Chicago Bound in September!

I’m excitedly trying to plan our 5-day trip to Chicago. If you have suggestions — send them my way! Great restaurants? Architectural tours? Exhibits? Hotels? Air-bnb? What is new? What is always great?

This isn’t my first time in Chicago — I lived there when I was 5-9 years old. I have a special love for Gotham city. It was my first big city.  For a little girl from central Illinois Chicago was my NYC, my Paris. It was pulsing with life and excited all sorts of things inside me.

Over the years, I have buzzed through Chicago dozens of times for meetings and events. But this is the longest I will have been in Chicago in decades. I am excited to catch up with Chi-town and visit some of my favorite places!

Childhood memories of Chicago: being in the studio audience of the Bozo Show, going to the Field Museum, brunching at the top of the Water Tower Place, hanging out at the Drake Hotel, driving along Lake Shore Drive, the skyscrapers, walking along the Miracle Mile, the doll house at the art museum, going to the zoo, matinée plays and the Nutcracker. At night I would lay in my canopy bed with my radio —  creeping up and down the dial listening to the foreign radio stations.

So far — things I want to check out: Grant Park, Wicker Park, I want to take the L, search for the house Jonathan’s dad grew up in, take an architectural tour in a speed boat, have dinner or drinks in a skyscraper overlooking the city, have a picnic in Grant Park, go to Gem (a jewelry store a friend recommended), see the creepy boarding house from Devil in the White City, walk a lot, maybe go boot shopping, visit some friends and family. What ELSE should we do?