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What Else is there to do in Chicago?
A Review

Winifred Creamer

What's new in Chicago? Find out during the 1999 SAA Annual Meeting! The Windy City got its name from all the breeze generated by local politicians. Keep that in mind when you are deeply involved in conversation with your colleagues. If and when you break away from meeting sessions you will be able to see both familiar and new sights. In the vicinity of our meeting venue, the Sheraton Chicago Hotel and Towers, is the new Museum of Contemporary Art, already noteworthy in its newly constructed building. Also within walking distance is the recently renovated Navy Pier, complete with ferris wheel, skating rink, and a changing list of exhibits and attractions. A short taxi ride away is the Field Museum, now part of the Lakeshore Museum Campus with the Shed Aquarium and the Adler Planetarium. Inside, see the restoration of the dinosaur named and renamed Sue, the largest T. Rex ever.

For those of you who will tear yourselves away from the sessions only long enough to eat, remember that Chicago is a great city for food. Pilsen is the Latino neighborhood where good food is easy to find, and many of you have been to Chinatown in years past. There are other delights, including German, Eastern European, Swedish, African, Jamaican, and Ethiopian. A good rule of thumb is: "Don't eat any dessert bigger than your head." All that doesn't include any of the world-famous, multi-starred, more costly dining places that Chicago also has to offer.

Entertainment includes the new House of Blues that opened during the past year. Also newly reopened in 1998 is the renovated Symphony Center, providing more concerts than ever before. Opera buffs, reserve your tickets in advance, as the Lyric Opera of Chicago has been 98 percent sold out for the past 10 years. Sports fans, by March we should know whether "Da Bulls" are going anywhere in 1999.

As these comments should indicate, there is something new in Chicago for everyone who attends the SAA meeting in 1999. Mark your calendars for March 24-28, 1999!

Winifred Creamer, a member of the Local Arrangements Committee for the Annual Meeting in Chicago, is at Northern Illinois University in DeKalb, Illinois.

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