Playing Tourist at Home in Chicago

It is hopeless for the occasional visitor to try to keep up with Chicago-she outgrows his prophecies faster than he can make them. She is always a novelty; for she is never the Chicago you saw when you passed through the last time.- Mark Twain "Life On The Mississippi," 1883

Chicago sprawls for miles along the shores of Lake Michigan. Thanks to excellent urban planning after the Great Fire of 1870, the city maintains an easily understood grid of streets, has some of the best public transportation in the country, and is a popular place to do big business. A number of major attractions such as the Sears Tower, various pro sports teams, major museums, and great culture are so thick on the map that your average tourist could be kept busy for a year or more.

Did you know that Chicago has the ...
... largest collection of Impressionist paintings outside the Lourve (Chicago Art Institute)
... world's largest dental library (American Dental Association library)
... world's largest library (Harold Washington Library)
... world's largest indoor aquarium (Shedd Aquarium)
... world's first fireproof hotel (Palmer House Hilton, 1875)
... world's largest cookie and cracker factory (Nabisco; in 1995 they made 16 billion Oreo cookies!)
... world's largest parking garage (O'Hare Airport)
... world's largest ornamental fountain (Buckingham Fountain)
... world's largest contemporary art museum (Museum of Contemporary Art/MCA)
... world's first mail-order business (Montgomery Wards, founded 1872 and still going!)
... world's first Ferris Wheel (World's Colombian Exposition, 1893)
... world's largest mosaic Tiffany dome - which is also the first dome ever built in iridescent glass (Marshall Field's)
... world's largest glass Tiffany dome (Chicago Cultural Center)

Did you know that Chicago is home to the ...
... only river to flow backwards (Chicago River, reversed 1900)
... first skyscraper (Home Insurance Building, 1885, 9 stories, no longer standing)
... first planetarium in the Western Hemisphere (Alder Planetarium)
... first McDonald's (Des Plaines, 1955)
... first controlled atomic reaction (University of Chicago, December 2, 1942)

I never tire of exploring Chicago. There are things to discover around every corner, shops and restaurants waiting to be found, parks to enjoy, buildings to admire. Five years here and I've barely scratched the surface of exploring this great city!

Quick Tips:

Top source for what's hip and happening in Chicago is the Chicago Reader, which is available as a free weekly paper distributed throughout Chicago.

You can also find a good source for information at Metromix online.

The two best places to start looking for tourist information in town would be the Chicago Cultural Center at 78 E. Washington Street, Chicago, open daily (hours vary; open 10am most days through 5pm). Need to be out and about a little earlier in the day? Visit the tourism information office at the Water Tower, 163 E. Pearson Avenue (corner of Michicgan Avenue), which is open 7:30am-7pm daily, and which also offers a souvineer shop and theatre tickets.

Chicago is reasonably safe if you use your head - typical warnings like guard your belongings etc, apply here just like anywhere, for locals and tourists alike. Get directions on where you are going, know the route you are going to take, and stay alert.

Best Way To Get Around:

Parking is expensive in Chicago, as well as limited, so it is best to take advantage of the excellent public transportation system and plentiful taxis. Start your trip planning at the CTA (Chicago Transit Authority) website.

Subway service is available to both major airports (O'Hare, Midway). Chicago is served by most major airlines, and United and American both have hubs here.

As I have lived in Chicago several years now and my folks have come to visit enough, we have been to all the major attractions, so now we seek out lesser-known places to explore. When looking through the local events calendar on metromix.com, we found an exhibit listed for the history of optical glasses being shown at the International Museum of Surgical Science and decided to check it out.

The IMSS is housed in a historical lakeside mansion on Lake Shore Drive, and is designated as a landmark, so if you are interested in architecture but not surgery, you may still find the museum worth a visit. The IMSS building is the only remaining lakefront mansion that is open to the public and gives a glimpse into early 20th century societal values - the building was erected in 1917 by Eleanor Robinson Countiss for her family and is based on the designs of Le Petit Trianon, which is a building on the grounds at Versailles. It was transformed into the museum in the early 1950's but still retains much of the original interior design such as decorative plaster work, marble fireplace, library, gilded metal staircase railing, and finishes of Italian marble and cut stone.

The museum has over 20 exhibit galleries, which range from a turn of the century apothecary shop, to an early 20th century dentist office, a cardiovasualar exhibit, and a polio exhibit, as well as lecture space, rotating exhibition space and an art gallery on the top floor. Several rooms are dedicated to the history of medicine in particular countries, but those exhibits are slowly being integrated into more overreaching exhibit topics such as radiology, anesthesia, heart surgery, and orthopedics.

The Hall of Immortals contains several statues of noteworthy historical surgical figures from history, such as Hippocrates and Pasteur. The Hall of Immortals was for me one of the more interesting galleries in the museum, as the statues are accompanied by an essay about each person's major contributions towards surgery. I also found the polio exhibit with its "iron lung" interesting. And while some might find it gross, we found the stones exhibit, a singular display case on the 4th floor, pretty interesting - it displayed a variety of stones (such as gallbladder stones) that had been removed from people's bodies. One was at least as big as a baseball!

As you walk through the museum and see the huge strides that medicine has made, it makes you relieved to live in the world of 21st century medicine, and certainly makes you appreciate your health!

When you're in Chicago, it's hard to miss the Sears Tower, which is the huge black building dominating the southern skyline, standing 1,450 feet high. Even when you're miles away from downtown, on clear days you can see the Tower on the horizon - which is not surprising, as from the Skydeck you can see 40-50 miles on a clear day.

Both the Sears Tower and the Hancock Center observation decks underwent revamps in the past few years. The new Sears exhibits are at times a bit cheesy, although informative. But you don't really come to the Sears Tower for exhibits - you come for the view. And what a view - at least on a clear day - taking in Illinois, Wisconsin, Michigan and Indiana.

To visit the Skydeck, you enter the building through a seperate entrance on West Jackson street, between S. Wacker and S. Franklin, which is located in the southwest area of the downtown Loop. (If you get lost, just look up!). I have found that unlike the Hancock, there is always a queue to wait in at the Sears Tower, which can average anywhere from 20 minutes to an hour, although apparently if you go late in the day, after 4pm, there is less of a wait. Due to post-9/11 security measures, expect to spend some time going through a security checkpoint. The Skydeck opens at 10am and is open until 10pm during the summer, 8pm the rest of the year. Plus, in the evening you can see some really great sunset views of the city and surroundings.

I personally like the Hancock's views of the lake better, but from the Sears Tower you can really see a lot of Chicago's major landmarks, such as Grant Park, the Museum Campus, the newly remodelled Soldiers Field, and more. On a clear day it really is quite impressive and worth a visit. On overcast days, your time is better spent elsewhere, as the extreme height of the building means that the top is in clouds when much else of the city is not.

As mentioned, the new exhibits can at times be a little cheesy, but they're very kid-friendly and give interesting insight into the building of what was formerly the world's tallest tower, as well as city history.

Adult admission $9.95, children $6.95. Look for discount coupons in tourism magazines or visit the Visitor's Center at the Water Tower for a Chicago coupon book.

The Art Institute of Chicago is home to one of the finest collections of art in the Western Hemisphere, including the largest collection of Impressionist works outside the Louvre.

The Art Institute welcomes a new director this year (James Cuno) and also has changed a long-standing Chicago favorite: the Tuesday free admission day will no longer be the night they are open late. Instead, extended hours will be on Thursdays. The museum is open daily except Thanksgiving and Christmas, from 10:30am to 4:30pm weekdays and 10:30am to 5pm on weekends. The Art Institute has a "suggested admission" policy, which means "Pay what you wish but you must pay something." Adults suggested admission has been raised to $12.

The Art Institute is located on the west side of Grant Park in the heart of Downtown. From the main entrance on Michigan Avenue, you are presented with several choices of directions. The museum is basically shaped like a giant "E". To your right, as you enter, is the Museum Shop, an extensive and high quality gift shop (for which you can also shop via Internet). However, all exhibits are beyond the entry desk, either up the Grand Staircase or beyond it.

Downstairs, there is the Garden Restaurant, which is good although a little pricey (as most museum cafés tend to be), the Textiles hall, an extensive paperweight collection (I love this gallery - I find glass working fascinating), European Decorative Arts, Architecture, Photography, and various classroom/workshop spaces. I have not been through these rooms as much, but there are some very nice pieces here. (You’d think that somebody who loves photography as much as I do would have, at least, seen the Photography gallery!)

On the entry level, close to the entrance, you will find the African and Ancient American galleries, Contemporary Art, and the Oriental galleries (Chinese, Japanese and Korean). To reach the Sculpture Court, American, Indian/Southeast Asian, and Ancient (Egyptian/Greek/Etruscan/Roman) galleries, you walk through the Arms and Armor exhibit. I love the AI's Arms & Armor exhibit - it's probably my favorite part of the museum. There is a fairly sizeable collection, with one of their most noteworthy pieces being a set of ornate Italian inlaid armor.

Upstairs, you can find their extensive European, Impressionism/post-Impressionism, and Modern galleries, as well as their Special Exhibitions hall, which plays hosts to several major exhibitions per year. In fact, the AI is often the solitary American stop on some major art tours. Some past exhibits the Art Institute has hosted have included Monet and the Sea, a Rembrandt perspective, Van Gogh and Gauguin, and Chinese arts.

The best times to go for a visit are weekdays afternoons, when the school tours have gone for the day and you'll find the museum is a bit quieter. Allow a minimum of 2 hours for your visit - there is lots of wonderful art to be explored!

The Bahá'í House of Worship as you drive north along Sheridan Drive in Wilmette. Although ground was broken here in 1912, construction did not actually begin until 1920 and the building was completed in 1953 - thus making it the oldest of the current Houses of Worship. Called the "Mother Temple of the West," this gorgeous building rises majestically from its lakeshore property as if it were constructed of fairy lace, surrounded by beautiful gardens, the sun reflecting off the ornate crystal concrete, which is inscribed both inside and out with the teachings of Bahá'u'lláh. It is certainly one of the most striking pieces of architecture in the country, serene in nature, and a beautiful piece of art.

The construction material is called 'crystal concrete' because it consists of crushed clear and white quartz crystals – the heavier base work tapering up to the filigree dome feels at once bound to the earth and yet soaring towards the heavens. Its filigree work had to undergo some restoration in recent years, and workmen had to be specially trained to work with the material that makes up much of this House of Worship. The 10-year project is nearly complete (as of writing), and the House of Worship has been lovingly repaired where needed.

You do not need to be Bahá'í to worship here - they welcome people of all faiths. Their faith teaches that there is one God who has progressively shown His will to the world through messengers (Moses, Krishna, Buddha, etc), and each religion being another step in the spiritual growth of the world, shaped more from the time at which they arose than true differences in faith (such as methods of worship, etc). There are no sermons, rituals or clergy - devotional programs are instead constructed of mediations, reading selects from sacred text, and prayers, with music in the form of unaccompanied choirs.

There is a tremendous sense of peace and tranquility within the building. Although you are mere steps away from a busy road, the noise of the outside world rarely intrudes within. Whether you come here to worship or merely from curiosity, the House of Worship makes you feel welcomed.

The auditorium (worship) area of the temple is open 7am-8pm daily, visitor center and bookstore hours 10am-8pm.

Bahá'í House of Worship
1233 Central St
Evanston, IL 60201
(847) 869-9039