As if The Signature Room at the 95th didn't offer enough tongue-tying for the day, we decided to up the ante a little for dinner by visiting a small local place after we returned to our hotel.
While its name doesn't exactly roll off the tongue, this dining room offers two distinct benefits. One is the view. From the 95th floor of the John Hancock Center in Chicago, there isn't much you can't see.
Two is the fact that by dining lunch here you get to take advantage of that view without having to pay for a ticket to the observatory, which is actually located one floor below the dining room.
The cost of the observatory ticket on our visit was $9, while the lunch buffet price at $18 includes not only the aforementioned elevator trip included, but a buffet to go along with the trip. Since you might be likely to spend a minimum of $9 each if you eat on the ground, at worst you're just paying for the trip and the meal at once. At best, you're getting the ride for free.
We stayed two nights in this hotel, just a short distance from Chicago's O'Hare airport. The hotel offers a free shuttle service to and from the airport that runs about every 20 minutes, you can take the CTA blue line, which is just a 5-minute walk from the front door of the hotel, or I'm sure you can call a cab too (we didn't use a cab at all).
The rooms of the hotel are nice, if a bit modern. The noise of the airport isn't bad, though there is an airplane headed overhead from time to time that you can hear. For being so close to one of the world's busiest airports, it's surprisingly quiet. Our room had no bathtub in it, which wasn't a big deal, but if for some reason you like a tub, this might be an issue for you. Check to see if they have one.
I didn't sleep too well again last night, but I think it was more because of the excitement of our pending trip than anything. Even though we don't need to leave the house until about 7:30, and I rarely sleep past 7:00am anyway, I just have to make sure I don't oversleep. The good news is that the headache that just won't go away has pretty much gone away. Hopefully it will not return for a while. Have a great weekend!
