Monday, October 29, 2007 — Meet & Greet
Meet with us in the Grand Tradition, on the lobby level of the hotel. Breakfast will begin at 8:00 am and we can help plan your week of activities. Your committee has scheduled something each day and we hope that you will have fun and learn more about Chicago’s history at the same time. Monday is an open day if you want to go shopping in the afternoon or simply relax and enjoy the hotel and its amenities. We will have door prizes each day at breakfast. Please let us know if you will be able to join us.

Tuesday, October 30, 2007
8:00 am, everyone to join us for breakfast in the Grand Tradition. We will then board a bus and begin our day by visiting the Chicago History Museum, leaving the hotel at 9:15 am. At the Museum, we will be divided into two groups, one group taking a guided tour to last one hour while the second group does a self-guided tour of the special temporary exhibits. At the end of the first group guided tour, they do the self-guided tour while the second group has a guided tour.

We leave the Museum and arrive at the Merchandise Mart at 12:00, where we will have a hands-on cooking lesson/lunch, presented by The Chopping Block in the Mart. As seating is limited, anyone with a disability will need to be given preference. After lunch, we will receive a 10% discount to
the shop in the Chopping Block, or feel free to wander around the two floors that are open to the public.

Cost per person: Chicago History Museum – compliments of AME
Chopping Block - $45.00 (balance subsidized by AME)

Wednesday, October 31, 2007
Everyone to join us for breakfast in the Grand Tradition at 8:00 am. We will then board a bus for our Architectural Tour at 9:15 am. We will pick up our guide at 9:30 at the Chicago Architecture Foundation. We will spend the morning visiting The Gold Coast, The Museum Campus, Chicago’s
Loop (featuring the interior of Burnham & Root’s Rookery Building), the Illinois Institute of Technology, Hyde Park, Frank Lloyd Wright’s Robie House (includes an interior tour) and the Kenwood, which is a mansion district under restoration.

We then will have lunch at Gino’s East – The Original. Celebrating 40 years in Chicago, serving deep-dish pizza made with chunky tomato sauce and their famous golden crust. Voted No. 1 by Bon Appetit magazine.

Cost per person: $25.00 which includes all gratuities, appetizers, salads and pizzas with unlimited toppings!

Thursday, November 1, 2007
Everyone to join us for breakfast in the Grand Tradition at 8:00 am. The bus then leaves for the Navy Pier. You then have free time to tour on your own. This is a Chicago landmark with more than 50 acres of parks, shops, restaurants and entertainment attractions. Enjoy the Ferris wheel, musical
carousel, miniature golf course and the Wave Swinger. Stroll through the beautiful Smith Museum of Stained Glass Windows house at the Pier. See a movie at the IMAX theatre.

We then board the bus at 11:00 am to go to the Russian Tea Time Restaurant to enjoy tea, mini sweets, tea sandwiches and scones with Devonshire cream.

The bus will be available for those wishing to return to the hotel after tea, or perhaps you might want to take a short walk (less than one-half mile) to Wabash Ave (between Washington and Monroe Streets) to visit Jeweler’s Row. The concept of a jewelry “mall” began in 1912 and in one building
on Wabash Street in Chicago’s downtown Loop location. Today, Jeweler’s Row spans 2 blocks with jewelers from all over the world and has become an official landmark area. The number of vendors are too numerous to mention them all.

Cost per person: Navy Pier — free, cost individually incurred
Russian Tea Time Restaurant — $20.00 (balance subsidized by AME)

To register online Click here.

To download our registration form Click here.

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