this is the distance between point A and point B.

[starla]

yay! i just scored cheap flights to chicago in june!!

on the agenda is the chicago baseball tour (cubs & white sox), and milwaukee for a couple of days for more baseball (brewers) and visiting friends.

i haven't been to chi-town in over 8 years, and i've never been to milwaukee.

any suggestions for can't-be-missed attractions in either chicago

Comments

[starla]

i definitely want to go to the aquarium! love me some fishies.

we aren't going till june 11th, so we have some time to hotel shop. we're going to be in chicago for three nights and then milwaukee for two, so maybe we can splurge a little.

did you need a rental car to get around the area?

[obifu]

Mars Cheese Castle is on the way to Milwaukee, and is awesome. Really like the Brewer's Stadium, just save room for brats.

[gangwaygirls]

I've seen that!!!

[starla]

luckyyyy. :)

[starla]

i already demanded cheese curds and many cheeses of various type while we're there. how is the drive from chicago to milwaukee?

i have to be honest, not the biggest fan of miller beer... that'll be interesting at the brewers stadium!

[gangwaygirls]

The Essex is a pretty reasonably-priced hotel and is on the Magnificent Mile (I think). It's across the street from a very cool park and Shedd/The Field Museum.

[starla]

ooh! and i definitely want to do shedd, so that sounds really good. did you need a car to get around chicago?

what else is fun to do?

[gangwaygirls]

Nope, we just walked. We drove the car there but left it in the Essex's parking garage the whole time. There's always taxis or the L, though.

Hm... a lot of my time in Chicago has been spent in the suburbs, unfortunately (with you-know-who). The House of Blues is great if there's a band playing you'd want to see. Umm... Filene's Basement is there! ;)

[starla]

ewww. to the suburbs and unmentionables. ;)

i think we'll wait to rent a car until right before we go to wisconsin. sounds like it might be a hassle to keep it around, especially if we stay somewhere convenient.

as much as *i* would love to shop, i'm sure he'll put his foot down! i'll just wait for you to come visit, haha. any restaurants to check out?

[d4b]

Millennium Park

Re: I shoulda thought of that!

[d4b]

Exactly.

I was so bummed: I've been to Chi-town twice in the last few years. The first time, it was literally a few days before they opened the park, but you couls still see some stuff through the gates. Ironically, a friend that I had no idea was also headed in the same direction, stumbled into the park the very day it opened. Then on my second visit, they were polishing the bean, or something like that, and once again, I couldn't get up close to it.

[newscane]

I just scored cheap flights to Seattle for my girlfriend and I to go see DMB at the Gorge! Good day for flights! Ours had been going up and down... I've been checking a ridiculous amount, and got lucky today. Bought it with my new Delta Skymiles AMEX :D

As far as Chicago... the Museum of Science and Industry is pretty cool. They have an IMAX there, not sure what they show these days. (I was there about 12 years ago, when I visited Northwestern.)

Also on a travel note... I have a four-hour layover in JFK in June... any ideas of what I can do?

[starla]

haha, at JFK? not a whole lot. the jetblue terminal has a spa and some cool restaurants/food stands. otherwise, it's the same ol' food courts and magazine stands. which airline would you be flying in on?

i track flights on this farefinder website and it claimed delta had a $150 fare (with tax!), which i couldn't find... until 10pm that night, when it magically appeared! i booked it immediately and it already went back up to $270.

and aw, girlfriend? :)

[newscane]

I'm gonna be on Delta. Coming in on a Comair flight from Albany, connecting to a flight to Ft. Lauderdale. It's my annual DMB trip, but I have to miss their 2nd show (the night I fly down), because my cousin gets married on Boca on that Sunday.

I use Kayak obsessively, and discovered yapta.com a few days ago. I plugged in a few different options, and it told me that a combo with the redeye on the day before we're coming home had fallen. (It was still well over $300.) I went back to Kayak, and saw that a whole bunch of flights had fallen (cheap availability opened up again!)... and we booked! Got the fare we first saw last Thursday, before it went up a few times.

Yes, girlfriend :) I met her at a friend's housewarming party in Tallahassee last summer, we've been "officially dating" since August or so. She's looking to get a job here sometime soon :)

[starla]

kayak is good. but i really like farecompare.com. you can set up alerts for certain airport combinations, specific dates, and it rates the deals on how good they are. it helped me snag my $150 fare!

awww, i like romantic stories. i'm so happy for you!