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Navy Pier
Ride the Ferris Wheel and see Chicago on this 15 story-high ride. Play in the Amazing Chicago’s Funhouse Maze and experience the sights and sounds of Chicago life. Spend time shopping at Barbara’s Bookstore, Build-A-Bear Workshop, Navy Pier Store, The Sports Store and many others. Navy Pier also has great places to eat such as Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. & Marketplace, Chango Loco Mexican Cantina, Billy Goat Tavern & Grill and Capi’s Italian Kitchen. And if you can, experience a dinner cruise, shoreline sightseeing or a Seadog Speedboat ride available at the Pier!
Magnificent Mile Shopping
Shopping The Magnificent Mile, the northern part of Michigan Avenue between the Chicago River and Lake Shore Drive, is Chicago’s version of the Champs-Elysees: a grand wide boulevard with exclusive shops, museums, restaurants and ritzy hotels.
Grant Park
This park is Chicago’s principal downtown park. It is located between Michigan Avenue and Lake Michigan. The main attraction in Grant Park is the Clarence Buckingham Fountain. The fountain was commissioned in 1927 by Kate Buckingham to honor her late brother Clarence.
Medieval Times Dinner and Tournament
Choose the royal treatment and partake of a fine, four-course ringside feast at Chicago Castle, where serving serfs and wenches attend your every need while you dine! The kicker? No silverware allowed! Each show begins with a greeting from the King and his daughter, Princess Catalina, and every guest must support their Knight’s colors as he participates in a variety of thrilling activities of the day such as falconry, jousting, ring piercing and foot combat by donning a color-coded crown; enthusiastic cheering and boisterous booing heartily encouraged!
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Shedd Aquarium
The Shedd is a city treasure and well deserving of its title as the world’s largest indoor aquarium. The Caribbean Coral Reef entertains spectators with divers feeding nurse sharks, barracudas, stingrays, and hawksbill sea turtles. A crew of friendly trainers puts dolphins through their paces of leaping dives, breaches, and tail walking at the Oceanarium. And a visit to the Wild Reef-Sharks at Shedd brings you up close and personal to sharks and other predators as you observe them through a floor to ceiling window.
The Art Institute of Chicago
The Art Institute is a must see. The Impressionist collection includes one of the world’s largest collections of Monet paintings. You’ll also find Seurat’s masterpiece, Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte. In the gallery of American contemporary art visitors are often surprised to find both Grant Wood’s American Gothic and Edward Hopper’s Nighthawks. Also the great hall of European arms and armor has more than 1,500 objects including armor, horse equipment, swords and daggers, pole arms, and maces which is very impressive. The gift shop offers many of these paintings on t-shirts, mugs, tote bags, ties, and stationery.
Millennium Park
This is Chicago’s most remarkable new public space. During the summer the park has free events and concerts featuring the City’s most talented performers and artists at the Pritzker Pavilion. Groups can also explore Cloud Gate. A 110-ton elliptical sculpture which reflects the city’s famous skyline and the clouds above. The Crown Fountain is a 50 ft. tall glass block tower with water cascading down the sides. Kids get their feet wet in the water or completely cool off by standing next to the fountain and let the water run over them. Watch as the side of the fountain changes from faces (of people of Chicago) to nature scenes. Or walk the BP Bridge. It is a 925 foot long winding bridge which provides incomparable views of the city’s skyline, Grant Park and Lake Michigan. Grab a bite to eat or an ice cream from one of the vendors in the park. Also there are souvenir shops which sell exclusively Millennium Park items.
Sears Tower Skydeck
Having the tallest observation deck in the city is just the beginning of the Tower’s allure. The visibility from the Skydeck is up to fifty miles when the weather’s clear. And powerful binoculars help you take it all in. After watching the city from the top, step inside for greater detail on what you’ve seen, including exhibits on the famous architecture, information on popular landmarks, and all kinds of discovery through interactive computers.
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Museum of Science and Industry
This exciting museum has three floors of more than 800 exhibits. Among the many exhibits are a WWII German U-505 submarine, the Apollo 8 Commando Module, a cantilevered Boeing jet, a British Spitfie plane and a 1914 Ford Model T. The museum also has a large section on the human body. Among the items on display is a 20ft tall walk-through model of a heart and there’s also a permanent exhibit covering AIDS. The energy section includes a reconstruction of a 1933 Illinois coal mine which allows people to descend 50 ft into the mine. In the environmental section there is an interactive display explaining the ozone layer and pollution. Other attractions include a Fairy Castle (a dollhouse with working electricity and plumbing), a 3,000 sq ft model railroad, an Omnimax theater, flight simulators and even a baby chick hatchery. This is why the museum attracts more than two million visitors a year.
The Field Museum
Spend about three hours at the Field Museum without one minute of boredom as you walk through scores of permanent and temporary exhibits spread over nine acres of floor space. First see the largest, most complete Tyrannosaurus rex fossil ever unearthed named Sue for the paleontologist who found the dinosaur in 1990 in South Dakota. The real skull is so heavy that a lighter copy had to be mounted on the skeleton and the actual one is displayed nearby. Visitors can explore aspects of the day-to-day world of ancient Egypt, viewing 23 actual mummies and realistic burial scenes, a living marsh environment and canal works, the ancient royal barge, a religious shrine, and a reproduction of a typical marketplace of the period. The Underground Adventure is a “total immersion environment” populated by giant robotic earwigs, centipedes, wolf spiders, and other subterranean critters. That and much more can be seen at the Field Museum of Natural History.
Broadway Play
Every performer’s loftiest dream is to reach Broadway, and in order for a show to be considered, it must be of the highest caliber! Discover on your tour what it takes to get to the top and how the best actors and actresses manage the pressures of show biz. Broadway constantly produces hits, some of which have been: The Phantom of the Opera, The Lion King, Les Miserables, Cats, Annie, Hairspray, Grease, Fiddler on the Roof and many many more!