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The Loop Downtown in Chicago is synonymous with the Loop. The Loop refers to a core of primarily commercial, governmental, and cultural buildings contained within a looping of elevated train tracks in the center city, Downtown Greater downtown Chicago extends beyond the Loop and is bounded by the Chicago River to the north and west, by Michigan Avenue to the east, and by Roosevelt Avenue to the south. Art Institute of Chicago 111 S. Michigan Avenue, Chicago 312-443-3600 Hours: 10:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday; 10:30 a.m. to 8 p.m. Tuesday; 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday; noon to 5 p.m. Sunday Admission charged. Masterpieces from Monet and Degas are housed in a vast, world-class collection that also features African, American-Indian and Asian works, decorative arts and sculpture, photography, prints, textiles, and contemporary American painting. Free lectures are open to the public on Tuesday evenings. The Field Museum 1400 S. Lake Shore Drive, Chicago 312-922-9410 Hours: 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily Admission charged. The Field is Chicago's crowning museum of natural history, with exhibits on everything from dinosaurs to African culture to gems and minerals. Visitors can observe as geologists work on a million-year-old fossilized dinosaur, painstakingly removing its bones from the rock and assembling them for display. The "Life Over Time" display documents the changing weather patterns that contributed to the formation of the earth's environment, and other exhibits explore the various cultures of the world's population. Grant Park, Chicago Dedicated in 1844, this park covers 319 acres along Lake Michigan and is home to the Shedd Aquarium, the Adler Planetarium, the Field Museum and the Art Institute. Attraction type: Park John G. Shedd Aquarium 1200 S. Lake Shore Drive, Chicago 312-939-2438 Hours: June-August, 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. daily; September through May, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily Admission charged. Visitors to the Shedd Aquarium should be sure to stop by around feeding time to watch divers distribute dinner to the various eels, rays, sea turtles and fish that make its Tropical Coral Reef home. Nearly 8,000 aquatic animals - fresh and salt-water alike - are part of the Shedd's collection, and nearly 2 million visitors make the journey to the world's largest indoor aquarium each year. Lincoln Park Zoo 2001 N. Clark Street, Chicago 312-742-2000 Admission charged per car. Hours: 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily The oldest zoo in the country, Lincoln Park Zoo is still free to visitors. But its greatest asset is its vast collection - 1,200 animals - and its dedication to teaching conservation and protection of wildlife. The zoo's Lester E. Fisher Great Ape House is considered one of the finest gorilla exhibits in the world. Other visitor favorites include the Sea Lion Pool, the Bird House (where feathered friends surround their homo sapiens visitors) and the Penguin and Seabird House. And of course, there are plenty of elephants, giraffes and rhinos Magnificent Mile North Michigan Avenue, Chicago 800-232-5558 A mecca for shoppers, Magnificent Mile runs along North Michigan Avenue to Lincoln Park and rivals Rodeo Drive and Worth Avenue for world-class shopping and restaurants. Comforting names like The Gap accompany upscale Armani on the list of 60 well-known retail establishments to line this spending paradise. Three shopping malls are also nearby, and each is worthy of the Magnificent Mile's high-class shopping reputation, and magnificent restaurants and five-star hotels. Millenium Park Located in downtown Chicago on Michigan Avenue between Randolph and Monroe Streets, the 24.5-acre park is an unprecedented center for world-class art, music, architecture and landscape design, where you can experience everything from interactive public art and ice skating to al fresco dining and free classical music presentations by the Grant Park Orchestra and Chorus. Among the park’s prominent features is the dazzling Jay Pritzker Pavilion, the most sophisticated outdoor concert venue of its kind in the United States, designed by Frank Gehry, one of the world’s greatest living architects. A pedestrian bridge, also designed by Mr. Gehry and spanning Columbus Drive, provides access to the pavilion, acts as an acoustical barrier between the audience and traffic noise, and links Millennium Park to the rest of Chicago's lakefront park system. The park also is home to one of the world’s largest outdoor sculptures by the British artist Anish Kapoor; the tradition-setting Lurie Garden designed by the team of Kathryn Gustafson, Piet Oudolf, and Robert Israel; and the Crown Fountain designed by Spanish artist Jaume Plensa. Sears Tower 233 S. Wacker Drive, Chicago 312-875-9447 Admission charged. Hours: October-February, 9 AM - 10PM daily; March-September, 9AM – 11PM daily. The tallest building in North America and still one of the tallest in the world, the Sears Tower soars 110 stories to 1,454 feet. Completed in 1973, the tower was built by 12,000 workers in fierce Chicago winds, which became a more significant challenge the higher the structure rose. The newly opened Skydeck on the 103rd floor offers 80-mile views on a clear day. It also presents a number of educational exhibits on Chicago history, the Great Chicago Fire and the city's founding fathers and mothers. Tribune Tower, Chicago The neo-gothic tower's signature is the exterior collection of stones from other famous edifices, like the Parthenon, St. Peter's Basilica, Notre Dame, the White House and most recently, the Berlin Wall. Wrigley Field, Chicago One of America's smallest, oldest, and best-loved ballparks, Wrigley is home to the Chicago Cubs.