April 2013 Chicago Trip- Part 2

My husband and I recently took a pre-anniversary trip to Chicago. In case your missed part 1 of my recap, you can find it here. The remaining three days of our Chicago trip were a bit busier than the first two days.

DAY 3

Today we planned to visit Shedd Aquarium and the Adler Planetarium. We decided to start our day by having breakfast at Yolk. There are three locations in Chicago, and we visited the one on Michigan Avenue, near Grant Park. We parked at the Soldier Field parking garage, a $22 flat rate, and walked through Grant Park across Michigan Avenue to Yolk. Today was cold, in the low 40s for a high, but dry. It took 10-15 minutes to walk to Yolk, and we were quite cold by the time we got there. We arrived at 8:45am and where seated immediately.

Yolk is a breakfast lover's dream. The menu is expansive. We decided we were going to share our meals, so we picked from two different categories: omelets and pancakes. We ended up getting the Garden Delight omelet, which has tomatoes, spinach, asparagus and mushrooms (we omitted these) and is topped with cheese and sour cream; we got ours with red potatoes and wheat toast. We also ordered the Fruit and Nut pancakes, which are multigrain pancakes made with bananas and topped with strawberries and pecans.

The food was great. The portions were large and very filling. We couldn't even finish everything. As we had hoped, the meal kept us full for many hours. It was the perfect way to start our day.

After breakfast we walked back through Grant Park to the Shedd Aquarium. During our walk, we saw this interesting artwork on the way.

It was a cold, windy walk to the Shedd Aquarium. We redeemed our City Passes for our aquarium tickets, which included admission, one 4D film, an aquatic show and the Jellies exhibit. The aquarium was busy with a lot of school field trips. But we were still able to see all of the exhibits without having to wait too long at any of them. The Shedd Aquarium is large. We spent over three hours here.

I think I was spoiled last year when we visited Monterrey Bay Aquarium in California. Had I not been to this aquarium last year, I would have been more impressed with Shedd Aquarium. That is not to say that Shedd is not amazing, it is. It just comes in a strong second to Monterrey Bay Aquarium. I am still happy we went and I did enjoy my time there. The aquatic show was the last thing we saw while here, and it was an entertaining end to our visit.

After the aquatic show, we made our way to the Adler Planetarium, which was about a ten minute walk from the aquarium. It was between 1-1:30pm when we arrived, which ended up being the perfect time to go. Most of the school field trips we wrapping up their day when we got there, so it wasn't crowded at all. We saw a few exhibits and then grabbed a quick bite to eat in the planetarium cafe. I was pleasantly surprised to have several healthy options to choose from, including sandwiches and salads (quinoa, cous cous and other various salads). We split a turkey sandwich, then finished seeing the rest of the exhibits.

We enjoyed our time at the Adler Planetarium, but as a nurse interested in science and an aerospace engineer, unfortunately we felt like it is geared more towards school-aged children. What I enjoyed most was the historic Atwood Sphere, a large metal sphere with the constellations punched into it. It costs a little extra to see this, but it was included with our City Pass. You get to go inside the sphere for a presentation to see and learn about the different constellations. It was a unique experience. We also saw a 3D film that was included with the City Pass.

The planetarium was open until 4:30 today, and we stayed until almost-closing time. We then took a cold, windy walk back to the parking garage to our car and returned to our hotel to get ready for dinner.

This evening we had reservations at La Madia. I knew what I wanted before we even got here- the 3-hour Roasted Grape & Taleggio pizza. It was so tasty and different than any other pizza I've had before. We split an Italian Chopped Lettuces salad, which had pears, bleu cheese and spiced nuts, and after the pizza we shared a Chocolate Polenta Cake with Vanilla Gelato. The meal was wonderful. The service was top-notch. And, we witnessed a proposal while we dined. It was a wonderful evening and I highly recommend this restaurant. Also, a few weeks before our trip, I had signed up for La Madia's email list and a few days after, they sent me a coupon for $10 off my next visit, which was great.

This was a great day that ended on a high note.

DAY 4
Today we planned to visit the Field Museum, a natural history museum. I'd been told that you could spend hours here and not see everything it has to offer, so this was the only thing we planned to see today. We started off the day by having breakfast at Weber Grill. We wanted a large breakfast that would last us several hours so that we could just grab a small lunch at the museum today. We chose the Continental breakfast buffet, which was reasonably priced for an all-you-can-eat dining option. Following breakfast, we grabbed our car and headed to the Field Museum.

Today, instead of parking in the garage at Soldier Field, we decided to park in the lot adjacent to the Field Museum, since it is closer and would be less of a walk in the cold, windy weather. It unfortunately took us forever to get into this lot!  It is an unmanned lot, and it seemed to take each car at least 5 minutes to get through the automated pay system to get in. It was annoying to have to wait that long, but once we got our turn, it didn't seem to take us as long. I think this was because we paid the $22 fee in cash and not by credit card. Once we parked, we entered the back entrance and walked right up to get our tickets with no wait. The museum became busier throughout the day, but we never really had to wait very long to see any of the exhibits.

Our City Pass allowed us an all-access pass to the museum, so we wanted to have as much time there as possible. This included all permanent and travelling exhibits and a 3-D film.

My husband and I both have always been interested in dinosaurs and archeology. One of my favorite parts of the Field Museum was Evolving Earth exhibit, which takes you through 4 bilion years of life on earth. I also loved learning about the resident T-rex, Sue. She's the largest and most complete T-rex ever found. We chose to see the 3-D film on Sue as well.

The display of Sue's bones includes a replica of her head. Her actual head is so large, weighing in at 600 pounds, that it has to be displayed separately than the rest of her bones.

Another favorite part of our visit for me was seeing the Images of the Afterlife and Inside Ancient Egypt exhibits. I've always had a love for Egyptian history and the Field Museum's exhibits were impressive. Especially Inside Ancient Egypt- the exhibit was huge! Unfortunately we saw this exhibit at the end of our visit, and my feet were hurting after being here for five hours, so I admit I was a bit grumpy by this point. But, I still really enjoyed this part of the museum.

After spending five hours inside the museum, there were still some exhibits we didn't get to see. We could have stayed longer but my feet couldn't handle it anymore. Even stopping to have lunch at the museum cafe didn't provide enough relief for my feet, so we had to leave without seeing everything. However, we did get to see almost everything that we wanted to, including all the travelling exhibits except one- Living with Wolves.  We couldn't find it! We even asked at the information desk, and still couldn't find it. 

After leaving the museum, we headed back to the hotel to get ready for our dinner reservation at the restaurant in our hotel, Sable Kitchen and Bar. Sable is a gastro-lounge with an expansive bar and a small plates menu that is meant to be shared. The executive chef is Heather Terhune, of television's Top Chef Texas. The focus here is on local, organic food as much as possible.

We were pleased when we were seated in front of the open kitchen. It was fun to be able to see all the different dishes being prepared. Our server was very good, and he advised us that for two people, we would likely want to share 5-6 small plates. He also went through the different parts of the menu and gave us his suggestions. We decided to have the kale chips, fried cheese curds, rainbow salad, pierogies and mushroom burgers.

After we finished our last plate of food, we decided that we also wanted to share a flatbread, so we ordered the caramelized onion flatbread to share. Literally two minutes after we placed that order, a different server approached us with an extra order of scallops that were made, and offered them to us to try. My husband had never had scallops and I am not a fan of them, but we accepted the free dish so my husband could try them. He ended up really enjoying them.

This was our most expensive dinner of the trip but it was also our last and we wanted to fully enjoy ourselves. I think some of the items were overpriced ($12 for three pierogies!) but overall it was a fun experience with great food. The mushroom burgers had goat cheese with red onion jam and were probably the best veggie burger I've ever had. The food came out at a nice pace and not all at once. We never felt rushed. It was a great evening.

After dinner we headed up to our room to relax and finalize our plans for tomorrow.

DAY 5
Today was our last day in Chicago. We still hadn't seen much of the city itself due to the weather, so we wanted to make the most out of today. Since Weber Grill is right next door to our hotel, we decided to have breakfast there again today. Today we both had the full breakfast buffet, which included everything that the Continental did, plus hot items like eggs, meats, potatoes, and the option to order omelettes, waffles and more, at just a couple dollars more. The food was very good for a buffet. The service today was unfortunately a little spotty. Today my husband ordered waffles to be made while we went and helped ourselves to the buffet. We were actually done eating our first plates of food and heading up to get seconds when I saw a plate sitting there ready for pickup. We were almost done eating our second plates of food when our server came by and brought the check. My husband had to ask about the waffles to which we received "oh, let me go check, they should be up by now". Then he immediately returned with them. So yeah, he forgot and they were sitting there for who knows how long. Other than that, we enjoyed our filling breakfast. We then bundled up and took a short 10-minute walk down to the Chicago River.

It was only about 10am at this point, and while we contemplated taking a boat tour today, we decided that this early in the morning, it was just too cold to really enjoy it. So instead we spent some time exploring the Chicago River Walk. While we were, we stumbled upon the Chicago Vietnam Memorial.

After some time by the river, we headed back to our hotel to pack up and check out. After check out we stopped to fuel up for the ride home, but gas in the city was so much more expensive, we only got enough to get us onto the highway. We then detoured slightly so we could drive through Millennium Park. I was able to see the Cloud Gate sculpture and Crown fountain, but only in passing and wasn't able to get any pictures. We then made our way to Willis Tower, the former Sears Tower, to use up our City Passes and see the Skydeck Chicago. 

We parked in the self-park garage next to the tower. It costs $10 for 1 hour or less, or $20 for 1-3 hours.  You pay at the pay station when you are ready to leave.

Our City Passes gave us fast pass access to Skydeck, which allowed us separate access through security and into the line for the elevators to take us to the 103rd floor. Once on the Skydeck, the views are simply amazing. I'm so happy we waited for nice weather to visit Skydeck. 

All four sides of the Skydeck have floor to ceiling windows with breathtaking views of the city and beyond. We were able to see our hotel (well, it's location, the buildings around it were taller than our hotel so we couldn't see our actual building, but we knew it was there), the river, the lake, the museum campus... the whole city!

One side of the Skydeck has four ledges that extend 4-feet off the side of the building. We waited in line to experience this, and it only took us about 15 minutes for our turn. I don't have a fear of heights but I do have a fear of falling from heights, so I was fine until I happened to look down under my feet and could see the street. That made me nervous, but I managed to step onto the ledge long enough to have someone take our picture and then off I went. I'm happy I made myself do it though. I don't know that I'll ever get to experience something like that again. 

Remember when I said parking was $10 for 1 hour or less, or $20 for 1-3 hours? Well while we were waiting to experience the ledge, it dawned on me that we might actually be able to make it back to our car within the one hour, which would save us $10. After the ledge, we waited in line for the elevators down; this only took five minutes or so. Then we exited the elevators and were routed through a gift shop to get to the exit. Then, a second gift shop! I was starting to think we weren't going to make it in time after all. Finally we made it outside and jogged back to the car. I'm sure we were a sight to see! Then we had to find the pay station in the garage. After a few minutes, we found it and... success! We made it with literally four or five minutes to spare. It was hilarious how victorious this made me feel! We spent a lot during our stay on parking, so to save $10 was exciting!

This was the last thing we did before heading home. We arrived home around 8:30pm, then went to pick up our dog from grandma's house. She was so excited to see us, she almost knocked over my husband! It was a funny way to end our evening.

THE VERDICT

The weather was not our friend on this trip. Of course on our last day, the high was forecasted to be near 60 but we weren't able to stay long enough to really enjoy it. That said, we still enjoyed our trip very much. I do wish we were able to see more of the city (we had wanted to do a segway tour, boat tour and walking tour, but decided to wait until we had nicer weather to do these tours). We'll definitely being going back at some point so we'll just have to do these tours when we do. I can't wait! Overall, we enjoyed everything we did on this trip.

Here's what I'm thinking for the next trip:

Staying at Hotel Monaco

3 hour segway tour with City Segway Tours

Chicago Greeter walking tour (these are free!)

Chicago Architectural Foundation boat tour

Exploring Millenium Park

Breakfast at Wildberry Cafe
Dinner at Volare
Dinner at Sweetwater Tavern and Grille
Deep Dish Pizza at either Gino's East or Giordano's

Update:
We ended up going back to Chicago in May 2013. We are Kimpton In Touch members, and I received an email with a special for a third night free when you stay two nights, so I couldn't pass it up. We went back over Memorial Day weekend.

We stayed at Hotel Monaco. It was the perfect location for what we wanted to see during this trip. We had a few minor housekeeping issues during our stay, but overall we enjoyed this hotel. Of the two, I preferred Hotel Palomar more, but again, the location of Hotel Monaco was perfect for our itinerary for this trip.

During this trip, the weather was much better and we were able to enjoy the outdoor activities I had hoped to see during our first trip. We did a segway tour with City Segway Tours and took two free walking tours with the Chicago Greeter program (we did the 1-hour instagreeter tours: one of The Loop and one of Millennium Park, and they were both fantastic).

We also took an architectural boat tour with the Chicago Architectural Foundation, which we enjoyed very much.

The food during this trip was unfortunately not as enjoyable as it was during our first trip, though there were a few highlights.  We had room service from the South Water Kitchen our first night. The food was terrible. They forgot one of the toppings I ordered on my flatbread, the Caesar salad dressing tasted "off" and the dessert was overly sweet.

I had high hopes for the Sweetwater Tavern and Grille, as they had decent reviews on Tripadvisor. The food was decent, but the service was not. It was disappointing.  We had deep dish pizza from Giordano's, and again I was disappointed. I've decided I just don't care for deep dish pizza.

We ate two of our breakfasts at The Emerald Loop, which is right across the street from Hotel Monaco. It's a sports bar that offers daily buffet breakfast, which was satisfying and not too expensive.

The best food we had this trip was at Wildberry Pancakes & Cafe and at Noodles & Company. Wildberry is right near Millennium Park, and we attempted to have lunch there after our free tour of the park, but the wait was over 90 minutes. So instead, we went to Noodles & Company. Although they are a chain, it's a chain that we do not have here in my area, so it was new to us. It was tasty and satisfying.  The next morning we went early to Wildberry to have breakfast, around 7:30am. There was no wait at this time, but they were definitely getting busy by the time we were finishing up. We had the most amazing pancakes here.

While the food was overall mostly disappointing this trip, it was great to get to explore the outdoor activities that Chicago has to offer. Overall, between both trips, I feel like we were able to get a great feel for this city. I highly recommend a trip to Chicago, and hope to go back someday. Who knows, maybe I'll even be able to find some deep dish pizza that I enjoy!