Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
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Michigan Avenue Bridge
Walk nor th along M ichigan A venue and
you'll come to this bridge, which spans the
Chicago River. Stop here for a great photo
op looking west to the ne west addition to
the city's skyline, the Trump International
Tower and Hotel.
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The Magnificent Mile
The 14-block stretch of Michigan Avenue
from the river to Oak Street, known as the
“Magnificent Mile,” is shopping central, a
dense concentration of high-rise malls,
designer boutiques, and practically ev ery
mass-market clothing brand. R estaurants
also abound: O ne perennial kid-pleaser is
The Cheesecake F actory,
on the lo wer
level of the J ohn H ancock Center. Walk
off that rich cheesecake with a str oll along
Michigan Avenue, going north toward the
lakefront walking path.
Although y ou
won't see the sun set over the lake (remem-
ber, the lake is always to the east), the
colors can be spectacular anyway. (On the
other side of the lake, those in M ichigan
and Indiana have the opposite vie w: They
never see the sun rise o ver the lake, only
set.) See p. 208.
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The Hancock Observatory
The view from the top of Chicago's third-
tallest building is enough to satisfy , but
some high-tech additions ar e her e to
enhance y our experience. “ Talking tele-
scopes” pr ovide sound effects and narra-
tion in four languages; histor y walls
illustrate the gr owth of the city; and the
Skywalk open-air vie wing deck—a
“screened por ch”—allows visitors to feel
the r ush of the wind at 1,000 feet. Kids
can also check out the building 's infra-
structure on computers and find 80 Chi-
cago attractions on virtual-reality television
screens, or take a multimedia “ sky tour.”
See p. 175.
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in 1944 and br ought to the museum 10
years later. Your kids will undoubtedly join
the legions who hav e been fascinated b y
the claustr ophobic r eality of under water
naval life. The full-scale Coal Mine, which
dates back to 1934, no w incorporates
modern mining techniques into the
exhibit. M ore lo w-tech—but fun for
kids—are
The Farm
(where children can
sit at the wheel of a giant combine) and
the
chick hatcher y
inside the exhibit
Genetics: Decoding Life.
Here, you can
watch as tiny ne wborn chicks poke their
way out of eggs. G irls (myself included)
tend to lo ve
Colleen Moore's Fairy Cas-
tle,
a lavishly decorated miniatur e palace
filled with priceless tr easures. ( Yes, those
are real diamonds and pearls in the chan-
deliers.) When you've worked up an appe-
tite, you can visit the F ood Court, which
has an ex cellent selection of amazingly
healthy and tasty choices—follo w it up
with a decadent stop at F
innegan's I ce
Cream Parlor. See p. 170.
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The Art Institute
The Ar t I nstitute goes the extra mile to
help kids get thr ough a fe w hours her e
without even a hint of boredom. With the
addition of the Modern Wing (it opens in
spring 2009), ther e will be an ev en larger
space for families. The R yan E ducation
Center, which co vers the entir e first floor
of the east pavilion of the M odern Wing,
is dedicated to kids, with its own galleries,
studio space, and more. Even better is the
fact that families can enter the space with-
out paying admission to the museum—an
amazing deal! Another kid fav orite is
the Thorne M iniature R ooms, with its
tiny r eproductions of furnished interiors
from European and American histor y. See
p. 178.
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