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I have a confession to make. I’ve lived in the Midwest my entire life and travelled all over, but it took me 36 years to finally make it to Chicago. Even though the city was only a short trip away…perfect for a weekend…nothing about Chicago called to me. That is, until Hamilton set up residence there.
If you have even the most passing interest in Broadway, you know about Hamilton. Heck, even if you’ve never given musicals a moment’s thought in your life, you probably still know about Hamilton. It’s topped the Billboard charts, been remixed and parodied, and practically made Lin-Manuel Miranda a household name. From the first time I heard the soundtrack, Hamilton has been at the top of my list of must-see musicals. But I just couldn’t find a way to make the budget stretch to cover $400+ tickets on Broadway.
Thankfully, over the last couple years, Hamilton has hit the road. With companies in London, Chicago, and on the west coast as well as a touring group, the musical has become much more accessible. At first, I hoped that I’d be able to score tickets in my hometown, but with requirements to buy season memberships to even earn the right to purchase Hamilton tickets, I realized that Chicago might be the perfect solution.
It did take a little planning. A quick glance online and I discovered Hamilton tickets could be exceptionally expensive even in Chicago…and nearby hotels could be astronomical as well! After some intense internet searching, I found price drops for hotels leading up to the holidays, which meant I could score a room at the Palmer House (just next door to the CIBC Theater) for under $100 on a weekend night…and, purchasing a couple months in advance, Hamilton tickets could be had for around $150 a person.
Despite being a little concerned about freezing to death, I booked a weekend in early November. My mother is an equally enthusiastic Broadway fan, so I invited her along and made it a girls’ weekend.
Transportation
Chicago’s a pretty easy flight for most of the Midwest. It’s a major hub for the region which means there are frequent, inexpensive flights available. We caught an early morning flight in to Midway on Sat and an afternoon flight out on Monday for less than $100 roundtrip, which actually gave us plenty of time to attend the musical and even explore a little.
Transport to downtown was equally as easy and inexpensive. The L runs from Midway to multiple downtown stations for about $3 per person…and one of the stops was conveniently just half a block from our hotel.
Hotel
I admit, I picked my Chicago hotel solely based on location, availability, and price. Other than those things, I knew nothing about the Palmer House before I arrived. What a surprise! I was not expecting such a grand, historic building. The staff were incredible and even managed to get us straight into our room, despite being well before check in time. A quick change and it was time to explore!
Field Museum
We opted to spend Saturday at the Field Museum. Since the weather was surprising sunny and not too bitter cold, we walked along Lake Michigan down to the museum.
The place is huge and it took us all day just to work our way through a fraction of the permanent exhibits. If you wanted to visit the temporary exhibits or participate in some of the other activities, you might want to spread your visit out over a couple days.
We particularly enjoyed the amazing dinosaur collection. Sadly, SUE was being installed into her brand new exhibit when we visited, so we didn’t get a chance to really see her (which was too bad, as I particularly enjoyed the scenes from Jim Butcher’s Dead Beat with Harry Dresden riding SUE down the Chicago streets), but the Titanosaur in the lobby was impressive in its own right.
Hamilton
Sunday was Hamilton day! After a leisurely morning sleeping in, we headed out to breakfast (see “Food” below) and then for a quick walk around downtown to admire the architecture (including stops to check out the start of Route 66, the Picasso statue, and the Chicago Cultural Center’s incredible Tiffany domes). A change of clothes…a stop for some hot tea…and we were off to the matinee performance.
I won’t ruin the experience for anyone, but Hamilton was just as incredible as I had imagined!!!
Art Institute of Chicago
On Monday, we decided to start the day with a walk through Millennium Park and then (as the temperature was dropping rapidly) we headed over to the Art Institute of Chicago. Just like the Field Museum, this is another extensive collection that really needs more than one day to do it justice. We spent several hours wandering the rooms before we had to catch the L back to the airport for our flight.
Food
I’m pescatarian at home, but pretty flexible when I travel. My mother, on the other hand, is pretty strictly pescatarian…and more on the vegetarian side of things. So we focused on restaurants that could easily accommodate vegetarians.
Himalayan Restaurant
We found Himalayan Restaurant on the way back to our hotel from the Field Museum. We hadn’t made any dinner plans and Indian food always has good vegetarian options, so we decided to give it a try. It was a bit confusing at first, the place appears to be designed for counter ordering/takeaway, but we were seated and served at a table for dinner. But the food was excellent! They even had my favorite…paneer tikka masala.
Peach and Green
Our plan one morning had been to eat at The Goddess and the Baker, but they were packed, so we opted to try Peach and Green just down the street. It turned out to be a great choice. We both ordered dishes off the made-to-order menu (I had a huge avocado toast…and the best chai latte of my trip!), but there was also a tasty looking breakfast bar that was quite popular.
The Goddess and the Baker
We did eventually make it to The Goddess and the Baker! Seating was limited, but it was worth being a bit crowded. We both had breakfast burritos which turned out to be huge portions that we should have split!
Lou Malnati’s Pizzeria
You can’t go to Chicago without having Chicago style pizza! We had heard about several popular options, but went with Lou Malnati’s at the recommendation of our hotel’s concierge and we were not disappointed! One note, the place was absolutely *packed* and they do not take reservations. We ended up waiting about 40 minutes before we were seated. Thankfully, they do have the option to order your pizza at the beginning of your wait so that it will be ready by the time you get to your table (apparently Chicago style pizza takes a while to cook).
Palmer House
The Palmer House Hotel claims to have invented the first brownie recipe for the 1893 Columbian Exposition World Fair. With a history like that, I wasn’t going to pass up a chance to try them! We had ours at the (beautiful) lobby bar where they made it into a sundae with ice cream and honey. If you can’t head to Chicago to try one, you can always make them at home (find the recipe here).
Pret a Manger
I’d eaten at these in London previously and had no idea there were any in the US. So we stopped in to grab a quick bite before heading back to the airport. I love that Pret makes it easy to grab healthy food on the go!
