Chicago Vacation Travel Guide | 4K UHD

There is no city more passionate about its sports than Chicago. You've got the Bears, the Blackhawks, the Bulls, the Cubs, and the White Sox. Today we're all about sports. We're kicking it off here at U.S. Cellular Field for a White Sox game. The Twins are in town. And then we're going to head across town and catch the Bulls and the Celtics. Play ball! It's the White Sox versus the Twins. It is game time. Yemena's going to take us around U.S. Cellular and show us the fan experience. So I see lots of different vending options. We have vegan, vegetarian options. We're trying to go green a little at the park. And you've got pretzels and beer. We actually have a two-pound pretzel that's good for four people. Nice. I like that. So we're high above the field right now. Yes, we are. This is pretty cool over here. It is. It's our fundamentals deck. It's for children, and they teach the kids to pitch, to throw. Okay, what about adults who need to learn some fundamentals? What about the adults now? I don't know. You might be on your own there. Maybe try it out. Maybe they'll help you. I love this. This is a little piece of old Comiskey actually stood under that shower on a hot day. You never know. Maybe. It's possible. It works! Chicago sports are amazing. Are you a full Chicago sports fan? Diehard Sox fan. And I'm here just to have a great time and hope the Sox win all the time. That's it. You know Brianna's a big White Sox fan because she organized a group of, what, 100 people today? I do it every year for my boyfriend's birthday. We don't have Chicago sports. Describe to our viewers about Chicago. It's like where you're from. It's who you are. It's what you represent. It's the town or the neighborhood you're from. I'm from the South Side, and definitely you recognize that. You represent. And White Sox is what you're all about. This is what it's all about, folks. It's all about families coming to the ballpark. Who's your favorite player on the White Sox? Paul Canerco. Paul Canerco. I like him, too. Even from a young age, I mean, these guys love the Bears, the Hawks, the White Sox. It's great. It's a great sports town. It really is. What a perfect day for baseball. Now we're off to the Bulls game. You see all this traffic out here? We don't have to sit in that. We're taking the metro transportation. It is very, very easy here in Chicago. It's the best way to get around. In fact, the stop's right outside our hotel. I'm going to make a quick clothes change, and then it's go Bulls. Well, here we are. It's the house that Michael built. It's the United Center, home of the Chicago Blackhawks, who are having an amazing season in hockey. And tonight, it's the Celtics in town taking on the Bulls. Bulls fans are rabid. We've got one of them right here. What's your name, buddy? El Vaquero. They call me the number one and only representative of the Matador Nation. You wear this to every game? Yes, sir. I'm known as El Vaquero, the Bull Cowboy. Reppin' the yard with the rest of my big boys up in here, baby! You've been around since the Jordan days, my friend. Yes, I have. Everybody's happy. It's the year coming back again. Why are they so passionate about sports here? Michael Jordan is one that made it famous here. We see a backup coming up right now with Derrick Rose. Like you said, Shoe Shine, you've got the best guy. I'm the best in the West. North, South, and East. I'm the doctor. The master of basketball. Hi, Rick. We did a poster. Captain Kirk. In case you get hungry during the game, you guys can dig into that. You know what I noticed about Chicago? The girls are big, big fans. More so than I think in other cities. Why do you think that is? It's so fun to go to the games. Wrigley Field is beautiful. United Center is awesome. It's always a good time. The Chicago River is the only river on Earth that flows backwards. Reversed in 1900 for sanitary purposes, it is considered one of the 20th century's top engineering marvels. Every year, the Saturday before St. Patrick's Day, they dye this river green to celebrate St. Patrick. Sounds like a fun party. Chicago has one of the most impressive skylines of any city in America. Today we're going high above the tallest building in the Western Hemisphere, Willis Tower, formerly Sears Tower, for a guided tour of the Sky Deck. There's 2,232 steps from here to the Sky Deck. Since Mike and I already worked out today, we're sending Josh up the stairs. See you, Josh. Here's a fun little Willis Tower fast fact for you. The tower is 262 Michael Jordan's tall and 313 Oprah Winfrey's tall. I'm guessing it's about 320 John Olsen's tall. 970 feet in the Yokohama Landmark Tower, Japan's tallest building. We're on the 103rd floor of Willis Tower, North America's highest building, and we're on the Sky Deck level right now. We have beautiful views today. We're into about three states that you'll see, and I'd like to point out some of the sights we're going to go along the way. Yeah, this is our south shot. We're very proud of this because this is a developing area. It was going to be a site of a lot of the places for the Olympics that were coming up. It's a very big neighborhood for us. We're a whole pocket of communities of different ethnicities that everybody kind of comes together. We do have 17 miles of uninterrupted lakefront there with beaches, parkways, bike trails. This is one of our best views here, just for the fact you have so much different color. You have different contrasts. You have the green down in Millennium Park. You've got Buckingham Fountain over there, and the pink from the ground. It looks like it's monstrous, but from up here it looks like it's almost a waterfall. Go get a little drink out of it. You can take a look. You've got the Chicago River here, and again, this is an interesting thing for us. Many years ago we reversed the flow down to St. Louis, but St. Louis got us back. How'd they get you back? They sent it back to us as Budweiser. Sorry. Beautiful shot to the north. We have John Hancock Center, Trump Tower over here. You really get a nice perspective of height. Okay, I'm really glad that I'm not afraid of heights because we're actually standing outside the building right now. We built four glass balconies outside the 103rd floor of Willis Tower. My parents asked me, why the heck would you do that? We really wanted to become experiential. Everybody's gone into experiential tourism. Everybody kind of wants that memory. Coming up to the tower has always been a memory, but what can we do to add to that? So we took and we put glass balconies 1,353 feet over the west side of our building, which is our best view down. In July 2004, Mayor Richard Daley dedicated Millennium Park as a gift to the people of Chicago. This park is an enduring tribute to Chicago's long-standing history of excellence with architectural and artistic excellence. Take you tour of the neighborhoods of the near north side of Chicago. Anything special we need to know about these bikes before we take off? They're deluxe Schwinn beach cruisers. They're seven speeds, hand brakes, comfy seats. They have an annoying bell and they're all individually named. Lulu. It's Kelly for you, my friend. Right turn, left turn. Now, we all have to do it. If I'm the only one doing it, they think I'm waving at a friend. I'm not clear on the whole waving concept. So can we all practice a right turn together? Excellent. Ninth year in operation, we've never had anybody hit by a moving car. We have had a handful of you ride your bikes directly into parked cars. That's on you. The reason we stop here is not so much the museum as the neighborhood that we're in, Streeterville. Michigan Avenue is about a block over that way. The reason we named it Michigan Avenue in the first place is it's the road we built along the banks of Lake Michigan when we first built the city. Water Tower Place, bottom eight stories were the first ever vertical shopping mall. If you look to the top of the building, Oprah's got the top two floors. We call Illinois the land of Lincoln. We're very proud of Abraham Lincoln here. So proud. We're the only state in the Union that still takes pennies in our toll booths. The world's largest free zoo is the Lincoln Park Zoo. And I know normally a free zoo, you're thinking it's going to be like two goats, a three-legged pig, and an owl that got hit by a car. This is a world-class zoo. It's just membership supported. I definitely recommend checking it out when you get a chance. Bobby's Bike Hike, what a perfect way to spend a great afternoon in Chicago. Lulu, I'm going to miss you. You were an amazing ride. I've been to Chicago before, and let me tell you, Chicago's nightlife is off the charts. Tonight, we're going to check out a couple rooftop bars. I can't think of anybody to talk about Chicago nightlife more than Nick here. You've been around nightlife your whole life, my friend. You got started at a very young age, though, didn't you, in Florida? Yeah, 16 in Florida. I was there for about four years, and then moved on to Vegas, where I spent another four years. And just recently, a resident of Chicago. Chicago nightlife versus Vegas. They're both happening places. What's different? Vegas is a nightlife aspect of its own, definitely is a beast. There's definitely more of a culture and a diversity in this town that really shows that neighborhood feeling. The building in front of us is the Jewelers Building, and then I want to look right over to the right is the great view of Lake Michigan Millennium Park. The roof has already been fortunate enough to get some great awards. It was voted top ten best hotel by Traveler Magazine, best rooftop hotel bar by NBC Chicago. This is a hopping nightlife. You've been in Chicago your whole life. A little stint in Vegas, a little stint like Nick. Describe Chicago nightlife. Chicago nightlife is interesting, because once it gets warm, people want to be outside. So we wanted to provide that environment. People like to drink, people like to eat. Lots of smiles going on here, lots of drinking going on. Just have a good time. Can't leave without getting one of our signature cocktails. This one is one of our definite crowd pleasers. This is a Blood Orange Sidecar. It's giving you a nice fresh sugar rim. Just give it a little bit of a shake. Now the key is to try to get in here and out of here without having just one. Roof was awesome. Let's go check out another rooftop bar. We are now at Vertigo Sky Lounge above the Dana Hotel. This is Matthew. Another great location, man. Your bar is a little bit different, though, because you guys stay open year-round. It's an indoor-outdoor place, whereas some places around town kind of focus on the outside. Although everybody else closes their patios, we stay open year-round because we like to embrace the cold weather. Celebrate the winners. Tell our viewers about how you celebrate the winners, because this is cool. I love it. We bought some robes and some blankets. At first, the owners of the hotel thought it was a little silly. But when they saw everybody out here at midnight with the robes on, they got the picture. Okay, one of the things I noticed about this place that I absolutely love is the unisex washing stations. But better than that, the hand warmers. Oh, yeah. Comedy at its finest late at night. Where did you get those things? Well, you know, the Dana Hotel and Spa is an eco-friendly place. It's a green hotel. You guys get extra points for that. Thank you very much. We care. Cheers to Chicago nightlife. Cheers to the very cool people of Chicago. And cheers to you. I'm very pleased and honored to welcome a true Chicago blues. Kind of a legend from what I'm reading about you. Thank you. Let's talk about the Chicago blues. Okay. Take us back. Why is Chicago such a deep-rooted blues town? I think because it's a combination of so many different types of music and styles. From the South, it came up here and just kind of percolated like a good gumbo. You know, it just all mixed together. And it came out to be in Chicago blues. Over here, over here, moonshine and beer. The station that we had, we only had one, per se, black radio station here in Chicago, WBON. And they played everything. They had a DJ for gospel, a DJ for R&B, and a DJ for blues. Purpose band, all-night blues band. And I used to sneak up with my little transistor radio. Yes, transistor radio. And hold it up to my ear. And I used to listen to those guys. I didn't know it was called blues. I just knew I liked it. Hey y'all, party going on over here. Hey y'all, party over here. Gonna eat collard greens, drink moonshine and beer. Y'all say it with me. Say party over here. Party over here. Walking in here tonight, I just felt like legends have walked this route. This is a good place to play. Buddy cares about the music. He has good performers here. And he's got the staff that knows how to handle the business and stuff. So there's some other clubs that I like. But this is, by far, my favorite Buddy guy.