May 19, 20214 yr 1 minute ago, mr_hunt said: go to the navy pier & have some deep dish pizza at giordano's there's also a restaurant owned by mike ditka that was pretty good. Giordano's looks like it is walking distance from our hotel. Will definitely add this to the itinerary.
May 19, 20214 yr 5 hours ago, Shepard Wong said: I'm going to Chicago for the first time in September. Catching a Bears game at Soldier Field on Sunday, heading up to Green bay for a Monday Night game at Lambeau, then back to Chicago for some more sightseeing and a Cubs game at Wrigley. Anybody have any suggestions on must see or do things in the city? Hell yes Mr. Wong! That sounds like a great trip. You're going at an amazing time too. I lived on the corner of Grand and State in River North from 2016-2018 for work. It was an awesome experience, especially in the summer. Since you're going to a Cubs game, make sure to hit up Murphy's in Wrigleyville. Great place to go on game days. Depending on what you like and timelines, I would try to squeeze in one or more of the following because they are all right next to Soldier Field - Shedd Aquarium, The Field Museum, and/or the Planetarium. The Shedd Aquarium and the Planetarium have some of the most incredible views of the most beautiful city skyline I have ever seen in my life, not to mention everything inside each establishment is awesome as well. I would also suggest any of the following while you're there: -Do the architecture tour (boat tour on the river), grab a drink in the Signature Room at the top of the Herbie Hancock building, head to the top of the Willis Tower (Sears) just to say you did it, go to the Navy Pier for all touristy type things right on Lake Michigan, and head to Gold Coast if you're with a female. It's like the Beverly Hills of Chicago for outdoor shopping. Plus you can have an amazing dinner at Ditka's, the restaurant that @mr_hunt couldn't remember the name of that's owned by Mike Ditka. He's there almost every night and gets interrupted during his dinner every 5 minutes by some fanboy wanting their picture taken. Other things that might tickle your fancy: The Lincoln Park Zoo is free, and it's incredible. They take donations, but it's just north of the city, and it's worth it if you like stuff like that. Restaurants: Kinzie Chophouse, RPM Steakhouse and RPM Italian (both are insane), Chicago Cut, and if you like Sushi, my favorites were both Sushi-San and Ramen-San. They were both the same owner and he plays Wu-Tang on repeat throughout the entire restaurant at all time. Best sushi I had in the city as well.
May 19, 20214 yr Seriously, thanks for the suggestions. This is awesome. I just started googling these and my wife will love a lot of this. Ditka's is about half a block from our hotel so that's definitely a go and we'll hit a bunch of the others on our free days. Very much appreciated. You get a chance to watch Psycho Goreman yet?
May 19, 20214 yr 28 minutes ago, Shepard Wong said: Seriously, thanks for the suggestions. This is awesome. I just started googling these and my wife will love a lot of this. Ditka's is about half a block from our hotel so that's definitely a go and we'll hit a bunch of the others on our free days. Very much appreciated. You get a chance to watch Psycho Goreman yet? Not quite yet. I thought I had the opportunity this past Saturday, but I played golf instead. I'm thinking this weekend is the weekend!
May 20, 20214 yr CHICAGO The Green Mill Cocktail Room in Uptown is an authentic speakeasy, with Al Capone's favorite booth, and trap doors and all. Pequod's on Clybourn Avenue is consistently named one of the top 10 pizzas in the US. There are world-class museums along Michigan Avenue and in Grant Park. The Art Institute of Chicago has some of the most famous paintings in the world, such as the one from Ferris Bueller's Day Off. (The Art Institute is also one of the few remaining buildings used in the 1893 World's Fair.) The Field Museum is another very famous museum. Inside the Chicago Athletic Club on Michigan Avenue, across from Grant Park/Millennium Park, are two of the best bars around: the Game Room and the Drawing Room. The Drawing Room was closed when I was there, and I can't remember why it was so good. The Game Room is a spacious, quiet bar with chess boards, pool tables, and so on. The CAC is all Campus Gothic, with carved wooden walls and such. It looks like something at an Ivy League school. Jackson Park, in the Hyde Park neighborhood, is where the 1893 World's Fair was held, and there are some remnants of the fair there. The Museum of Science & Industry is one of the few remaining buildings, and the surrounding park was landscaped for the World's Fair. The University of Chicago is also in the neighborhood, and the campus is amazing for its architecture.
May 20, 20214 yr 11 hours ago, mr_hunt said: go to the navy pier & have some deep dish pizza at giordano's there's also a restaurant owned by mike ditka that was pretty good. When I went to the eagles-bears SNF game in 2008, I literally did all those things
May 20, 20214 yr 13 hours ago, mr_hunt said: go to the navy pier & have some deep dish pizza at giordano's there's also a restaurant owned by mike ditka that was pretty good. I only went to Pizano’s (I think?) with jrsu when I was there, but I was also only in Chicago for about 2 hours
May 24, 20214 yr 39 minutes ago, mr_hunt said: grand canyon in july....bad idea or really, really bad idea? sounds like a grand idea
May 25, 20214 yr 5 hours ago, mr_hunt said: grand canyon in july....bad idea or really, really bad idea? Peak tourist season, and it will be 120F down in the canyon. If you're going in July anyway, go to the North Rim. It's 1,000 feet higher in elevation, so it will be cooler. And it also gets about a tenth of the tourists, so you would have more room. I'm assuming you're talking about the National Park itself (South Rim and North Rim), rather than the West Rim that's part of the Indian Reservations and all.
May 25, 20214 yr 11 hours ago, xzmattzx said: Peak tourist season, and it will be 120F down in the canyon. If you're going in July anyway, go to the North Rim. It's 1,000 feet higher in elevation, so it will be cooler. And it also gets about a tenth of the tourists, so you would have more room. I'm assuming you're talking about the National Park itself (South Rim and North Rim), rather than the West Rim that's part of the Indian Reservations and all. of course i'm talking about the south rim where it's the most crowded & will be well over 100 degrees.
May 25, 20214 yr Hunt - with you being in peak physical condition, I'm sure the heat and an entire day of being on your feet will be no problem!
May 25, 20214 yr 6 minutes ago, mikemack8 said: Hunt - with you being in peak physical condition, I'm sure the heat and an entire day of being on your feet will be no problem! Did the NEPA Fine Dinning thread ever make it over here? That thread actually raised my cholesterol just by looking at it.
May 25, 20214 yr 10 minutes ago, rambo said: Did the NEPA Fine Dinning thread ever make it over here? That thread actually raised my cholesterol just by looking at it. i don't think i started that thread on this board...i barely eat out because of f'n covid anyway.
May 25, 20214 yr 3 minutes ago, mr_hunt said: i don't think i started that thread on this board...i barely eat out because of f'n covid anyway. Good point. It has gotten to the point where some weeks we don't even do a take out order anymore as opposed to once a week like we used to. We've gotten really good at menu planning and cooking around sports thanks to covid.
May 25, 20214 yr 7 hours ago, mr_hunt said: of course i'm talking about the south rim where it's the most crowded & will be well over 100 degrees. Make sure your hotel has a pool then. It may be up to 120F in the canyon, but the South Rim is around 7,000 feet in elevation, so temperatures won't be quite as bad as you might think up on the rim. Maybe you'll get lucky and some people are scared to travel, too. If you're staying in Williams or Flagstaff, temperatures are fairly moderate for Arizona. In fact, just like people around here have beach houses for the summer, everyone in Phoenix has mountain houses in Flagstaff to beat the heat. Flagstaff is actually a pretty cool small city, and has seen a renaissance in the last 5 years. It's a good place to walk around and check out the food scene and bar scene.
May 25, 20214 yr 3 minutes ago, xzmattzx said: Make sure your hotel has a pool then. It may be up to 120F in the canyon, but the South Rim is around 7,000 feet in elevation, so temperatures won't be quite as bad as you might think up on the rim. Maybe you'll get lucky and some people are scared to travel, too. If you're staying in Williams or Flagstaff, temperatures are fairly moderate for Arizona. In fact, just like people around here have beach houses for the summer, everyone in Phoenix has mountain houses in Flagstaff to beat the heat. Flagstaff is actually a pretty cool small city, and has seen a renaissance in the last 5 years. It's a good place to walk around and check out the food scene and bar scene. looking at the train ride from williams right now...but nothing is set in stone. thank for the info.
May 25, 20214 yr 1 minute ago, mr_hunt said: looking at the train ride from williams right now...but nothing is set in stone. thank for the info. If you want to hike down into the canyon, there's really only one option in the peak of the summer heat: the Bright Angel Trail. It is also the easiest and most convenient trail into the canyon, so you'll get a lot of idiots with no business hiking up in the first mile or so. What makes it great in the summer (or any time) is what makes it popular and crowded: it has water stations and pit toilets every 1.5 miles or so, and it's shaded for much of the day since it's located inside a fault line/crevice. A hike to Indian Garden (a noticeable grove of trees down in the Outer Canyon) is 4.5 miles one-way, so someone with a little experience hiking or walking can leave in the morning after breakfast, have a picnic lunch carried down, and be back up at the top for dinner, without it being too, too strenuous. Definitely do not try any other trail into the canyon in the summer. The Bright Angel Trail is the only one with water stations, and the only one with shade. As important as you know shade and water are, just sitting at home, they are even more important when you actually are in the wilderness, in a desert environment. If you go on the Bright Angel Trail, I can tell you where some petroglyphs and dinosaur tracks are. Thousands of people walk right by them every day and don't know they're there. For the record, I have been to the South Rim 4 times. I love it there. But I always go in October, when the heat has died down, and the crowds are away. Plus you get that little tinge of cool, crisp air at night as fall sets in.
May 27, 20214 yr On 5/24/2021 at 7:40 PM, xzmattzx said: Peak tourist season, and it will be 120F down in the canyon. If you're going in July anyway, go to the North Rim. It's 1,000 feet higher in elevation, so it will be cooler. And it also gets about a tenth of the tourists, so you would have more room. I'm assuming you're talking about the National Park itself (South Rim and North Rim), rather than the West Rim that's part of the Indian Reservations and all. i was just going to ask about..... On 5/25/2021 at 2:41 PM, xzmattzx said: If you want to hike down into the canyon, there's really only one option in the peak of the summer heat: the Bright Angel Trail. It is also the easiest and most convenient trail into the canyon, so you'll get a lot of idiots with no business hiking up in the first mile or so. What makes it great in the summer (or any time) is what makes it popular and crowded: it has water stations and pit toilets every 1.5 miles or so, and it's shaded for much of the day since it's located inside a fault line/crevice. A hike to Indian Garden (a noticeable grove of trees down in the Outer Canyon) is 4.5 miles one-way, so someone with a little experience hiking or walking can leave in the morning after breakfast, have a picnic lunch carried down, and be back up at the top for dinner, without it being too, too strenuous. Definitely do not try any other trail into the canyon in the summer. The Bright Angel Trail is the only one with water stations, and the only one with shade. As important as you know shade and water are, just sitting at home, they are even more important when you actually are in the wilderness, in a desert environment. If you go on the Bright Angel Trail, I can tell you where some petroglyphs and dinosaur tracks are. Thousands of people walk right by them every day and don't know they're there. For the record, I have been to the South Rim 4 times. I love it there. But I always go in October, when the heat has died down, and the crowds are away. Plus you get that little tinge of cool, crisp air at night as fall sets in. ... October!!! I am penciled in for a work trip in Phoenix the 8/9th of Oct (I think it'll only be one day and they haven't decided on which one yet). My mom has been obnoxiously going on about Arizona and the Grand Canyon as far back as I can remember (she has NEVER been... hell I'm not sure she's ever been west of Indiana...). So I figure if the work event is a Monday and/or Tuesday, I could fly in Friday night after work and get her travel to arrive that same night. Seems like south rim is an easy enough drive from Phoenix, be it a day trip up and back, or staying out that way Saturday night and doing a 2-day visit.
May 27, 20214 yr We did a road trip a few years back - mostly in Colorado doing various things, but we did take the time to spend a day at the canyon. It's one of those things that can't be explained, and pictures don't do it justice. You have to see the vastness of it in person to really appreciate it.
May 27, 20214 yr 35 minutes ago, mikemack8 said: We did a road trip a few years back - mostly in Colorado doing various things, but we did take the time to spend a day at the canyon. It's one of those things that can't be explained, and pictures don't do it justice. You have to see the vastness of it in person to really appreciate it. much like momma mikemack's box! bam!!! friday? is it friday yet?
May 27, 20214 yr 5 minutes ago, mr_hunt said: much like momma mikemack's box! bam!!! friday? is it friday yet?
May 27, 20214 yr 41 minutes ago, mikemack8 said: We did a road trip a few years back - mostly in Colorado doing various things, but we did take the time to spend a day at the canyon. It's one of those things that can't be explained, and pictures don't do it justice. You have to see the vastness of it in person to really appreciate it. how long do you need to see enough to get the gist of it? i'm back talking about the grand canyon, btw. we're not exactly hikers so we basically just want to see it & snap a few pics.
May 27, 20214 yr 3 minutes ago, mr_hunt said: how long do you need to see enough to get the gist of it? i'm back talking about the grand canyon, btw. we're not exactly hikers so we basically just want to see it & snap a few pics. Well - for me one day was plenty to snap a ton of good pics and be good with it. I think staying on site and spending a few days there may be cool if you really enjoy hiking and outdoors, but I didn't feel like we missed a ton by only being there one day. We also had my mother in law along, who was like 6 months removed from a quadruple bypass so a multi day hike wasn't really an option.
May 27, 20214 yr On that trip we also did the four corners monument, which is literally in the middle of nowhere. It's just a photo spot with a bunch of vendors set up around it trying to sell you their homemade crap. Went white water rafting in Glenwood Springs, Colorado - that was awesome. Spent a day in Ouray and drove the million dollar highway out of it - that was pretty cool too.
Create an account or sign in to comment