Chicago: Birthplace of the Skyscraper With Chicago Extension

Get a bird's-eye view of Chicago from the sky deck of the Sears Tower. Currently the tallest building in the United States, the Sears Tower was originally commissioned to house all Sears & Roebuck employees (hence the name). Its distance to the roof is 1,451 feet, and there are 108 stories of office buildings and more.

The Lincoln Park zoo began in 1874 with a gift of a pair of swans--and has now grown to include more than 1250 species of animals. Currently, the zoo includes polar bears, penguins, monkeys, gorillas, and many varieties of reptiles. The Lincoln Park Zoo is also famous for its John Deere-sponsored Farm-in-the-Zoo exhibit. Located on a small working farm, the Farm-in-the-Zoo houses horses, pigs, cows, chickens and more.

Choose John Shedd Acquarium, Adler Planetarium, or Field Musuem of Natural History

Housed in one of the 'White City' buildings created for the 1893 World's Fair, the Museum of Science and Industry holds a diverse collection of exhibits, from a working coal mine, a rambling, 3,500 square foot model railroad featuring the first diesel-powered stainless-steel passenger train, to a real NASA space capsule. Visit Yesterday's Main Street, a replica of a Chicago street from the early 1900's, and walk through a blown-up model of the human heart in some of the museum's most popular exhibits.