Attractions

Whenever I get the chance to show visitors around my hometown, I find myself getting giddy with anticipation. With so much to do, so many places I want to show off . . . how will we fit it all in? That's the fun -- and the challenge -- of a visit to Chicago. You can put together a full itinerary each day and still have plenty left over for your next visit.

While what you see will depend on your interests (and stamina), some spots show up regularly on my own personal must-see list. The city's museums alone could keep you busy for at least a week. (If you don't have that much time, I'd have to pick the Impressionist masterpieces at the Art Institute of Chicago; Sue, the biggest T. rex fossil ever discovered, at the Field Museum of Natural History; and the U-505 submarine at the Museum of Science and Industry, as my top three favorite exhibits.) Come summertime, my favorite way to spend an afternoon is with a stroll through picture-perfect Lincoln Park Zoo on the Near North Side; the setting makes it worth visiting even if you don't have kids along.

Best of all, from a visitor's perspective, the majority of the places you'll want to visit are in or near downtown, making it easy to plan your day and get from place to place. And because this is a town with a thriving tourist economy, you'll have plenty of visitor-friendly tour options: walking tours of famous architecture; boat cruises on Lake Michigan; and even bus tours of notorious gangster sites. If you're lucky enough to visit when the weather's nice, you can join the locals at the parks and the beaches along Lake Michigan.

Extensive public transportation makes it simple to reach almost every tourist destination, but some of your best memories of Chicago may come from simply strolling along the sidewalks. Chicago's neighborhoods have their own distinct styles and looks, and you'll have a more memorable experience if you don't limit yourself solely to the prime tourist spots. And if you really want to talk about da Bears or da Cubs, chances are you'll find someone who's more than happy to join in.

Website Extras -- Scanning the websites of museums and other attractions before you visit can enhance your trip when you get here. At the Field Museum of Natural History website (www.fieldmuseum.org), you can download an mp3 audio tour of the museum's permanent collection; you can also print out a Family Adventure Tour, which sends kids on a scavenger hunt throughout the museum. The Millennium Park mp3 audio tour (available at www.millenniumpark.org) includes interviews with the artists who created the park's eye-catching artwork. And if you're intimidated by the massive size of the Museum of Science and Industry, check out the website's Personal Planner, which will put together a customized itinerary based your family's interests (www.msichicago.org).

A River Runs Through It

The Chicago River remains one of the most visible of the city's major physical features. It's spanned by more movable bridges within the city limits (52 at last count) than any other city in the world. An almost-mystical moment occurs downtown when all the bridges spanning the main and south branches -- connecting the Loop to both the Near West Side and the Near North Side -- are raised, allowing for the passage of some ship, barge, or contingent of high-masted sailboats. The Chicago River has long outlived the critical commercial function that it once performed. Most of the remaining millworks that occupy its banks no longer depend on the river alone for the transport of their materials, raw and finished. The river's main function today is to serve as a fluvial conduit for sewage, which, owing to an engineering feat that reversed its flow inland in 1900, no longer pollutes the waters of Lake Michigan. Recently, Chicagoans have begun to discover other roles for the river, including water cruises, park areas, cafes, public art installations, and a riverside bike path that connects to the lakefront route near Wacker Drive. Actually, today's developers aren't the first to wonder why the river couldn't be Chicago's Seine. A look at the early-20th-century Beaux Arts balustrades lining the river along Wacker Drive, complete with comfortably spaced benches and Parisian-style bridge houses, shows that Chicago architect and urban planner Daniel Burnham knew full well what a treasure the city had.

Rock Around the World -- The impressive Gothic Tribune Tower, just north of the Chicago River on the east side of Michigan Avenue, is home to one of the country's media giants and the Chicago Tribune newspaper. It's also notable for an array of architectural fragments jutting out from the exterior. The newspaper's notoriously despotic publisher, Robert R. McCormick, started the collection shortly after the building's completion in 1925, gathering pieces during his world travels. Tribune correspondents then began supplying building fragments that they acquired on assignment. Each one now bears the name of the structure and country whence it came. There are 138 pieces in all, including chunks and shards from the Great Wall of China, the Taj Mahal, the White House, the Arc de Triomphe, the Berlin Wall, the Roman Colosseum, London's Houses of Parliament, the Great Pyramid of Cheops in Giza, Egypt, and the original tomb of Abraham Lincoln in Springfield, Illinois.