How to Do Chicago on a Dime

DO:

1. First of all, find a lesser-known part of the city to explore rather than racking up expenses in The Loop, at museums, or shopping the Magnificent Mile. We chose Wicker Park and Bucktown.

2. Then stay somewhere nearby but not actually in Chicago for the first night of the weekend to save on hotel costs (preferably somewhere free, like your family's lake condo, for example). Enjoy the early morning sunrise before heading into the city. 

3. Find somewhere local and low-fuss for brunch (brunch means you can cut out a meal). Milk and Honey was an adorable, inexpensive little place where you order at the counter before filling your own cups and finding a table. Very efficient and very good.

4. Wander around the neighborhood. Admiring the architecture, the farmer's market, and the fall colors is entirely free and wonderful (plus good exercise).

5. When you're perusing the cute shops, keep your mind off of yourself. I'm proud to say that the only thing I bought the first day was this furry little rabbit for Poppy and her new room.

6. Find a bench and enjoy the view. People watching is also free, and this is a good time for chatting. Bry and I wrote out our own separate lists of 10 random questions to ask the other person over the weekend, so that gave us something fun to do whenever we had a spare minute or two.

7. Find local sites (that don't require admission) to visit. This is the Holy Trinity Polish church in Wicker Park's Polish neighborhood. We stopped by just in time for Sunday afternoon mass. The inside is even more beautiful than the outside, and though we couldn't understand anything due to the fact that it was all in Polish, it was a pretty cool experience. 

8. Go to the the Polish restaurant (Podhalanka) right around the corner from the church to complete the cultural experience. This place was ridiculously authentic. Like, the people who have been running the restaurant for the past 35 years still spoke Polish, and so did pretty much everyone else in there besides us. It was the kind of place that has dusty fake flowers, pictures of the Pope, and really good, homemade food.

The bill would have been quite reasonable if we hadn't let the hilarious waiter pick out our meal for us (things that "other restaurants will not give you") after he found out that we'd never been there and were very hungry. Though we tried valiantly, we couldn't finish it all. But we very much enjoyed our waiter, as well as our placki Ziemniaczane (potato pancakes), golabki (stuffed cabbage), pierogi (assorted stuffed dumplings), and nalesniki (cheese blintzes...umm, these things were out-of-control good). Not pictured: two big bowls of jarzynowa (vegetable) and zurek (sour borstch) soup. Oh, and he also brought us their special "tea." When I asked the waiter what was in it he said that he couldn't tell me, which is why they call it the KGB tea.

9. Go to a bookstore, pick out a book and a quiet corner on the top floor, and read for a while. This is Myopic Books, the biggest used bookstore in Chicago. I found a selection of C.S. Lewis essays and learned about "The Efficacy of Prayer." I had to pull Bry away from an apparently riveting book on the Dead Sea Scrolls. 

10. Stay in a hostel. But splurge on your own private room and bathroom. 

OK, so I have mixed feelings about this one. On the one hand it was new, clean, Ikea-esque, and in a beautiful old building. It was also fun to once again be the only ones speaking English at breakfast. However, it kind of weirded me out to have two sets of bunkbeds in our room, and the walls were not insulated enough, which meant that pregnant people (such as myself) may find it very difficult to get any sleep at all while the late-night party goes on in the lounge upstairs. But I've always wanted to stay in a hostel, so I'm glad we did...though I'm not sure it counts if you get a private room.

11. Go to the expensive french restaurant (Le Bouchon) with the cute French-looking waitress for lunch instead of dinner, and then get something small. Loved this place...definitely worth it. 

DO NOT:

1. Try out every local coffee shop that you see. This is especially difficult on cold, rainy days when you have very little else on the itinerary.

After a brutal two days of taste-testing, first place goes to Caffe Streets and their amazing chai. I really wish I knew how they made it. I actually took off the lid and licked the foam from this cup, it was that good.

2. Decide on ducking into just one or two more shops before heading home, while your sweet and obliging husband waits patiently outside. This may or may not result in finding a Free People dress on the sale rack that is just "such a good price" that you can't resist.

3. Also, do not wear shoes that become so unbearably uncomfortable that you simply MUST buy a new pair of black boots (with a much more comfortable wedge heel) to make it through the next day.

So there you have it. An affordable, completely relaxing way to enjoy Chicago. And now we have a new little corner of the world that we love.