How do I kill time in Chicago?

[TrogL]

Looks like I've got a four-hour layover.

Is it even worth leaving the airport?

[Donkeyboy75]

Probably not. Sucks you don't have more time, though.

[HereSince1628]

1. No, get drunk in the terminal...

[Nevernose]

3. Of course, that's my advice for EVERYTHING

But it holds especially true at Midway.

[No2W2004]

2. Not if you only have 4 hours

O'hare is too far from the city.

[CO Liberal]

4. You Take It To a Parking Garage...

...and open up the machine-gun fire.



:-)

[greatauntoftriplets]

5. Go to the Berghoff Cafe.

Great old-time Chicago German restaurant has a spot in Terminal 1 (United Airlines). Great food, and their own dark beer.

Please accept my condolences about your father, TrogL.

And on edit: Security at O'Hare is extremely tough. I had to take my shoes off to walk through security last September; that was not required when departing Seattle.

http://www.berghoff.com/Berghoff/ohare.html

[Justice]

8. Great suggestion.

[Nevernose]

13. It's not the same if it ain't that place downtown

Security at Midway is a bitch, too. Made my daughter take apart her toys the Christmas before last.

[mopinko]

6. when will you be here?

maybe a couple of du ers could come hoist one with you.
there is a cta station right in the airport. it takes less than an hour to get downtown. you could do something if you wanted.

[TrogL]

14. That's kinda what I had in mind

I've never met a real live DUer.

If you're interested, I'll PM details.

[WoodrowFan]

7. go watch the cubs choke.

(ducking)

[HawkerHurricane]

9. If you had more time...

The Museum of Science and Industry...
You can take a tour of a real, live U-Boat.

[JM]

11. U505 Exhibit is closed

but a great idea...I assume it is still closed as they were moving it to a new indoor facility in April.

The only captured German sub...

JM

[HawkerHurricane]

12. NOT the only captured German sub...

the only one captured by the United States. The Royal Navy pulled off the same trick, and did it first.

http://uboat.net/fates/captured.htm

by Gudmundur Helgason

U-110 - "The Secret Capture"
May 9, 1941. This is what most people view as the most important capture of the entire war and it was so secret that even the crew of U-110 did not know of it! U-110 (on its second patrol under the command of Kptlt Fritz Julius Lemp) had been attacking a convoy along with U-201 (Oblt Adalbert Schnee) when Lemp left his periscope up too long (probably to confirm a kill, he sank two ships on that day amounting to 7500 GRT) and the escort HMS Aubretia noticed it and rushed to the scene dropping depth charges.
U-110 survived the first attacks but then HMS Bulldog and HMS Broadway came and join in the hunt. U-110 was forced to surface and HMS Bulldog immediately went onto ramming course (its commander realized at the very last moment that a capture might come off and tried to evade hitting U-110 which he almost did) which Lemp noticed and ordered "Abandon Ship". Lemp figured that since the boat was going to be rammed (and presumably sunk) its secrets were safe within it. Only when he was in the water did he realize that the boat was not sinking and attempted to swim back and prevent capture and that was the last seen of him. Many say he was shot in the water by a British sailor but that may not be at all true.

The British made several journeys between U-110 and HMS Bulldog to collect whatever they could get their hands on inside the boat. This must have been a real treat as U-110 was abandoned in a hurry and being a IXB class she did not sink as rapidly as VIIC would likely have done. It is very likely that numerous U-boats were sunk using the material found inside U-110.

The day after the boat was captured someone realized that the allies already had the most important part of U-110, namely the secret documents and Enigma machine and that the Germans might find out that the British had the boat soon and, assuming the worst, change all codes and cipher system. The boat "accidentally" sank when being towed to Britain. 15 men were killed in the action and 32 captured. Lemp himself did not survive as noted above.

----

This is the story that they based the Hollywood movie on.

[JM]

17. I sit corrected...n/t

[philosophie_en_rose]

10. Oprah? Springer?

:)

[Radical Activist]

15. Not enough time

It takes too long to get in and out of O'Hare to anywhere interesting. Which is too bad. Chicago is an absolute blast and I love going there. There are millions of things to do.

[greatauntoftriplets]

16. Absolutely.

Figure an hour each way to and from downtown. On a good day!