Diary of my recent Chicago trip

[yellman]

I had asked for info on what to see and do in Chicago from my fellow forum members. Here is a list of what I did.

We tried to accomplish a lot in just 6 short days. We wanted to see a bunch of stuff for the kids and also do a lot of shopping (outlet based).

First day we left Toronto at about 6:30 am. Went to Birch run outlets. Spent most of the time at Brooks and Polo outlet. Picked up a nice vest with with brookstorm for $60. Also a s140 wool vest for about $40. Polo had nothing that caught my eye on sale.

Arrived at Lighthouse outlets (recommend by a forum member). Pick up a rlpl white sweatpants ($40), Train silver cufflinks (really heavy $40) and a couple of other items. Found it odd that there is a smokestack that looks like a nuclear cooling tower and a max security prison all within a few hundred feet of the outlet.

The next part is a summary of our encounters

Affinia hotel: Geat location, no water pressure, showers were not hot enough, unfriendly staff

Field's museum: Very disappointing, one key dinosaur, 2 stuffed lions. not nearly up to par with my own city's ROM.

Nordstrom Rack: Went to 3 of them, none of the salespeople were worth anything, did not find any great deals.

Syms: no great deal

Gunree Mills: Great deals at nmlc, not so much at saks

Great Lakes Crossing: Only brooks brothers where the employee knew what was in the store. Small deals at nmlc, nothin at saks, brooks was good.

Pleasant Prairie outlet: Nothin great here

Museum of Science & Tech: Top notched museum, world class. U505 was highlight of trip, 10/10

Shedd Aquarium: Nice, did not like all the additional charges for exhibits.

Weber Resturant: Ok, nice concept, chicken was good 7.5/10

Portollio's Resturant: Nice concept, wanted a bigger hot dog 7.5/10

Giordano's resturant: awful food 2/10

Magnificent Mile: Nice, Greg at Saks very good.

Waterfront: 9/10 what Toronto should be

Nice vacation, decent shopping, science & Tech museum was great.

There you have it, thanks to everyone for your advice on what to do.

 

[Biggskip]

Did you make it to Oak St. at all?

If you go to Portillo's and don't get the Italian beef...well let's just say that you'll need to go back again.

Giordano's over Lou Malnati's?! For shame, sir, for shame.

I'm just kidding. I love Chicago and hope you had a good time. Sorry the shopping didn't pan out as well as you had hoped.

 

[yellman]

we were goin from the moment we woke up till we passed out. I had 2 young kids to drag everywhere. I would go back to portillio's, not sure I would try pizza near chicago again. Even at weber we tried the pizza and did not like it. We would go back though.