Ten years ago, my family went to Chicago to look around. We had never been there. The city made a deep impression on us, so we returned last week for another look. If anything, the latest visit topped the first one. If anyone in the Lowell, Mass., area is reading this post and considering going there, I would say, Go for it! From Lowell, it’s easy to fly out of the Manchester, N.H., airport, less than one hour away. The flight is about two hours. Chicago has two airports, O’Hare and Midway. We arrived at Midway and took a taxi to our hotel downtown, about a half hour drive. O’Hare has mass transit service to the city. We stayed in the Michigan Avenue part of the city which offers easy access to most of the main attractions like the Art Institute and its superstar collection of American, European, and World artworks. If you know the movie Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, you know what you’ll see, from American Gothic by Grant Wood to “Sunday in the Park with George” (A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte) by Seurat.

Another spot not to miss is Millennium Park not far from the Art Institute. The centerpiece is a sculpture that may be the most successful work of public art in the country, Cloud Gate by Anish Kapoor, a massive mirror-finished steel sculpture in an organic shape that earned it the nickname “The Bean.” The reflective surface constantly changes and the scene on land and in the sky changes by the minute.

Another day in the late afternoon we joined about 200 people on a cruise on the Chicago River with a guide who described the city’s astounding architecture, a pile up of vast warehouses, high rises, and skyscrapers in various forms. The 90-minute tour was a user-friendly seminar on Chicago history combined with an informative introduction to building design and structural engineering. On the boat we had people from around the US and nations abroad including a lot of runners who were registered for the Chicago Marathon scheduled for the next morning. In front of us were two women wearing blue-and-yellow Boston Marathon windbreakers. The tour boats run constantly, even at night with buildings lit up.

We rounded out our trip with a visit to the Obama Presidential Center on the South Side of the city, about 30 minutes from where we were staying. You can reach it by train (subway), bus, taxi, or private ride. The central building or museum on the campus is called “The Obamalisk” for its unique shape. Inside is the extraordinary story of a man “who went from here to there” on the American civic route. His stops included Hawai’i, Kansas, Indonesia, Harvard University, and New York City before his gig as a community organizer in Chicago, where he met the equally extraordinary Michelle Robinson. Not everyone, I know, but a lot of people find his story inspiring, and moving, to the point that the museum staff places boxes of tissues at strategic locations. I got a little choked up myself reliving the 2008 campaign through video on the second floor. Once the exhibit reaches his presidency, there’s a mock Oval Office where folks can hand their camera to a staff person for a picture of themselves standing at the desk. On floor eight, the space is wide open with windows all around for a panoramic view of the region. Gary, Indiana, on the Lake Michigan shore is right out there in the distance.

The campus includes a branch of the Chicago Public Library and a large building called The Forum with art and cultural exhibits, places to eat, and event spaces. The grounds are landscaped in the Prairie style with local plants as well as formal gardens. More artwork enlivens the grounds including a water feature with two round forms made by Maya Lin, a reference to the Obamas’ relationship.

The photo below if from opening day in June 2026. We were there on a Sunday of a holiday weekend and did not find the place uncomfortably crowded. Tickets are hard to come by, however, because of the large demand. We reserved tickets last May before the official opening. Now, the tickets are released in batches to manage the attendance. Plan on getting tickets some months ahead if you want to go. It’s worth the wait.

Photo by alphabeta135 courtesy of Wikipedia

I mentioned above my initial visit ten years ago. Here’s what I wrote for the Howe blog at that time.