Cookaholics Bulletin Board

I'll be heading to Chicago for a weekend in May with another family who will need a hotel room. DH is based there for May/June so the boys and I will be staying at the Grand Plaza downtown, our friends want to stay nearby and looking for something reasonable. They are a family of 6. Any suggestions?
Already know we'll have to eat at Lou's for pizza (kids loved it the last time) but other meals are not decided, would love any suggestions for kid friendly (althtough none of them are into typical kid menus, it's more the atmosphere I'm looking at, and let's face it, price point!) places within the downtown Chicaco area. Chris has a kitchen so we'll be there for morning meals. Will do the Field museum (did the Shed last time and will likely skip) and the river area, not sure what else although considering the Museum of Science and Industry, kids love Mythbusters and there's exhibit on that there.
Likely be driving from Toronto as I can't find cheap enough flights for 9 people, so if anyone knows good shopping enroute let me know!
thanks in advance

The Essex Inn south on Michigan ave is in a great location and rooms are about $130-$150/night. You can also look into the Belden-Stratford on Lincoln Park West. It's where people stayed for the last Chicago cooking weekend. Huge suites with real kitchens, right across the street from the zoo. Not right downtown, but not that far away. If you need a native guide just let me know when you're going to be here.

Becky, I would love to meet up, a lot will depend on Chris' plans and the other families, but will let you know. Will pm you my cell number as we get closer, we are planning on the Canadian Victoria day weekend, which is the week before Memorial day.

Jean,

If you want a downtown hotel, the La Quinta Inn & Suites Downtown is surprisingly nice and affordable, at least on weekends. This year, I'll be staying at the Rafaello, which has also reviewed very well.

As for where to eat:

http://fuzzychef.org/archives/Greek-Isl ... -2011.html
http://fuzzychef.org/archives/Purple-Pi ... -2011.html
http://fuzzychef.org/archives/In-Search ... -2011.html

I really recommend the Purple Pig.

FWIW, we'll be in Chicago again the weekend of September 18th.

Alas, Jean, it looks like I will be out of town that weekend selling pottery at the Mayfaire Renaissance festival in Marshall MI. Anyone who wants to stop by will be welcome!

Becky, drat!

Fuzzy,thanks for the recommendations. Oddly enough we had a restaurant in my town called the Purple Pig, but was more of a bbq/roadhouse joint. They tried to franchise and it got too big, too fast so the owners pulled the plug and now run a different place.

This will be the 4th 10 hour drive since September for me, we did CT in the late summer, NY at Christmas, Boston/NY at March break and now this one. At least the kids can sleep or watch videos on the way.

So...at the 11th hour I am not driving to Chicago. Our friends got an email from their hotel warning them of the NATO summit there this weekend. We lived through the Toronto G20 and didn't feel like driving 9 hours to endure it somewhere else. Chris didn't have a flight home but his boss was nice enough to let him book a flight to Buffalo (less than $500 return versus the $2000 had he come to Toronto) and I will go get him tomorrow. We may or may not go to Cleveland, or Erie, or somewhere. Or may just come home.
Kids are bummed as am I. Wish we had known about this earlier....but we had no clue.

Sorry about that-the NATO thing has been ubiquitous around here for so long, it's hard to imagine anyone who didn't know it was happening.
And it turns out I am in town after all. Sigh.

Becky, no worries. Chris was in town 2 weeks ago for a week and didn't hear a thing, he got there from San Antonio on Wednesday and saw signs about not parking on the streets but didn't realize the extent of the closures/situation since, unlike Toronto, you guys have not fenced off your entire downtown area. None of the googling we did when looking for things to do on the weekend or the websites we went to said anything about closures, and my cousin's wife who we were trying to visit didn't say anything...everyone just figured we knew! And the news channels here haven't covered it, at least that I've seen. So the email from our friend's hotel was the first clue we had about it.
The reality of it is that most of what we wanted to do would be closed or severly restricted. Another time!
Fingers crossed for you that all goes smoothly.

Jean,

FWIW, 6 of my work friends decided to head to Montreal for sightseeing after the conference in Canada. They are not having a good time.