Chicago

[Dan Murphy]

Lou Manalti's won out. DH liked the idea of a lot of cheese.

Michigan Ave or Wells? Same thing there, crumbled or patty.

Enjoy one of Chicago's best!

 

[tarheelmjfan]

Holy mackerel, Batman. Public parking in Chicago is ridiculous! Be prepared!

 

[Dan Murphy]

Holy mackerel, Batman. Public parking in Chicago is ridiculous! Be prepared!

$50?

 

[Sweettears]

Use spothero. Cost me $14 last weekend for 6 hours +

 

[momz]

Holy mackerel, Batman. Public parking in Chicago is ridiculous! Be prepared!

Yes it is. We usually park outside town and take the EL. You can get unlimited rides on the EL and the bus for $10 all day long.
Report back and let us know where you have been while in town.

 

[Sweettears]

As I said check out spothero.

 

[Dan Murphy]

As I said check out spothero.

Spothero is good, yes.

 

[tarheelmjfan]

Mini Review:

Friday: We arrived around 1:00 am. We were really tired, so we walked around the area near out hotel & called it a night. The hotel (Club Quarters Hotel Central Loop) was nice, clean & in a great location. Unfortunately, the customer service was seriously lacking.

Saturday: We started with an early lunch at Lou Malnati's on State Street, which we walked to from our hotel. The pizza was great, as was the service. It was a perfect start to our only full day in Chicago.

Next we went back for our car to drive to the river area for the boat tour. This was when we encountered the parking shock. The hotel website advertised $25, 24 hr. parking. The garage charged us $56. We ended up paying an additional $44 at the lot near the river. Yes, we paid $100 in parking alone on Saturday.

Next up was the Architecture Boat Tour that included the river & lake. One word of warning. It wasn't handicap friendly at all. If I'd had time to do more research, I wouldn't have booked it. I have really bad knees & there were a lot of steps. There was no elevator access that we could find. We asked several employees in the area, but apparently there isn't one. Since it was already booked & paid for, I went for it. I'm paying the price now, but I don't regret going on the tour. It was a fantastic tour!

After the tour, we walked The Magnificent Mile, including going by Millennium Park to see the Bean.

Next, we stopped by the bar at Michael Jordan's Steakhouse for appetizers & drinks. Trying to get as much of a taste of Chicago foods as possible, we tried the Italian beef eggrolls, which was as close to the Italian beef sandwich as we could get with limited time. If you've noticed my user name, you won't be surprised to hear this was a highlight for me. Unfortunately, we decided to head back toward our hotel instead of having a full meal there. (More on that later.)

By that time, my back & knees were toast. We hopped on a cycle rickshaw for the 1.2 miles back to the car, which was a really fun experience. $60 later, we were back in the car on the way back to the hotel.

This is where things went bad. We decided my walking was done, so we'd stay at the hotel for food & beverages. Elephant & Castle is in the lobby. I definitely wouldn't recommend this place for dinner. The service was the least attentive & most rude we've ever encountered. (Normally I don't hold service against a restaurant, because you can always get a bad server once. In this case, the food wasn't good either. The soup tasted canned as did the filling for the Shephard's pie.) My DH left furious & he's the most laidback person I know. He's the guy his company sends out to make nice with unhappy customers & even he couldn't handle this guy's attitude. Sadly, that experience left a bad taste in our mouths in more ways than one. We really should have stayed at MJ's restaurant for a complete meal, but we wanted to try as much as possible with our limited time in the city. Plus, DH was driving, which meant he couldn't relax with a couple cocktails at MJs. Oh well, you live & learn. I'm sure we'll have a lot of laughs over the experience someday.

Sunday: New day, new attitude. When checking out of the hotel, DH mentioned the parking situation to the first shift employee. It turns out the less than helpful guy on the night shift hadn't given us the card we needed to get the $25 price. We weren't the only ones. When coming back from dinner Saturday night, we saw a guy in the lobby going ballistic on the night shift crew over the parking situation. He appeared to mostly be mad that they were blaming anyone & everyone, but themselves. They even tried blaming him. Fortunately for us, the manager was there, when we were checking out. He tried to make it right by giving DH a pass for free parking for the 2nd night, so we only ended up paying $6 more than expected. No big deal.

Before leaving Chicago, we had to try a Chicago dog. Once again, we walked to State Street to give Devil Dawgs a try. The hotdog was different to say the least. We're glad we didn't leave the city, without giving it a try.

On the way back to the car, we stopped at the Printer's Row Art Festival & toured the booths.

Next up was the pièce de résistance. The United Center. Naturally, I couldn't leave Chicago without seeing & taking a picture of MJ's statue. Many pictures later we were on our way.

From there, we drove through Chinatown, then Greektown wishing we had time to tour both, especially Chinatown. During this drive, we encountered a walking parade & a lot of detours. That lead us to decide to leave the other sports stadiums for another day & hit the road toward Wisconsin. DH had to be at the jobsite early this morning.

Thanks again to everyone who offered suggestions to make our last minute trip a success overall.

 

[mjkacmom]

When we go to cities, if we don’t take public transportation in, we park our car (using parking apps) and leave it until it’s time to go home. We’re so close to NYC and only 1 1/2 hours to Philadelphia. Dd is in Boston and she asked about bringing a car, a week in and she said no way, the T works great. My sister used to live in Chicago until she had her 3rd and moved to the suburbs. DH loves Chicago hot dogs and gets one every trip there.

 

[tarheelmjfan]

When we go to cities, if we don’t take public transportation in, we park our car (using parking apps) and leave it until it’s time to go home. We’re so close to NYC and only 1 1/2 hours to Philadelphia. Dd is in Boston and she asked about bringing a car, a week in and she said no way, the T works great. My sister used to live in Chicago until she had her 3rd and moved to the suburbs. DH loves Chicago hot dogs and gets one every trip there.

We used to never drive our car in cities either. Unfortunately, my health has declined to the point where sometimes it's just easier to use our own car. As I said above, steps are a real problem for me. We also didn't have the time to figure out all the logistics of public transit there with the extremely limited amount of planning time I had & limited time to see as much of the city as possible.

ETA: We usually take Uber or Lyft these days, but driving ourselves allowed us to see more of the city for this short trip.

 

[gmi3804]

I suppose you can customize your order but it never comes to mind when I’m there. I like the cornbread crust of Gino’s which is my preference.

Cornbread?! ‘Medigan*, as grandpa would say!

*American

 

[gmi3804]

Holy mackerel, Batman. Public parking in Chicago is ridiculous! Be prepared!

Get the apps ParkWhiz and SpotHero. Huge discounts.

 

[Dan Murphy]

Mini Review:

Friday: We arrived around 1:00 am. We were really tired, so we walked around the area near out hotel & called it a night. The hotel (Club Quarters Hotel Central Loop) was nice, clean & in a great location. Unfortunately, the customer service was seriously lacking.

Saturday: We started with an early lunch at Lou Malnati's on State Street, which we walked to from our hotel. The pizza was great, as was the service. It was a perfect start to our only full day in Chicago.

Next we went back for our car to drive to the river area for the boat tour. This was when we encountered the parking shock. The hotel website advertised $25, 24 hr. parking. The garage charged us $56. We ended up paying an additional $44 at the lot near the river. Yes, we paid $100 in parking alone on Saturday.

Next up was the Architecture Boat Tour that included the river & lake. One word of warning. It wasn't handicap friendly at all. If I'd had time to do more research, I wouldn't have booked it. I have really bad knees & there were a lot of steps. There was no elevator access that we could find. We asked several employees in the area, but apparently there isn't one. Since it was already booked & paid for, I went for it. I'm paying the price now, but I don't regret going on the tour. It was a fantastic tour!

After the tour, we walked The Magnificent Mile, including going by Millennium Park to see the Bean.

Next, we stopped by the bar at Michael Jordan's Steakhouse for appetizers & drinks. Trying to get as much of a taste of Chicago foods as possible, we tried the Italian beef eggrolls, which was as close to the Italian beef sandwich as we could get with limited time. If you've noticed my user name, you won't be surprised to hear this was a highlight for me. Unfortunately, we decided to head back toward our hotel instead of having a full meal there. (More on that later.)

By that time, my back & knees were toast. We hopped on a cycle rickshaw for the 1.2 miles back to the car, which was a really fun experience. $60 later, we were back in the car on the way back to the hotel.

This is where things went bad. We decided my walking was done, so we'd stay at the hotel for food & beverages. Elephant & Castle is in the lobby. I definitely wouldn't recommend this place for dinner. The service was the least attentive & most rude we've ever encountered. (Normally I don't hold service against a restaurant, because you can always get a bad server once. In this case, the food wasn't good either. The soup tasted canned as did the filling for the Shephard's pie.) My DH left furious & he's the most laidback person I know. He's the guy his company sends out to make nice with unhappy customers & even he couldn't handle this guy's attitude. Sadly, that experience left a bad taste in our mouths in more ways than one. We really should have stayed at MJ's restaurant for a complete meal, but we wanted to try as much as possible with our limited time in the city. Plus, DH was driving, which meant he couldn't relax with a couple cocktails at MJs. Oh well, you live & learn. I'm sure we'll have a lot of laughs over the experience someday.

Sunday: New day, new attitude. When checking out of the hotel, DH mentioned the parking situation to the first shift employee. It turns out the less than helpful guy on the night shift hadn't given us the card we needed to get the $25 price. We weren't the only ones. When coming back from dinner Saturday night, we saw a guy in the lobby going ballistic on the night shift crew over the parking situation. He appeared to mostly be mad that they were blaming anyone & everyone, but themselves. They even tried blaming him. Fortunately for us, the manager was there, when we were checking out. He tried to make it right by giving DH a pass for free parking for the 2nd night, so we only ended up paying $6 more than expected. No big deal.

Before leaving Chicago, we had to try a Chicago dog. Once again, we walked to State Street to give Devil Dawgs a try. The hotdog was different to say the least. We're glad we didn't leave the city, without giving it a try.

On the way back to the car, we stopped at the Printer's Row Art Festival & toured the booths.

Next up was the pièce de résistance. The United Center. Naturally, I couldn't leave Chicago without seeing & taking a picture of MJ's statue. Many pictures later we were on our way.

From there, we drove through Chinatown, then Greektown wishing we had time to tour both, especially Chinatown. During this drive, we encountered a walking parade & a lot of detours. That lead us to decide to leave the other sports stadiums for another day & hit the road toward Wisconsin. DH had to be at the jobsite early this morning.

Thanks again to everyone who offered suggestions to make our last minute trip a success overall.

Thanks for your great Chicago visit review, MJ Fan. Too bad about the downside at your hotel. And the parking cost. Those apps listed above are good.

I had given you the more north side Malnati's locations, thinking you were staying more north than central.

Otherwise, sounds like a good visit. Glad you were able to get to MJ's and the UC. Can I ask where the fan side of you for MJ came from??

Hope you come back another time to do some of the things you missed this trip.

Cornbread?! ‘Medigan*, as grandpa would say!

*American

Not really cornbread crust, that would be interesting. But they do add some cornmeal, giving it just the right touch of that cornmeal sweetness. Yes, cornbread would be Italian Medigan for sure.

 

[Tink3815]

Thanks for the welcome, Dan. We're almost there. I know what you mean about not touring your own city. The only time we do touristy things, except for going to the beach, is when we have guests.

I just booked the architectural river cruise. I was afraid to wait, because it says, "likely to sell out".

Now I'm confused about which pizza place to go to.

We did that cruise about 5 years ago. Very interesting. Also enjoyed the open air bus tours .

 

[tarheelmjfan]

As I said check out spothero.

Get the apps ParkWhiz and SpotHero. Huge discounts.

Thanks to both of you for the suggestion. I'll definitely check those out when we visit a city & have enough time to map out the locations of the lots.

Thanks for your great Chicago visit review, MJ Fan. Too bad about the downside at your hotel. And the parking cost. Those apps listed above are good.

I had given you the more north side Malnati's locations, thinking you were staying more north than central.

Otherwise, sounds like a good visit. Glad you were able to get to MJ's and the UC. Can I ask where the fan side of you for MJ came from??

Hope you come back another time to do some of the things you missed this trip.

Not really cornbread crust, that would be interesting. But they do add some cornmeal, giving it just the right touch of that cornmeal sweetness. Yes, cornbread would be Italian Medigan for sure.

I'm originally from North Carolina. MJ was my childhood hero from the time he arrived in Chapel Hill.

 

[tarheelmjfan]

We did that cruise about 5 years ago. Very interesting. Also enjoyed the open air bus tours .

If we make it back to the city, we'll try the bus tour. Unfortunately, we really only had time for one tour this visit.

 

[Dan Murphy]

I'm originally from North Carolina. MJ was my childhood hero from the time he arrived in Chapel Hill.

Ahh, that explains it. How the heck did I miss that with your screen name.

 

[amusa]

I use to live in Chicago (Hyde Park).

You have the following
Navy Pier -S. Lake Shore Drive, Lake Michigan
Sears Tower oh wait the new name is Willis Towers - S. Wacker Drive
Buckingham Fountain - S. Columbus Drive

Pizza place
Giordano's - W. Jackson Blvd
Pizzeria Uno - E. Ohio Street

Polish Sausage and subs (walk up order window)
Jim's Original - S. Union Ave

For me I prefer Lemont area suburban area. It's more relaxed.

 

[Cadiewampus]

Thanks for the welcome, Dan. We're almost there. I know what you mean about not touring your own city. The only time we do touristy things, except for going to the beach, is when we have guests.

I just booked the architectural river cruise. I was afraid to wait, because it says, "likely to sell out".

Now I'm confused about which pizza place to go to.

Is the river cruise that goes through the lock and out on to lake michigan as part of the tour?

 

[gmi3804]

Is the river cruise that goes through the lock and out on to lake michigan as part of the tour?

River tours typically don’t go through the locks. While it’s cool to go through the locks, all the action on an architectural tour is on the river. Sure, it’s cool to see the skyline from the lake, but that eats up a lot of time and isn’t nearly as comprehensive about architectural wonders.