The Chicago Children's Museum offers endless opportunities for children to engage in play. They can explore a schooner, hide in a treehouse, construct a towering skyscraper, experiment with essential tools, fish in a river, create art to take home, and much more. Play is a powerful tool that promotes learning, creativity, and development. The museum is dedicated to creating a community where play and learning intersect and enhancing children's lives through these experiences. The Chicago Children's Museum has grown significantly over the last thirty years. Once located in just a few hallways of the Chicago Cultural Center, it now provides arts programs, STEM experiments, imaginative play, and other activities to more than 11 million children, parents, and caregivers.
If you're a fan of Shakespeare, you should attend the Chicago Shakespeare Theater on Navy Pier. This professional theater company was founded in 1986 by Barbara Gaines and is the third largest in the Midwest. They produce works from the Shakespeare canon and other theatrical performances, with over six hundred performances annually at the Courtyard Theater and the Upstairs space. The theater has won numerous awards, including 36 Joseph Jefferson Awards, three Laurence Olivier Awards, and a Regional Theatre Tony Award. The theater also has a family series for younger audiences and special student pricing.
AIRE Ancient Baths Chicago provides a unique spa experience where you can see the building's exposed brick walls, wooden beams, and industrial columns. Inside the AIRE walls, you can immerse yourself in a journey through a traditional and exclusive bathhouse inspired by the ancient Roman, Greek, and Ottoman cultures. This journey will take you through a range of sensations in a serene space that promotes the peace of your mind and body, where time seems to stand still. You can treat yourself to the thermal baths, steam rooms, jet baths, and Flotarium, all set at different temperatures. You can enjoy a full-day spa experience or a relaxing couples massage. So, come to AIRE and immerse yourself in relaxation.
The Hideout is not your typical bar; it's a place where everyone is welcome, regardless of whether they fit in. This prohibition-era bar may be small, but it's been a community space for independent music and performance in Chicago for over 25 years. On Saturdays, you can enjoy live music and dancing at The Hideout. It's a hub for music, art, performance, plays, poetry, rock, and rebellion. The bar is rooted in complex, hard-playing, creative artistic expression and intellectual freedom. It's more New Deal than New Age, and while it's not for everyone, it's for anyone who wants to experience something unique and authentic.