How to entertain my in-laws in Chicago.
July 30, 2010 1:14 PM Subscribe
What should I do in Chicago tomorrow with my future father and brother-in-law?
My fiancées family just flew in from England yesterday, they are here for our wedding. This weekend is the only time I'll see them before the wedding in 2 weeks because they are visiting other family. So I want to take out my soon to be bother and father-in-law tomorrow with my groomsman for a good time.
Brother is running in a marathon tomorrow so nothing too strenuous else I'd suggest WhirlyBall. Also no strip-clubs, no. I should have planned this better but I didn't. Golf was the other idea but no one has clubs and none of us is actually good at it, it just sounds fun.
My fiancées family just flew in from England yesterday, they are here for our wedding. This weekend is the only time I'll see them before the wedding in 2 weeks because they are visiting other family. So I want to take out my soon to be bother and father-in-law tomorrow with my groomsman for a good time.
Brother is running in a marathon tomorrow so nothing too strenuous else I'd suggest WhirlyBall. Also no strip-clubs, no. I should have planned this better but I didn't. Golf was the other idea but no one has clubs and none of us is actually good at it, it just sounds fun.
Fun golf + no clubs or experience = mini golf!
Chicago Park District says they have mini golf courses; don't know about club rental
http://www.cpdgolf.com/index.php
posted by TrishaLynn at 1:52 PM on July 30, 2010
Chicago Park District says they have mini golf courses; don't know about club rental
http://www.cpdgolf.com/index.php
posted by TrishaLynn at 1:52 PM on July 30, 2010
Best answer: I work with the Neo-Futurists, who I always suggest to out-of-town guests. They do a late-night show in which they attempt to perform 30 plays in 60 minutes. The plays are honest and are a mixture of comic, serious, political, sad, silly, etc. I have always had Great Success taking people there, even if they don't consider themselves to be theater folk.
Plus, the theater is right around the corner from the Hopleaf.
posted by lholladay at 2:23 PM on July 30, 2010
Plus, the theater is right around the corner from the Hopleaf.
posted by lholladay at 2:23 PM on July 30, 2010
Best answer: BLUES BLUES BLUES! Try Blues on Halstead and across the street Kingston Mines. Great fun and Chicago Classics. During daylight maybe you can catch some music and food at a street fair too.
posted by mbx at 3:01 PM on July 30, 2010
posted by mbx at 3:01 PM on July 30, 2010
Response by poster: Mini-Golf sounds the most likey right now maybe followed by Hopleaf. I love going to TMLMTBGB but that runs a little too late for us this time.
As for blues, hmmm. Her dad loves jazz, even the experimental and hybrid stuff. Sadly I have only once hit a Jazzy club in Chicago. Maybe a jazz club.
posted by MrBobaFett at 3:17 PM on July 30, 2010
As for blues, hmmm. Her dad loves jazz, even the experimental and hybrid stuff. Sadly I have only once hit a Jazzy club in Chicago. Maybe a jazz club.
posted by MrBobaFett at 3:17 PM on July 30, 2010
Going on this weekend: Chicago Luxury Ice Cream Festival. Also, Wicker Park Fest, Summer on Southport, and some rather creepy looking clown festival.
posted by honeybee413 at 7:34 PM on July 30, 2010
posted by honeybee413 at 7:34 PM on July 30, 2010
Copying-and-pasting a version of my go-to list when people ask what we can do in Chicago:
- Hot Doug's: gourmet hot dogs, different each week, eg an alligatormeat hot dog topped with gumbo or a Kobe beef hot dog topped with 4 year old cheddar. Hourlong wait to get served.
- Signature Room: 94th floor of the Hancock Tower; $12 decent lunch gets you pretty nearly the same (staggeringly good) view as the $50 observation deck on the 95th floor.
- Shedd Aquarium: amazingly beautiful mini ecosystems on display: octopods, sharks, revolting things, giant turtles, sea cucumbers, all manner of brilliantly-colored flora.
- Adler Planetarium
- Architecture Tour: hourlong boat cruise along the river or the lake; they point out neat buildings and historical anecdotes. ~$28/person.
- Art Institute: esp. the miniature rooms from throughout history.
- Magnificent Mile shopping.
- Hyde Park tour: U. Chicago campus, including where Harry met Sally, Frank Lloyd Wright's Robie house, Obama's home, Louis Farrakhan's home, the famous Midway of the Chicago World's Fair, 57th St Books, Seminary Bookstore, Medici ice cream.
- Chicago Symphony
- Chicago Opera
- Chicago Mercantile Exchange: the second-greatest financial institution in America's second-greatest financial city.
- Millennium Park: brilliant urban landscaping. Ice rink and splashing pool and giant swingset for kids, famous "bean" statue. Right now they've got some kind of surrealist sculpture exhibit.
- Grant Park: where Obama gave his victory speech.
- Museum of Natural History: the biology is current as of ~2010; the geology is current as of ~2000; the anthropology is current as of ~1830 ("Many primitive peoples dislike rope."). Dinosaurs, walk-through history of the planet.
- Beaches up and down Lake Shore Drive
- Promontory Point: gorgeous views and gorgeous picnic knoll
- Oriental Institute: Asia-themed cultural museum.
- Cubs game or Sox game
- Chinatown: cheap, exotic ingredients; groceries and restaurants
- Ghirardelli's chocolate and ice cream downtown
- "Eyeball and Cardinal" downtown -- surreal enormous eyeball
- Transformers 3 is filming throughout the West Loop; drive around Wacker long enough and you'll see piles of prop rubble, overturned buildings, etc.
- Dat Donut, great apple-fritters
Overrated
- Museum of Science and Industry. Would have been a great experience if you were 8 and the year were 1980, but they haven't updated their exhibits much since.
posted by foursentences at 9:24 PM on July 30, 2010 [1 favorite]
- Hot Doug's: gourmet hot dogs, different each week, eg an alligatormeat hot dog topped with gumbo or a Kobe beef hot dog topped with 4 year old cheddar. Hourlong wait to get served.
- Signature Room: 94th floor of the Hancock Tower; $12 decent lunch gets you pretty nearly the same (staggeringly good) view as the $50 observation deck on the 95th floor.
- Shedd Aquarium: amazingly beautiful mini ecosystems on display: octopods, sharks, revolting things, giant turtles, sea cucumbers, all manner of brilliantly-colored flora.
- Adler Planetarium
- Architecture Tour: hourlong boat cruise along the river or the lake; they point out neat buildings and historical anecdotes. ~$28/person.
- Art Institute: esp. the miniature rooms from throughout history.
- Magnificent Mile shopping.
- Hyde Park tour: U. Chicago campus, including where Harry met Sally, Frank Lloyd Wright's Robie house, Obama's home, Louis Farrakhan's home, the famous Midway of the Chicago World's Fair, 57th St Books, Seminary Bookstore, Medici ice cream.
- Chicago Symphony
- Chicago Opera
- Chicago Mercantile Exchange: the second-greatest financial institution in America's second-greatest financial city.
- Millennium Park: brilliant urban landscaping. Ice rink and splashing pool and giant swingset for kids, famous "bean" statue. Right now they've got some kind of surrealist sculpture exhibit.
- Grant Park: where Obama gave his victory speech.
- Museum of Natural History: the biology is current as of ~2010; the geology is current as of ~2000; the anthropology is current as of ~1830 ("Many primitive peoples dislike rope."). Dinosaurs, walk-through history of the planet.
- Beaches up and down Lake Shore Drive
- Promontory Point: gorgeous views and gorgeous picnic knoll
- Oriental Institute: Asia-themed cultural museum.
- Cubs game or Sox game
- Chinatown: cheap, exotic ingredients; groceries and restaurants
- Ghirardelli's chocolate and ice cream downtown
- "Eyeball and Cardinal" downtown -- surreal enormous eyeball
- Transformers 3 is filming throughout the West Loop; drive around Wacker long enough and you'll see piles of prop rubble, overturned buildings, etc.
- Dat Donut, great apple-fritters
Overrated
- Museum of Science and Industry. Would have been a great experience if you were 8 and the year were 1980, but they haven't updated their exhibits much since.
posted by foursentences at 9:24 PM on July 30, 2010 [1 favorite]
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by carsonb at 1:24 PM on July 30, 2010 [1 favorite]