This year we chose to take a journey and go through the culture and attractions that have made Chicago famous. We had never been there before, but we were determined to see as much of the Chicago tourist attractions as we could to ensure that everyone saw something they found interesting. This wasn’t going to be a simple trip since our numbers included everything from a sports enthusiast to the serious academic.

We started our drive around Chicago at the Shedd Aquarium. This turned into an interesting experience mainly because of the size of the place. You can’t help but be overwhelmed by the aquarium and also the number of animals that this houses. Apparently the Shedd Aquarium is actually the biggest indoor marine mammal habitat across the world.

Even if this was just one of the main Chicago tourist attractions we wanted to see, we spent a long time here. It couldn’t be helped. All things considered, there are more than 32,000 animals housed here, and they have a 3-million gallon saltwater oceanarium. You could possibly easily spend the whole day observing the octopi, whales, dolphins, exotic fish, and anything else. But there was clearly more to see within this city, so we eventually left.

Our next stop was at the famous Wrigley Field. This is just about the most recognizable stadiums in all of baseball, and even though none among us were really big Cubs fans, we decided it might be worth visiting a game. There are many of die-hard fans at the games, but we still listed it as one of the primary Chicago tourist attractions that any of us wanted to visit. The experience was enjoyable, however the atmosphere in the stadium was even better.

Eventually we made our route to the Willis Tower Skydeck. This was formerly known as the Sears Tower, and it has been one of the most famous Chicago tourist attractions for decades. This tower really must be seen to be believed. It stands 1,353 feet high, rendering it the tallest building in the western hemisphere and also on a clear day you can view for 40 to 50 miles from the Skydeck.

We stayed on the Willis Tower Skydeck long enough to view the sunset before we left. Seeing the sun go lower over the Chicago skyline from this high up is one thing that you will always remember. When we finally left the tower, though, we were treated to one more ride on the elevators that could almost often be a tourist attraction themselves since they travel at about 1,600 feet each minute.

We decided to make the Field Museum the last of our Chicago tourist attractions. This turned into a remarkably interesting stop that was both cultural and educational. The Field Museum has over 26 million artifacts which cover everything from dinosaurs to ancient Egypt to underground adventures. We saw SUE, the most complete and finest preserved T. Rex fossil yet discovered, and 23 different mummies.

As soon as we left Chicago we felt like we had seen and experienced a lot of different attractions. Many of us were hoping to learn something totally new and some just wanted the experience of a baseball game. It took some preparing to see every one of these Chicago tourist attractions, however when we left we were all glad that we went.