Busey Bank

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.

Celebrate the holiday season with the nationally televised Chicago Thanksgiving Parade, which has been ranked the second-best Thanksgiving Parade in the country by Time Out Magazine. Witness the excitement as talented marching bands, majestic equestrian units, national celebrities, and spectacular performance groups march through downtown Chicago. Why settle for watching a parade meander through New York City on TV when you can see giant cartoon-character balloons, marching bands, and dancers on the streets of Chicago? If you are in the city on Thanksgiving, you can catch the annual procession before indulging in your turkey. The Parade moves down State Street between Ida B. Wells Drive and Randolph Street and ends by 11 am, providing you with ample time to return home and assist with the cooking. The event commemorates Thanksgiving with a three-hour procession of giant balloons, marching bands, dancers, and more.