IN CHICAGO
Plans announced for site of 2017 festival shooting
CHICAGO – The last time my son and I roamed this sparkling lakefront city together, he was wearing a Minnesota Vikings Santa hat and matching pajama pants and getting heckled at Soldier Field. ❚ It was a surprise trip to celebrate his 11th birthday, tickets to a Chicago BearsVikings showdown as the main attraction. (The Vikings lost.) ❚ Fast forward nearly nine years. We reprised the mother-son adventure a few weeks before he starts back to college in Arizona and three months after I moved here as an empty nester.
After months of speculation about what would be done with the former Las Vegas Village concert grounds, site of the Route 91 Harvest Festival shooting, plans have been announced. In the near term, the south-Strip parcel will be used as a parking lot for games and concerts when Allegiant Stadium opens next year. Long-term plans are to build a community and athletic center on the site, and possibly a public memorial.
Betting bargain: Caesars Entertainment sports books are dealing -105 lines, meaning you bet $105 to win $100 as opposed to the standard $110/$100 arrangement. The “reduced juice” lines are available only on NFL sides (choose the winner against the point spread) from 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. Tuesdays.
Express steak: The Plaza downtown has a steak special for $9.99 that might be served faster than any steak dinner in town. Order at the register, tell the cashier how you want your steak cooked, then take a seat and watch her cook it right in front of you on a press grill. She adds a scoop of mashed potatoes and a scoop of vegetables and delivers it in minutes. It’s served daily from 5 p.m. to close.
Pin-up rooms: Clair Sinclair, the 2011 Playboy Playmate of the Year and the former headliner of “Pin-Up” at The Strat, has opened Clairbnb, a seven-room bed and breakfast near downtown. Each room has a theme, such as the Swingin' '70s, Vintage Glitz and Lovie Dovie, with rates in the $180s during the week and the $440s on the weekend.
Flamingo Jackpot: A Wisconsin man who plays Let It Ride every time he visits Las Vegas hit a royal flush at the Flamingo recently, taking down a $1.3 million progressive jackpot. He’s the eighth player in nine months to win $1 million or more while playing the $5 progressive table-game side bet at Caesars casinos.
It's a girl!: Siegfried & Roy’s Secret Garden and Dolphin Habitat at the Mirage has a new resident. The unnamed baby girl is the first in a fourth generation of dolphins at the Habitat; her great-grandmother, Duchess, is 44 and has lived 15 years past her life expectancy. Visitors can see the three-week-old dolphin during Secret Garden hours, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m daily. Admission is $22, $17 for ages 4-12.
Question: How much does it cost to play Las Vegas’ biggest football contests?
Answer: The most expensive is Westgate’s SuperContest Gold, which has a $5,000 entry fee. The Westgate’s SuperContest is $1,500 and you can buy up to two entries for a $3,000 outlay. The D/Golden Gate’s new Circa Million is $1,000 with a three-entry max. And the Golden Nugget’s Ultimate Football Challenge is $1,000, with a two-entry limit. That big $5K event is winner take all.
Q: Is a new casino being built just east of the Palms? A: No, it’s a non-casino Delta Hotel by Marriott. The 284-room hotel will be part of the 8.5-acre mixed-use property that includes a luxury apartment complex, retail and restaurants. The hotel is slated for completion in late 2021.
Jack and I traversed the city for four days, logging nearly 40 miles on foot and bike. It was more about spending time together outside – something not possible in Phoenix in the summer – than it was about checking off every tourist attraction and deep-dish pizza place. We’d already hit most of the latter on a family fall break trip when he was in grade school.
It started with decadent cheeseburgers on the patio at Small Cheval in Old Town, an offshoot of the hard-to-getinto Au Cheval, and ended with a toast at the lake before his flight.
The highlights:
Biking the lakefront
Unless it’s Polar Vortex season, no trip to Chicago is complete without a bike ride, run or stroll along Lake Michigan.
We rented Divvy Bikes, Chicago’s bike-share program, from a dock in Old Town and headed north to Lincoln Park and a bridge to the 18-mile lakefront trail. It’s $15 for a 24-hour pass, and you can drop it off at any station with open slots. Note a project completed in 2018 separated the bike and pedestrian lanes, so make sure you’re in the correct lane.
We headed north, stopping for more skyline photos than he would have liked, and one bike swap because of a loose pedal.
There are a handful of waterfront restaurants and bars along the way, but he zeroed in on a tiny taco stand near Waveland Park and the Sydney Marovitz Golf Course. We ordered four street tacos from Two Wheels Taco: two chicken and two carne asada and took them and our bikes to the lake for a picnic. It was the perfect pit stop.
We kept going north, before turning back and docking the bikes near Ohio Street Beach so we could walk back to Old Town via the shopping mecca that is Michigan Avenue.
Our self-guided bike tour was about 31⁄2 hours long.
The next morning, with time left in our 24-hour pass, we picked up bikes and headed to the Chicago Riverwalk, where we planned to rent kayaks.
One wrinkle: It was a weekday morning and several stations were full of bikes. We finally found a drop-off spot in The Loop, the downtown business district, and walked to the riverwalk.
Kayaking the Chicago River
The Chicago River is busy with giant tour boats and pleasure boats galore, especially in the summer.
I’ve kayaked a couple of times, but am a nervous novice so I convinced my son to do a tandem kayak so I didn’t veer into the path of a Chicago architecture tour.
We rented one from Urban Kayaks and, after a quick test of our paddling technique and very thorough safety video (stay away from the lake and hug the right side of the river in each direction, in the imaginary kayak “lane”), we were launched into the water for a onehour ride.
I’ve seen Chicago and the river from many vantage points, but the kayak was unique and I wished we stayed on longer, intimidating as it was when sightseeing tours were looming. Next on my list: one of Urban Kayaks’ fireworks, history or sunset tours.
My son described the experience as “freakin’ cool” and “an awesome way to see the city.”
We walked along the riverwalk and Wacker Drive to Wells Street Market, one of my favorite food halls in Chicago. (It’s open only during the week.) I had gyros from Piggie Smalls Gyro Shop, a stand from the founder of esteemed Chicago restaurant Purple Pig, and Jack had a Nashville hot chicken sandwich from Fry the Coop.
Rooftop views
Cindy’s Rooftop, a restaurant and bar at the Chicago Athletic Association Hotel on Michigan Avenue near Millen
nium Park, rightfully ranks up there as a must-see in Chicago for sweeping views of the lake, the skyline and The Bean (official name “Cloud Gate”) and Crown Fountain below.
We headed to the crowded outdoor bar and hovered for a spot against the railing for the perfect photo.
Our other “rooftop” venue, albeit indoor and touristy: 360 Chicago on the 94th floor of the John Hancock building. We picked the Hancock because it was closer than the SkyDeck at Willis Tower (Sears Tower in another life.)
It’s nothing as fancy as the Signature Room a floor above or the Signature Lounge two floors above, but it’s more family-friendly, the views are just as fantastic, there’s a bar, and you get some history about the skyscraper. We scored a couple of living-room-like lounge chairs by the windows facing north and sat there for nearly an hour. We didn’t try the Tilt, which is billed as “Chicago’s highest thrill ride, an enclosed moving platform that literally tilts you out over Michigan Avenue.”
Inspired by the lake views below, we ditched our dinner plans and headed to Oak Street Beach for a sunset picnic with cheese, salad and other snacks picked up at 1350 Commissary Market, tucked inside a residential high-rise on Lake Shore Drive.
Lincoln Park Zoo
Zoos aren’t at the top of most 19year-olds’ must-see lists in Chicago, but Jack was intrigued when he spotted a camel on our bike ride through Lincoln Park on the way to the lakefront trail.
We made plans to go back on his last day, after strolling through a farmer’s market in Lincoln Park.
Animal lover or not, Lincoln Park Zoo is a must-see in Chicago. Think of it as a giant city park with animals and surprise views of the skyline. The best part: it’s open every day, and admission is free.
We wandered for more than an hour, checking out a polar bear, giraffe, monkeys and more.
As I was texting a friend for the name of his favorite hot dog stand (The Wiener’s Circle), Jack jumped in line for a regular hot dog at the zoo. It wouldn’t have been my choice, but this wasn’t a trip about the best food spots in Chicago.
He wolfed it down, and we walked back through Lincoln Park to Michigan Avenue for back-to-school shopping.