PLAYING - Abstract from FROMMER'S
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Wrigley Field
It's a Chicago tradition to play hooky for an afternoon to sit in the bleachers at this most charming of all baseball parks and watch Sammy Sosa and the rest of the Cubbies try to hit 'em onto Waveland Avenue.
Pack a picnic and take the train (or drive) out to Highland Park's Ravinia, summer home of the Chicago Symphony, or stay in town to enjoy the free concerts presented in the city's front yard, Grant Park.
The vast art museum offers myriad places for private meditation on works by all the masters. Take a Sunday stroll in the park courtesy of pointillist painter Georges Seurat, disappear into a lonely night envisioned by the hawklike eye of American Edward Hopper, or reach for Nirvana drifting among the statuaries of some unknown ancient sculptor.
For more than a century Chicago's architectural royals have been putting up buildings that scrape the sky, make peace with the prairie, and do more with less. A good way to ground yourself in the city's history is to take an architectural tour--by foot, bus, bike, or boat.
Here in the world capital of the blues, you've got your pick of places to feel them, from the collegiate atmosphere of Kingston Mines in Lincoln Park, where musicians perform continuously on two stages, to the earthy roadhouse New Checkerboard Lounge on the South Side, where neighborhood locals mingle with the tourists, blues lovers all.
Walking the Walk. You notice the most interesting things when you lace up your sneakers and let your curiosity power you. Explore Chicago's diversity with a neighborhood walkabout; it's one of the best ways to get a flavor for how the people here, from Indian immigrants on Devon Avenue to gay couples on Halsted Street, actually live.
The stage lights rarely go dark in one of the country's most bustling theater scenes, home to the innovative Steppenwolf (where founders John Malkovich and Gary Sinise got their start), a burgeoning downtown Broadway-style theater district now joined by the refurbished Oriental and Palace theaters and spectacular new homes for the Goodman Theatre and the city's resident Shakespeare repertory troupe.
This atmospheric Uptown jazz club is the place to go to soak up some smooth sounds from some of the hottest up-and-coming performers on the jazz scene today. But don't just go for the tunes--the club, a living museum of 1930s Chicago, is an attraction in itself.
It really is cooler by the lake-meteorologically and metaphorically. There are 29 miles of lakefront for biking, 'blading, or simply being, so get out there and contemplate Chicago's very own ocean.
The newest resident of the Field Museum is the mighty T-rex Sue, whose unearthed bones the museum acquired for $8.4 million at auction 2 years ago. The dinosaur has been meticulously studied and assembled by researchers at the museum, and it will finally be set loose in the museum in early 2000.
If you're staying at a North Michigan Avenue hotel, you can hit the sands at this unique urban beach about as fast as your elevator gets you to the lobby. Of course, you may not want to venture very far into the chilly waters (even in summer), but the crowded boardwalk offers plenty of people watching to while away a sunny afternoon.