PHOTO: The Rush Street area near Division Street is a great center of restaurants, including many outdoor cafes, which hardy Chicagoans enjoy as soon as the hard winter starts to lose its hold.
The hardest thing about visiting Chicago is choosing from the mutitude of great things to do.
If you're staying in downtown Chicago, the first thing you have to do when you get to Chicago is get to Chicago.
If you are arriving at O'Hare Airport around rush hour, that will take you about an hour, unless you can fly. As you fight traffic you will see everyone else from the highest rollers on down involved in the same struggle as you.
You will see businessmen with heads in hands as they sit waiting for traffic to move while they struggle hopelessly to make business appointments on time, people who look like they may be sleeping in between chances to move, others who appear to be having nervous breakdowns or just silent meltdowns. Some will have their radios up loud enough to share their music with you, but all share silently in the frustrating crawl of the automotive migration from airport to the inner city. Don't time your flight to arrive around rush hour.
If you arrive off rush hour, the 18-mile drive should take about a half hour.
There is an alternative to driving. For really smart people there is the train. Chicago Transit Authority's Blue Line, which takes 40 to 45 minutes and enables you to avoid the rush hour traffic. The train is only about $5. A taxi costs about $40 and when you're sitting in traffic the meter will still be churning. A shuttle van costs about $25.
Once you are in downtown Chicago, you can forget your troubles. You are in a modern urban paradise. Chicago is one of the greatest of American cities, a jewel to look at with no end of things to do. The hardest thing to do will be to choose. Here are a few suggestions of things to take in while you are there.
The Art Institute of Chicago is one of the great art museums, showing work from ancient to modern times. It's the second largest collection in the U.S. and the top collection of Impressionists.
The Museum of Science and Industry is a gigantic collection of wonders connected with every aspect of science and a constantly revolving selection of new exhibits, such as a current exhibition of Treasures of the Walt Disney Archives, including drawings, props and costumes from Disney animation.
The Field Museum of Natural History is a gigantic collection with more than 26 million artifacts, including Sue, the world's largest T Rex skeleton, and 23 Egyptian Mummies.
The Navy Pier is in the eastern end of Streeterville area in the Near Northside area and is a 50-acre lakefront territory with shops, restaurants, a giant ferris wheel, an iMax Theater, The Chicago Children's Museum and many more attractions and things to do in this city within the city.
The Magnificent Mile is a great section on the northern end of Michigan Avenue beginning where Lake Shore Drive turns east along the lake front and ending at the Michigan Avenue Bridge over the Chicago River. The beginning of the strip is marked by the 100-story John Hancock tower, one of Chicago's most magnificent skyscrapers, followed by Water Tower Place, a gigantic shopping mall with 74 stories.
Millennium Park is a giant inner city park that offers free concert performances in its magnificent band shell
Rush Street near where it crosses Division Street is a great area for restaurants and bars, with a great variety of choices and many outdoor cafes when the weather is nice, which happens much sooner in spring for the hearty Chicagoans than most visitors accustomed to warmer climates.
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