Chicago Dog Show Events and Activities

There are many different Chicago Dog Show events over the three days, and you can get a full list of them from the kennel club’s website. The highlights of the show include:

• The Purina Canine Pro Plan Performance Team
• Dancers with Woofs a non-profit freestyle canine dance group
• The agility demonstrations and competitions
• Freestyle team dancing competitions
• The police K9 unit which will make an appearance
• Nose work and water rescue demonstrations

Tickets for the Chicago Dog Show are available at the door and cost $15.00 per adult, $12 for Children over 12 and seniors, and entry is free for children under the age of 12 (for the Friday show) and then 18$ per adults on the Saturday and Sunday with prices remaining the same for children and seniors. They also have a $2 Chicago Dog Show coupon available on their website which you can print off in advance and bring with you to the event.

Want to learn a little more about how to watch a dog show before heading over to McCormick Place for the Chicago Dog Show 2012? Visit the IKC website where they’ve posted all the information you need to know about the dog shows, their history and tips for getting the most out of your Chicago Dog Show spectator experience!

More Reasons to Visit the Chicago Dog Show: Special Chicago Dog Show Hotel Rates

Since we’re dog-lovers here at the Ramada Chicago Hotel, we want to make sure that you all have the opportunity and incentive to come visit us for the Chicago Dog Show. As a result, we’re offering special rates for visitors coming to town to see it! Call our Chicago Hotel reservation desk for more information on our special Chicago Dog Show hotel rates.

Top Reasons to Visit Chicago according to Frommer’s: Edible Adventures, Shopping and Culture

Located on Lake Michigan, Chicago is a city made up of eclectic neighbourhoods, sophisticated culture, and an amazing variety of foods, tourist sites and top shopping locations to keep your entire party entertained during your visit.

Where to Eat in Chicago

One of the top reasons travellers like to visit Chicago is to experience our many top restaurants and dining gems spread across the city. From Devon Avenue to Argyle Street, there are numerous food locales in Chicago with a variety of styles, flavours and atm

ospheres for every taste and budget. Culinary tours of the city are available for visiting foodies to help you get acquainted with the many eating options available to Chicago’s many visitors.

What to do in Chicago

Chicago is a city where a visitor would find it difficult to run out of things to do. No matter what you interests or vacation style, whether you’re travelling alone or with family and friends there’s plenty of Chicago attractions for every Chicago visitor to do when visiting our windy city including:

• City and architectural tours
• Bike, canoe and even segway tours
• High-end shopping in Downtown Chicago and the surrounding areas
• Culinary adventures across the city
• Scintillating night life
• Art galleries and well-developed art culture
• Destination worthy dining
• World class Chicago museums
• Chicago’s Navy Pier with, shops, dining as well as beaches

If you decide to visit Chicago based on Frommer’s well-respected opinions, you should plan on finding a hotel that situates you conveniently near all of the above tourist hot-spots. Our Ramada Chicago Hotel is a popular Chicago hotel located nearby Downtown Chicago and puts you and your family right at the epicentre of Chicago’s tourist industry. If need an extra incentive to visit Chicago and any of the above tourist recommendations catch your fancy, we have special hotel packages including:

• Chicago Bicycling Hotel Package
• Shopping Chicago Hotel Package
• Family Chicago Hotel Package

Contact our hotel near Downtown Chicago today to learn how we can make your trip to Chicago live up to Frommer’s high recommendations.

The U-505 is the only German submarine captured by the U.S. Navy during World War II and is now featured at the museum as part of a 35,000 square-foot interactive exhibit. The exclusive private tour begins at 8:15 am on  Sunday the 20^th of November, and lasts for 2.5 hours. The tour, which includes continental breakfast, a guided tour of the exhibit and an on-board tour followed by a presentation on a U-505 expert, only runs once in November and twice in all of 2011. The tour costs $50.00 for adults and $40.00 for children including breakfast, the tour and general admission to the rest of the museum once your tour is finished.

You can buy tickets for the event on the museum’s website, but be quick; the event is a popular one and is sure to sell out quickly! There are group rates available for the submarine tour through the same website and are a great way to save some money while keeping everyone you’re travelling with entertained during your stay in our Downtown Chicago Hotel.

If you can’t get to Chicago on the 20^th but are staying at our Ramada Chicago Hotel at another date in November you go on-board the submarine during free (with museum admission) 15 minute tours daily.

Chicago Hotel Packages

Our Family Chicago hotel packages are another great way to save some money on your vacation (money that can be spent on other fun activities in the Chicago area!) and if you’re visiting the museum, they include free shuttle service to and from the museum and our hotel!

Our Family Downtown Chicago hotel packages include:

• Accommodation for two adults, and two children for 1 night.
• Full American breakfast buffet for the whole family
• Free shuttle service between the hotel and the museum
• Scheduled free shuttle service into Downtown Chicago
• A special gift from our Ramada Chicago hotel to you!

The White House Exhibit

This is a great exhibit if your coming to Chicago. You will get to see parts of the White House that no one gets to see!

Its inside look at the People’s House that few people get.
The Museum’s new temporary exhibit, The White House: A Look Inside, offers an unprecedented up-close look at America’s most famous and beloved landmark. It takes you from the East Wing to the West Wing, through notable moments in history to the White House as it is today, in grand dimensions and true-to-life scale. Like the home that inspired it, this exhibit offers an awe-inspiring experience for the young and young-at-heart.

It begins with a photographic timeline of the White House: learn about its original construction, and the renovations and expansions throughout its 200-plus years. Gain new insight into the ever-changing role of the First Lady, and behind-the-scenes details on the daily life at the White House, supported by a legion of dedicated staff. See authentic artifacts from administrations throughout history, ranging from White House china to holiday cards. Learn more about the people – and even pets including a pony and a sheep – who have made their home in this famous house, with a special focus on the four Presidents who have lived in Illinois: Lincoln, Grant, Reagan and Obama.

The centerpiece of the exhibit is a meticulously detailed, 60-by-13 foot, 1:12 scale replica of the White House. Complete with hand-carved chairs and tables, stitch-by-stitch carpet recreations and even tiny working televisions, this masterpiece of miniature is the result of more than 600,000 work hours. This gift “to the people from the people” is truly a wonder to behold.

Opening with Christmas Around the World and Holidays of Light on November 20, the doors to the White House exhibit will be open through President’s Day, February 15, 2010.

Harry Potter Exhibit

The Museum of Science and Industry has the Harry Potter Exhibit at the museum until September 27th. Kids and there families are staying with us as were the closest hotel to the museum. I’ve never seen so many kids with us before. They usually come for the American Girl Experience but Harry’s got them beat. Here’s a link to the musem and the exhibit which is worth seeing.

After seeing the exhibit mast of the families are heading either to our nearby beach or Navy Pier. It’s great to see all the families here. They love the fact that they save at least $35.00 a day on parking here at the Ramada since its free here. I feel like I should be wearing round glasses and a special hat though also. Anyone know where I can get an owl?

http://www.msichicago.org/whats-here/exhibits/harry-potter/

• Chicago is the third largest city in United States
• The name ‘Chicago’ is the French interpretation of the Miami-Illinois name ‘Shikaakwa’, which means ‘wild leek’.
• Chicago was founded in 1772, when Jean-Baptiste Pointe du Sable, a man from Haiti, established a settlement on the north bank of the Chicago River, calling it Eschikagou.
• Chicago is home to over 40 museums, more than 150 theaters and over 6,000 restaurants.
• Chicago boasts of housing three of the world’s tallest buildings, Sears Tower, Amoco Building and John Hancock.
• The world’s largest public library, Harold Washington Library Center, with a collection of more than 2 million books, is in Chicago.
• Roller skates, steel frame skyscraper, elevated railway, cracker jacks, zipper, window envelope, hostess Twinkie, pinball game and spray paint were invented in Chicago.
• More than 200 annual parades take place in the city of Chicago every year.
• Chicago is home to the largest building in America (excluding Pentagon), The Merchandise Mart, with 90 acres of floor space.
• Oceanarium, in Chicago, is the largest indoor marine mammal pavilion in the world.
• Chicago is home to one of the last free zoos in the world, the Lincoln Park Zoo.
• Chicago River is the only river in the world that flows backwards.
• Chicago is known as the ‘Candy Capital of the World’.
• The Art Institute of Chicago is home to the largest collection of Impressionist paintings in the world, apart from the Louvre (Paris).
• Kate Sturges Buckingham donated $750,000 to the city for construction of Buckingham Fountain as a memorial to her brother Clarence. The largest fountain in the world, it shoots a water jet 135 feet high.
• The Wrigley Building is the first air-conditioned office building.
• The first McDonald’s franchise restaurant, owned by Ray Kroc, opened in the suburb of Des Plaines.
• Chicago has 29 miles of Lake Frontage and 15 miles of public beach.
• Lake Michigan is more than 10,300 years old, 307 miles long, 118 across at its widest point, average depth is 279 feet, maximum depth is 923 feet
contains roughly 1,350 trillion gallons of water, covers an area of 22,300 square miles
• Tribune Tower, home of the Chicago Tribune newspaper, has exterior walls that are embedded with authentic pieces of famous buildings including Westminster Abbey, the Alamo, Hamlet’s castle, the Great Pyramid, the Taj Mahal, Fort Sumter and the Arc de Triumph.

I also met some intresting people staying with us for a special event here in Chicago this week.  American Idol is in town for tryouts! Thousands of people are here to let “Simon, The Big Dog Randy and Paula” hear them sing their hearts out.  A couple of the girls were singing in the lobby, I hope to see them on the funny side of the show. I don’t think their going to make it!  No one else was letting us hear them so I couldn’t judge the others to see if we had a winner staying with us.

A large family came in from their day of visiting our fair city Saturday night.  They looked dead to the world.  They told me that they had walked 8 miles up Clark Street to see Wrigley Field.  Plus they walked all around downtown and at Navy Pier.  They were planning to go to the pool and just soak for the rest of the night.  Thats what we provide here at the Ramada “Rest & Relaxation.”  We even have a beach accross the street for those sun worshipers staying with us.  As I have always said there’s always something to do in Chicago and Ramada Chicago Hyde Park is just the place to recharge your batteries and enjoy A Great Midwestern Vacation Destination.

They came on their honeymoon to Chicago! Actually this happens quite often here at the Ramada. People in the southern hemisphere want to get away from the sun and experience a different climate. We welcome them here with open arms! After thawing them out and sitting them down in the restaurant they started telling me about all the sight seeing they have done. They went to Navy Pier for one day. Now I told them if they wanted to see Chicago they would have to pick up the pace. You could easily spend a whole day at many of our popular attraction here in Chicago. They went shopping on Michigan Ave, they went on a sight seeing bus and on Saturday they were going to the Chicago Museum of Science and Industry. They were having a great time and wanted to soak in everything Chicago had to offer.

Maybe I should return the favor and go to Brazil… better not, me in a speedo isn’t a pretty sight!