Frank Sinatra sang that the Windy City was his “kind of town” (courtesy songwriters Sammy Cahn and James Van Heusen) and I have to agree.
This is just a quick post while I’m here this weekend for the fabulous SOBCon 07 blogging conference, which ends today.
We are out near O’Hare Airport, not downtown, but yesterday I did manage to run into the central Loop area on the “El” (elevated train, a transportation fixture here) for a couple of hours.
I’ve only been here once before, years ago, for a Navy engineering school at the nearby Naval Station Great Lakes. All that I had time for then was one afternoon walkaround plus an amazing outdoor concert with folkie Tracy Chapman and South African rocker Johnny Clegg.
This is such an open city, with rivers running through town, the ever-present breeze, polite people and amazing architecture. Do you know that I heard “Please, may I have….” about five times yesterday at various food service counters and transport stations? How nice, and unfortunately how unusual in some cities.
Later this summer I’ll be back here on a Midwest road trip with my teenager, and I promise to write lots of posts.
For now, you can see some Chicago info on my guest post over on Darren Cronian’s well-known Travel Rants blog in the UK. I highlighted five places in the U.S. that are off the beaten path; maybe they are familiar to North Americans, but they are not as well known to international visitors.
Besides Chicago/Door County, Wisconsin, I chose Providence RI/Block Island, north central Florida/Panhandle beaches, Portland/Astoria Oregon and Forth Worth/east Texas.
Stop by Travel Rants and visit!
Technorati tags: family travel, travel, Chicago
PRINT 
{ 2 trackbacks }
{ 5 comments }
Can I make a few suggestions?
See a game at Wrigley Field
Visit some historical sites on the Abraham Lincoln / Civil War tour
Visit Millennium Park and Cloud Gate
Go to Adler Planetarium and the rest of Museum Campus
Sheila:
I enjoyed chatting with you about your blog and your travel plans for the summer. I’d love to send you a packet of information about Iowa. May I have your snail mail address?
I had a great time at SOBcon07! It was great to meet so many like-minded bloggers.
Take care, and travel safe.
Claire
Hi there Guy who loves Chicago — thanks very much for stopping by and offering suggestions for visitors.
I know that I’m taking my daughter to the Art Institute and on a river-borne architecture tour when we return in July, and I hope to get to some of the other places you’ve mentioned as well. I enjoyed looking through your Chicago site — the new Freedom/First Amendment museum in the Tribune Tower sounds like a great idea for my teen.
Can’t wait until I have more than a few hours there!
Well, we had to fly all the way from Texas to Chicago just to run into each other, but I’m glad we did! Great to make the connection with you, Sheila.
Hi Claire — sent you an email with the info; thanks for visiting!
Hi Connie — yes, isn’t that silly, but so nice to find bloggy kindred spirits in my area code.
Comments on this entry are closed.