Leaving In a Week! Help!

My husband has a course in Rolling Meadows beginning next Friday moning and ending Saturday afternoon. We get into OHare Thursday at Noon, April 30th. Our two teenagers, 16 and 18 will be with us. We are staying at the Holiday Inn in Rolling Meadows 3405 ALGONQUIN, as course is there.

Planning on changing hotels to one in the city Saturday afternoon. I was thinking Embassy Suites, as our oldest and his girlfriend may stay with us Sat and Sunday night (he lives in St. Charles). Although I did find great deals at Hotel Sax Chicago and Hotel Monaco both for 119 per night on Travel Zoo.

I am planning on taking the kids into the city on Friday and Saturday. A couple of ideas are Shedds Aquar. and the Museum of science and history. Then on Sunday do Navy Pier with husband too. We do want to eat at Giandaoros (spelling) and maybe an Irish place? Also, Sat night I think we all may catch a Second City Show????

Tons of Questions! Should the kids and I take a train into the city on Friday and Saturday? We are renting a car, but unsure about parking and getting around the city (city driving does not bother me). If using public transports should I purchase some kind of discount card? Also, should I get GoCards for the kids and myself?

What should we not miss? We did Sears tower a couple of years ago when we stopped in Chi-town for a few hours. What sites, restuarants, geeze just everything!

Our flight leaves for home Monday at 1:00 from ohare...

Leaving In a Week! Help!

www.metrarail.com is what you%26#39;ll take from the %26#39;burbs into the city. They have a great deal for weekend tickets. The bad news is that trains run about every two hours on Saturday.

An alternate suggestion would be to drive to either Rosemont or Cumberland CTA blue line train station. Parking%26#39;s available at both. CTA trains run more often than Metra. www.transitchicago.com for details.

The other thing to consider is that the MSI is 7 miles south of downtown. Also, you need to allow at least a 1/2 day for a visit there.

If you%26#39;re pressed for time, you might want to bite the bullet and drive first to the MSI and head downtown from there. Yes, you%26#39;ll need to pay for parking twice. But what%26#39;s your time worth?

Lots of information at www.explorechicago.org

Dining search tool at www.chicagoreader.com

Leaving In a Week! Help!

Shedd is OK but tends to attract huge crowds with many small kids running around....be prepared that your teenagers might not love it. Navy Pier is a good teenager scene, and so is Lincoln Park, like walk down Armitage, up Lincoln or Halsted. Likewise Michigan Ave and the Beach Scene...head north of the river along the lakefront. Field Museum is world class as is the Art Museum. Giordanos for Pizza or Malnatis or Pizza Uno or Due or....Deep dish.

Hotels you mention are all good.

ZB

If you are going to Second City on a Saturday, get your tickets ASAP. They usually sell out the early show on Saturday.

I would not go through the hassle of trying to do Shedd and MSI, the distance is too far apart to enjoy either one fully. If you must do Shedd, I would pair it with either the Adler Planetarium or the Field Museum and then a nice short hike down to Millenium Park.

I agree, get your tickets to SC early.

16 and 18 yr olds.........espn zone downtown.....red line to addison and see wrigley field and all around that area. Maybe do that Fri. afternoon. Museums and aquarium will probably be busy. Just people watch on Michigan Avenue...there is a Burton store by Hancock building that teenagers might like. Also the view from Hancock is good (and free) sears tower charges.

The Hancock Observatory is not free. hancock-observatory.com/en/…general_info.html

Stand corrected....we usally enter off the side road and go to the lounge. Sorry.

We just took our kids to Chicago for a day over spring break to visit the Field Museum and the Museum of Science and Industry. Our kids are 16yo girl and 14yo and 9yo boys.

Half a day was enough time for us to see the Field Museum, but we%26#39;ve been there before about 8 years ago so it wasn%26#39;t completely new. I personally think even kids your boys%26#39; ages will enjoy seeing it for at least part of a day. There is also a special Pirates exhibit that my kids REALLY wanted to see, but I vetoed it due to cost (it%26#39;s an extra fee) and because we didn%26#39;t have a lot of time.

MOSI is a hit for our entire family as well - although a few things are geared towards younger kids, it%26#39;s not a ';children%26#39;s museum';. I actually think my husband enjoyed it more than anyone though.

We live about 3.5 hours away, so drove into town and parked first at Soldier Field to go to the Field Museum ($16) then drove to MOSI and parked there (another $16). Drive was very easy between the two museums, although price wise we would have been better off taking the bus back and forth between them than paying parking at both locations. It was worth the extra cost for the convenience for us that day though.

I%26#39;m sure my kids would love the aquarium, but it wasn%26#39;t in the budget this time. We actually made the trip because we have annual passes to another Science museum, and can get into the Field Museum and MOSI for free w/ reciprocal museum arrangements. This might be worth looking into if you have a local science museum of some sort - could very well be cheaper to buy an annual pass at a local museum before heading to Chicago - the at-the-door prices can get fairly expensive.

I can%26#39;t say anything about Navy Pier because we%26#39;ve never visited there, only drove past - but we%26#39;ll get intimately acquainted w/ it this summer becasue my daughter as a huge volleyball tourney actually on the pier in June - looking forward to that trip!

Also, if your boys are at all interested in baseball and they%26#39;ve never been to a Cubs game, I%26#39;d highly consider doing that too - we go every few years and it%26#39;s a great experience, win or lose :)

Have a wonderful trip!