We chose the destination because we wanted to visit the Art Institute of Chicago. One of the main attractions was George Seurat's A Sunday on le Grande Jatte (the spell check here wanted to make this Grande Latte - doesn't sound like a painting you would travel 4,000 miles to see). 
To make the most of the ticket price (we are so spoiled in the UK with our galleries and museums not charging entry) of $25 each we arrived at opening time and got thrown out at closing time. So much to see one trip didn't cover everything so we went for a return visit. to the Art Institute on the last day to see it again.
This is an extreme closeup of the technique used for this vast canvas. Each dot is tiny.
It wasn't all culture. We did the architectural river tour - I didn't know that Chicago is a city full of architectural masterpieces - I do now.
Until a few years ago riverfront property was cheap and undesirable, transformation of the Riverwalk has changed all that. There is a continuous mile long walk along the river with some watering holes along the way. You can sit and have a drink while you watch people in lycra fight their way through the crowds to run along the Riverwalk.
A few weeks before we went to Chicago we met a stranger in a pub in London who turned out to be from Chicago and recommended we didn't do the Lake Michigan boat trip but did go to a White Sox baseball game. He showed us a Hamilton ticket he had bought for £12 so his advice seemed good. I booked tickets online from a resale site for half the price of tickets from the official ground (Guaranteed Rate Field - catchy name!). I wasn't 100% sure it wasn't a scam but for $60 it seemed worth taking the risk. We got the train from downtown to the ball park. Tickets on sale at a machine in the station hall incurred a $1booking fee! Nothing in Chicago costs the advertised price other than resale baseball tickets it seems. Chicago White Sox were playing the Kansas City Royals, it was Memorial Day so there was a lot of emotional singing of the national anthem and very moving tributes to Chicago natives who had lost their lives in service of their country.
Just was we were starting to understand the game and how tactical it is, the heavens opened rain poured. Umbrellas went up and some fans retreated to the hotdog and beer stands under cover in the stadium but the players continued until the first clap of thunder when they left the field in seconds. I guess their contracts require them to play in the rain but not in an electric storm. Anyway we waited for a resumption of play for 2 hours before we gave up and went back into the city.
We saw The Music of Black America in Migration at the Chicago Symphony Center. Not really sure what to expect was an eclectic programme of music and story telling with Jason Moran, jazz pianist and his wife the mezzo-soprano Alicia Hall Moran hosting other professional musicians and a high school jazz band. Great evening.
Fantastic exhibit about the 5 mass extinctions that have occurred on our planet in the last 4 billion years, caused by natural events, and the sixth mass extinction Homo sapiens are causing at the moment. Great museum well worth a visit.Other attractions included the Museum of Science and Industry where they had the best train set in the world and an exhibition of wearable technology. The space exhibit that showed never-before-seen footage of the Apollo 11 moon landing that had you holding your breath even though we've known the outcome for 50 years. Chicago residents have not adopted the new name of Willis and still refer to the Sears Tower, holder of the title of the World's tallest building for 25 years. Great views, stepping into the little glass pods was a surreal experience. The ticket included a night view so we went back for a second dose in the evening.
The Shedd Aquarium was not something we would naturally have gone to but as it was included in the price and we wanted to get our money's worth we went anyway. Fish remain uninteresting - no amount of effort or jazzy staging can make fish interesting and looking at the dolphin show was not included in the price. This was not the best part of the trip and we didn't stay long.
We had some great meals including one at the Purple Pig which is Chicago's restaurant of the moment and lived up to its reputation. Some meals were big enough to feed a family of four and others weren't so it was not always easy to choose - we ended up eating a lot more that was good for us but enjoyed it all, including a meal in an Italian restaurant where we almost expected mobsters to rush in and kill someone, it was so typical of what you've seen in gangster films.
We had a great time notwithstanding the constant surprise at the till when several layers of tax (state, city and county all at the same time) or booking fee, tip, special charge for electric vehicles was added on to the price paid. One big surprise was an unexpected refund of the baseball tickets a week after we got back - I assume this was because of the weather but I wasn't expecting it and my faith is slightly restored in the city that has it's hand in your pocket a lot.
