headed, and they were headed to an Elton John concert. Fun way to end the day.
The last day, we went to the Planetarium and hung out by the lake. The kids were tired that day, so they wanted to head back and relax. Josie and I went to the swimming pool and we had Chipotle for dinner. Every night we watched The Shark Tank on TV and relaxed on our beds. Good times in Chicago. I highly recommend a visit.
