72 Hours in Chicago, Illinois
We recently took a quick trip to Chicago for Jordan’s graduation from Moody Bible (woohoo!)! After 4.5 long years (and having our first kid in the middle of that), he completed his MDiv and I could not be more proud! Ever since he started at Moody, we had been planning on taking a trip to Chicago for his graduation, so this trip was a sweet one that we had been looking forward to for a long time. And, with a 16 month old, we also kept it on the shorter end since traveling at this age can be tough.
Overall, we loved our time in Chicago! I had never been before, and 72 hours felt like just enough time (maybe could have used just a few more hours!) to see some of the famous spots + do a little exploring. Plus, a lot of our time was spent doing graduation related stuff, so without that, I think 72 hours would have felt just perfect!
Where We Stayed:
We got an awesome Airbnb in Andersonville — a little Swedish town that felt like the PERFECT spot to stay! There was free parking and lots of fun shops + restaurants + coffee shops within a 5 minute walk. It felt super safe to walk around with our son and at night, too. If we go back to Chicago, I would definitely stay in this area again!
Food + Drink Recs:
Blue Door Farm Stand in Lincoln Park
Calo Ristorante in Andersonville - the kindest staff and such yummy Italian food!
Pizza Lobo in Andersonville - fun patio for kids/space to hang out and grab a drink
R + A Sourdough- yummy bagel sandwich
Dollop Diner in Andersonville
Coffee Spots We Loved:
The Understudy in Andersonville
Ridman’s Coffee
Colectivo Coffee - chain spot, but good coffee!
Side Practice Coffee
What We Did:
Of course, being in Chicago, we had to see the Bean! This was fun + I’m glad we did it, but honestly, it felt overwhelming to me with the amount of people. We found parking underground right under Millennium Park which was expensive, but honestly worth it for the convenience. From there, we walked down the Magnificent Mile, which again, felt like a must-see, but definitely not my favorite with how crowded and touristy it felt. Overall, I’m glad we did it, but probably wouldn’t go back to this area if we visit Chicago again.
We also got to go to a Cubs vs. White Sox game! It was a Friday afternoon game, and it was at the iconic Wrigley Field. We waited until just a few hours before to buy tickets, and got a great deal on some super high up seats which was totally fine because we knew we wouldn’t be there the whole game with Davis. This was probably one of my favorite things to do because it was so kid friendly and fun!
We also got to walk around Lincoln Park Zoo, which is free! We got there shortly after it opened, which I would definitely recommend, as it got pretty busy with field trips as the morning went on. I think its so neat that Chicago has this nice, free zoo in the middle of the city! Davis loved seeing the animals (it was his first zoo experience!) and we had a lot of fun with this!
All of the above things, we did in one day! It was a jam packed Friday, but it felt like we were hopping pretty quickly from one thing to the next.
Being Austinites and loving Town Lake, we also enjoyed a walk on Lakefront trail along Lake Michigan. The water was gorgeous, and we got some really beautiful views of the city!
There are a million other things we could have done in Chicago, but this was the big stuff we did! I would have loved to have spent a little more time exploring some of the neighborhoods— we will have to save that for the next trip!
