An introduction

I love Chicago. LOVE IT. I moved here from Maine 8 years ago, and still find myself getting really excited to be living in a big city. There are so many things to see and do! And I have seen and done pitifully few of them.

Let’s remedy that, shall we?

I don’t want to get over-ambitious here – I mean, I have a full-time job by day and a pretty demanding improv mini-career by night. I’m not exactly bursting with free time. So, I’m giving myself a year to visit 50 places of interest around Chicago.

Figuring out the 50 has been super-challenging. People don’t really make lists of such things, because once you pass the obvious top 10, (museums, tall buildings, etc.) the options become pretty vast, and the numbering becomes too nebulous and arbitrary.

Luckily, under DK travel’s website, I found a list of “places of interest” in Chicago. There were 50 of them. Well, 46. (For some reason, some were double-listed… Unless there’s a second Wrigley Field I’m not aware of…) I thought maybe it would be better to not have control over the destinations – just do what DK says, even if I’ve been there before, or it sounds dumb. (Both of which apply to the Hershey Store…) Sadly, this means that there are no restaurants or jazz clubs. Maybe next year? For the 4 remaining slots, I checked DK’s Chicago Top Ten, and found that there were exactly 4 places that had made the top 10, but not the top 50. (How did this happen?) Those four are indicated with stars.

So, here’s the deal, people. I will go to them, write about my time, and take a couple pictures.
My first adventure happens tonight!

The list is below. It’s weird, I know. American Girl Café? UPTOWN? In the same list?

1. Adler Planetarium
2. Andersonville
3. Armitage/Halsted Shopping District
4. Art Institute of Chicago*
5. Avondale
6. Blues Heaven Foundation
7. Boys Town
8. Bridgeport
9. Chicago Children’s Museum
10. Chicago Historical Society
11. Chinatown
12. Devon Avenue
13. Elevated Trains
14. Elks National Memorial Building
15. Emerald City Theatre Company
16. Field Museum
17. Fourth Presbyterian Church
18. Francis Dewes Mansion
19. Frank Lloyd Wright’s Oak Park*
20. Gold Coast Area
21. Heart of Italy
22. Hershey’s Chicago
23. Historic Water Tower & Pumping Station
24. Jane Addams’ Hull House
25. John Hancock Center
26. Lincoln Park Conservatory
27. Lincoln Park Zoo
28. Lincoln Square
29. Little Italy, Taylor Street
30. Magnificent Mile
31. Maxwell Street Market
32. Merchandise Mart
33. Museum of Contemporary Art
34. Museum of Contemporary Photography
35. Museum of Science & Industry
36. National Vietnam Veterans Art Museum
37. Navy Pier
38. North Avenue Beach
39. Peggy Notebart Nature Museum
40. Pilsen
41. Prairie Avenue District
42. River North Gallery District
43. Shedd Aquarium
44. The Café at American Girl Place
45. Tribune Tower
46. University of Chicago*
47. Uptown
48. Westfield North Bridge Mall
49. Willis Tower*
50. Wrigley Field