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Re: chicago must-sees

Mark's looking for things to do in Chicago?  

Well, it all depends on how much time you have, and what your mode of transport
is.  Here are some of my recommendations, assuming public transport, walking and
cab are the available means:

It's a little clicheed, but you just *have* to go up the sears tower.  The view
is unbelievable.  And it will orient you to the rest of the city.  You should
probably wander through Daly plaza and take your hat off at the spot where the
Blues Brothers' car fell apart.  If you're into museums, the Art Institute,
Shedd Aquarium, Field Museum of Natural History, and the Adler Planetarium (my
personal favorite, but then, I'm an astrophysicist) are all within walking
distance of each other, and you can stroll past Buckingham Fountain along the
way.  Another fun thing to do is stand at the base of the south side of the
First National Bank, lean your back against the wall and look up.  The view is
great. ;-)

If you want to venture outside the loop, avoid the Magnificent Mile; all the
tourists go there.  It's just a bunch of overpriced department stores and
wanna-be trendy restaurants.  No, if you're venturing into the North Side, you
want to go much further north.  Go to wrigleyville and check out the Music Box
theater or the blues clubs along Clark or Lincoln.  The area around the Music
Box (on Southport, just north of Addison) seems to be undergoing a renaissance:
last time I was there, there were dozens of new restaurants.  Walking south
along Clark from Addison will take you past just about every kind of cuisine on
the face of the planet.  Mama Desta's Red Sea restaurant is wonderful (and
cheap) ethiopian food at Clark and Belmont, just a few blocks from Shuba's,
where OtR often plays.

But if you want authentic chicago food, get a hot dog at Demon Dogs on
Fullerton avenue (right under the L stop), or a stuffed pizza at Giordano's (a
chain that has stores all over the city).  Don't believe the Gino's East hype.
Stuffed Pizza is a chicago phenomenon, and I have never found it done right
outside the city (when I moved to Boston I bought a deep-dish pan so I could
make it myself.  Yum!  Calories galore!).  Oh, and make sure you do not ask for
catsup on a chicago hot dog!  Blasphemy!  I also recommend The Duke of Perth, a
really nice pub around 2900 N Clark.  All of Chicago is laid out on a grid
system, so places are usually cited in terms of coordinates.

Lincoln Park is a fun place to spend a weekend afternoon.  The zoo is free,
and the Chicago Historical Society is very interesting.  You can spend hours
walking through the park itself, if the weather's nice (I have).  There's a
Conservatory with interesting plants.  

There's *lots* of little, independent theater in Chicago.  The Live Bait
Theater on Clark might have a good show going on.  Check out The Chicago
Reader, the free newspaper that has absolutely everything going on in the city.
Good grief, is Too Much Light Makes the Baby Go Blind *still* going on????
Geez, it's been what, twelve years?  At least.  As I recall, they do 60 plays
in 30 minutes, or was it 30 plays in 60 minutes... anyway, and admission was
based on the roll of a die.  Very experimental (i.e. weird) stuff.  If you want
more mainstream fare, you could try to get tickets for the Blue Man Group.  The
Steppenwolf is also a world-class Chicago theater institution.

That's just scratching the surface of a few neighborhoods (I haven't even
touched the South Side, but it's safer if you have a guide on the south side;
you can wander into some *extremely* dangerous places if you don't know where
you're going; there's a lot of great history, restaurants, architecture and
culture on the south side, too.  Chinatown, Little Italy, Maxwell St., Pilsen,
Bridgeport, Back of the Yards, Hyde Park, all kinds of stuff.), but it's more
than enough to fill a weekend.

If you have any questions, just let me know.  I love that town!!!
-- 
Don Smith                           Robotic Optical Transient Search Experiment
donaldas at umich_edu                                 http://xte.mit.edu/~dasmith/

"Life is ... moments flabbergasted to be in each others' presence."  
        				     - "Speed" Levitch in _Waking Life_
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