Adler Planetarium and Astronomy Museum
The building may be historic, but some of the attractions here will captivate the most jaded video-game addict. The first planetarium in the Western Hemisphere, it was founded by Sears, Roebuck and Co. executive Max Adler, who imported a Zeiss projector from Germany in 1930.The good news for present-day visitors is that the planetarium has been updated since then. Your first stop should be the modern Sky Pavilion, where the don't-miss experience is the StarRider Theater. Settle down under the massive dome, and you'll take a half-hour long interactive virtual-reality trip through the Milky Way and into deep space, featuring a computer-generated 3D-graphics projection system and controls in the armrest of each person's seat. Six high-resolution video projectors form a seamless image above your head -- you'll feel like you're literally floating in space. (On Thurs, Fri, and Sat nights, the theater is open late for SonicVision, a head-trippy digital animation show with an alternative music soundtrack.) If you're looking for more entertainment, the Sky Theater shows movies with an astronomical bent. Recent shows have included Secrets of Saturn and Mars Now!, both of which are updated as new discoveries are made. The planetarium's exhibit galleries feature a variety of displays and interactive activities designed to foster understanding of our solar system and more. The best current exhibit is Bringing the Heavens to Earth, which traces the ways different cultures have tried to make sense of astronomical phenomena. The planetarium's signature exhibit, From the Night Sky to the Big Bang, traces changing views of the cosmos over 1,000 years and features artifacts from the planetarium's extensive collection of historical astronomical instruments (all of which can get a bit boring for kids unless they're real astronomy nuts).The museum's cafe provides views of the lakefront and skyline. On the first Friday evening of the month, visitors can view dramatic close-ups of the moon, the planets, and distant galaxies through a closed-circuit monitor connected to the planetarium's Doane Observatory telescope.Allow 2 hours, more if you want to see more than one show.

Chicago Cultural Center
Built in 1897 as the city's public library, and transformed into a showplace for visual and performing arts in 1991, the Chicago Cultural Center is an overlooked civic treasure. Its basic Beaux Arts exterior conceals a sumptuous interior of rare marble, fine hardwood, stained glass, polished brass, and mosaics of Favrile glass, colored stone, and mother-of-pearl inlaid in white marble. The crowning centerpiece is Preston Bradley Hall's majestic Tiffany dome, said to be the largest of its kind in the world.The building also houses one of the Chicago Office of Tourism's visitor centers, which makes it an ideal place to kick-start your visit. If you stop in to pick up tourist information and take a quick look around, your visit won't take longer than half an hour. But the Cultural Center also hosts an array of art exhibitions, concerts, films, lectures, and other special events (many free), which might convince you to extend your time here. A long-standing tradition is the 12:15pm Dame Myra Hess Memorial classical concert every Wednesday in the Preston Bradley Hall. Other ongoing programs include a monthly cultural festival -- which highlights a different city or country over a weekend with art, theater, and film.Guided architectural tours of the Cultural Center are offered Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday at 1:15pm. For information, call tel. 312/744-8032.Allow a half-hour.

Art Institute of Chicago
You can't (and shouldn't) miss the Art Institute: The signature pair of bronze lions that flank the museum's main entrance are perfect rendezvous points, and there is always a throng of people sitting on the steps on nice days. Finding the museum is easy -- it's deciding what to see that is hard. Choose a medium and a century and the Art Institute has the works in its collection to captivate you: Japanese ukiyo-e prints, ancient Egyptian bronzes and Greek vases, 19th-century British photography, masterpieces by most of the greatest names in 20th-century sculpture, or modern American textiles. For a good general overview of the museum's collection, take the free "Highlights of the Art Institute" tour, offered at 2pm on Saturdays, Sundays, and Tuesdays.If you've got limited time, you'll want to head straight to the museum's renowned collection of Impressionist art (including one of the world's largest collections of Monet paintings); this is one of the most popular areas of the museum, so arriving early pays off. Among the treasures, you'll find Seurat's pointillist masterpiece Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte. Your second must-see areas are the galleries of European and American contemporary art, ranging from paintings, sculptures, and mixed-media works from Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse, and Salvador Dalí through Willem de Kooning, Jackson Pollock, and Andy Warhol. Visitors are sometimes surprised when they discover many of the icons that hang here. (Grant Wood's American Gothic and Edward Hopper's Nighthawks are two that bring double takes from many visitors.)Other recommended exhibits are the collection of delicate mid-19th-century glass paperweights in the museum's famous Arthur Rubloff collection and the great hall of European arms and armor dating from the 15th to 19th centuries. Composed of more than 1,500 objects, including armor, horse equipment, swords and daggers, polearms, and maces, the collection is one of the most important assemblages of its kind in the country. (If you do head down here, don't miss Marc Chagall's stunning stained-glass windows at the end of the gallery.)The Art Institute goes the extra mile to entertain kids. The Kraft Education Center on the lower level features interactive exhibits for children and has a list of "gallery games" to make visiting the museum more fun. When I was a kid, I was entranced by the Thorne Miniature Rooms, filled with tiny reproductions of furnished interiors from European and American history (heaven for a dollhouse fanatic).The museum also has a cafeteria and an elegant full-service restaurant, a picturesque courtyard cafe (open June-Sept), and a large shop. There is a busy schedule of lectures, films, and other special presentations, as well as guided tours, to enhance your viewing of the art. The museum also has a research library. Allow 3 hours.If you want to enjoy your favorite masterpieces in something resembling peace and quiet, put some thought into the timing of your visit to the Art Institute, a museum so popular that it draws as much traffic as our jammed expressways.Some tips for avoiding the rush hour: Many people don't realize the museum is open on Mondays; so keep this secret to yourself, and visit when the galleries are relatively subdued. Wednesdays are a close second. Tuesdays tend to draw the masses because the Art Institute is free that day and open late (until 8pm). Try to arrive when the doors open in the morning or else during the lunchtime lull. Another tip: If the Michigan Avenue entrance is crowded, head around to the entrance on the Columbus Drive side, which is usually less congested and is more convenient to the Grant Park underground parking garage. There's a small gift shop near the Columbus Drive entrance, too, if the main shop is too bustling.

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