The Forkans · Chicago on the Lake

Ainsley's Wedding Weekend

Five days downtown by Lake Michigan — beach, ballpark & the big day

📅 Tue Aug 11 – Sun Aug 16, 2026
--Days
--Hours
--Mins
--Secs
Travelers
Family of 4 Jeff, Jeanette, Charlotte (8), Eloise (6)
The occasion
Ainsley's wedding Sat Aug 15 · Royal Melbourne CC, Long Grove
The ballgame
Cards at Cubs Fri Aug 14 · 1:20p · Sec 106, Row 5
Base
The Langham River North, Tue–Fri · then Wilmette
⚠

Still open

Flights, hotel and tickets are confirmed and in the plan below. Three calls left, and they're all quick.

⏰
Change the rental return to 8:00a SundayIt's booked for 12:00p — three hours after your plane leaves. Two-minute edit, and it may cut a partial-day charge.
🎪
Pre-book Wrigley parkingSpotHero, at least a day ahead. Same-day prices spike after 11am and the walk-up lots fill.
💍
Pre-arrange the ride home from the weddingUbering out to Long Grove is easy. Getting one back to Wilmette at midnight is the part that bites — book that leg.
01

Getting There & Around

Delta nonstops both ways, as mapped in July — LaGuardia rather than Westchester, which is connections-only on Delta. Note O'Hare puts you in Terminal 5 in both directions, not the Terminal 2 most people assume for Delta.

Outbound · Tue Aug 11 · DL 2240 · 737-800

LGA11:25a · Terminal TBD
✈️ ———→
Nonstop · 2h 35m · Delta Main
ORD1:00p · Terminal 5

Return · Sun Aug 16 · DL 2252 · A220-300

ORD9:30a · Terminal 5
✈️ ———→
Nonstop · 2h 16m · Main Classic
LGA12:46p · Terminal C
Seats are on Jeanette's confirmation — booked separately on the companion pass, so the four of you are together. Nothing to chase.
Landing 1:00p Tuesday works out well: bags and a car put you at The Langham around 2:15p, and check-in is 3:00p. Leave the luggage with the bell desk and take the Riverwalk for 45 minutes.
Sunday is a 9:30a departure out of Terminal 5. Wheels-up the morning after the wedding — you want to be at O'Hare by 7:30a. And your calendar has an all-day Scotland block Aug 16–23 starting the same day you land back at 12:46p. Resolve that now rather than Saturday night.

✓ Enterprise · confirmed ••••••4474

Magnificent Mile → O'Hare

SUVDurango class

Pick up Fri Aug 14, 8:00a · Magnificent Mile branch, a few minutes' walk from the hotel
Return Sun Aug 16 · O'Hare
Three rows and a proper boot — right size for four people and wedding luggage.

Your reservation says a 12:00p Sunday return. Your plane leaves at 9:30a. You'll actually be dropping the car around 7:10a, so change the return time to 8:00 AM in Modify Reservation. Two reasons. It stops anyone at the counter expecting the car at noon — but more usefully, Friday 8:00a to Sunday 8:00a is exactly two days, while a noon return is two days plus four hours, and rental companies bill past a short grace period into hourly charges or a third day. A two-minute edit that may take money off the bill for time you were never going to use.
An 8:00a pickup gives you a free morning. Checkout isn't until noon and you don't need to be at Wrigley before 11:30, so there's a real window in the middle. See Friday — there's an optional stop that's directly on your route north.
A booster for Eloise. Illinois requires children under 8 in an appropriate restraint, so she needs one and Charlotte doesn't. If it isn't already on the reservation, add it under Modify while you're changing the return time — or borrow one from your friends in Wilmette.
Saturday the car stays parked in Wilmette. You've got the right instinct — Uber to the wedding, don't drive it. That leaves the rental idle for one of its three days, which is fine: it's earning its keep on Friday's luggage run and the Sunday airport trip, and it parks free in a driveway rather than a hotel garage.
02

The Langham, Chicago

330 North Wabash — the Mies van der Rohe tower on the river. Note this moved you off the Gold Coast beach strip we scoped in July and into River North, which is a straight upgrade for this particular trip: the river cruise docks are at your door and Millennium Park is a walk, but Oak Street Beach is now ~25 minutes on foot rather than three. The days below are rebuilt around the new address.

Premier Double Room · 4 guests

3 nightsTue–Fri

Check-in Tue Aug 11, 3:00p · check-out Fri Aug 14, 12:00p
Confirmation •••••••••6012 · +1 312-923-9988 · guest of record: Jeff Forkan
Special request on file: high floor with good views

✓ Confirmed Indoor pool · Chuan Spa On the Riverwalk 3 min to the cruise docks
Call ahead about the beds. "Premier Double Room" should mean two doubles — which is what makes it work for four of you, with the girls sharing. Worth a call to confirm it isn't being held as a king, and to put the high-floor request in front of a human. Ask about the pool hours while you're on the phone; it's the Thursday-afternoon downtime in this plan.
03

The Days

Kid-paced — two or three anchors a day with real downtime, building to the wedding. Everything below is timed from The Langham's front door. Friday is the ballgame; Saturday is Ainsley's day.

Tue Aug 11🏖️

Land & the River

1:00p
Land at O'Hare, Terminal 5. Bags and a car put you at The Langham around 2:15p.
2:15p
Check-in is 3:00p, so leave the luggage with the bell desk and walk out onto the Riverwalk — it's literally at the door. An easy 45 minutes.
3:00p
Into the room, then let the girls swim. The indoor pool is the fastest way to reset four people after a flight.
Evening
Dinner at Ēma, eight minutes on foot — bright Mediterranean mezze, the right weight for an arrival night. Save the deep dish for a lunch when nobody's tired.
Wed Aug 12🎡

Navy Pier, then the River

9:30a
Slow start. Brunch at Beatrix, eight minutes' walk — the most reliably good morning room in River North.
10:45a
Navy Pier — both your picks in one block. The Children's Museum (700 E Grand, opens 10) and the Funhouse Maze (600 E Grand, opens 11) are literally next door. Museum first, maze after, ~2 hrs total.
1:00p
Back for a proper lunch at Ēma or The Purple Pig. Navy Pier food is not worth your calories.
4:00p
Architecture river cruise — ~90 min, docks a 3-minute walk from your lobby. The best thing in this city with kids, and your address makes it effortless.
Evening
Dinner at Monteverde — handmade pasta, lively room, short ride to the West Loop.
On the Children's Museum: it's pitched at roughly 0–10, so Eloise is dead centre and Charlotte at eight is at the top of the range — she'll enjoy it, but she's the one who'll age out first. The Funhouse Maze is a 30-minute mirror-and-illusion walk-through, an add-on rather than a destination. Pairing them is what makes the trip out worth it; either alone probably isn't.
Thu Aug 13🐠

The Lakefront Line — Shedd up to Millennium

9:00a
Quick, good breakfast — Do-Rite Donuts, six minutes away. Today is the one morning worth moving early for, and it isn't a sit-down-brunch kind of start.
10:00a
Shedd Aquarium. ~10 min ride south to Museum Campus. Give it two and a half hours: the Wild Reef shark tunnel, the belugas, and the otters, which are reliably the thing the girls talk about afterwards.
12:45p
Ride north for a late lunch at Cindy's Rooftop — on top of the Chicago Athletic Association, looking straight down over the park you're about to walk into. Book ahead.
2:15p
Cross into Millennium Park. Cloud Gate, then let both girls get thoroughly soaked in the Crown Fountain — in August that's the whole point. Pack a change of clothes.
3:15p
Maggie Daley Park just east across the bridge — the best playground in the city. Optional; see the note below.
4:30p
Back to the hotel pool.
Evening
The trip's best dinner: Boka.
Why these two go together. Shedd sits on Museum Campus and Millennium Park is straight up the lakefront from it — same axis, one short ride between them, no doubling back. Adding the aquarium doesn't cost you a separate expedition; it just extends Thursday down the shore and back.
Book Shedd's timed entry now, and take the 10am slot. August is peak and walk-up queues on Museum Campus are genuinely bad — arriving near opening is the single biggest difference between a good visit and a crowded one.
This is now the fullest day of the trip. Shedd plus the park is honestly two big things, and the casualty is the downtime that was protecting Friday. If Eloise is flagging by three o'clock, cut Maggie Daley — Crown Fountain already does that job, and the pool hour matters more than the playground does.
Fri Aug 14⚾

Checkout, then Cardinals at Cubs

7:45a
One of you walks to the Magnificent Mile branch for the 8:00a pickup while the other does breakfast and the last of the packing. Ask the bell desk the night before to have the bags down and ready.
8:30a
Bring the car to the hotel entrance, load everything, and check out — well ahead of the noon deadline. Don't leave it with the valet; load and go, or you'll pay for parking you don't need.
9:15a
Optional, and genuinely on the way: Lincoln Park Zoo sits directly between River North and Wrigleyville. It's free, no tickets, no timed entry, and you can leave the moment you've had enough — give it an hour, not a morning. Skip it if you'd rather Eloise arrive at the ballpark with a full tank; three hours in Row 5 sun is the real event.
11:00a
Continue north to Wrigleyville, ~15 min from the zoo. Go straight to the garage you pre-booked and leave the luggage locked in the boot.
11:45a
Gallagher Way — the open plaza outside the park. Lawn, food stands, room for Eloise to run before three hours in a seat. This is the pressure valve.
12:20p
Gates — go in early. The hour before first pitch is the best part for kids: batting practice, the ivy, the hand-turned scoreboard.
1:20p
First pitch — Section 106, Row 5, seats 5–8. Down the left-field line, five rows off the field. The girls will be close enough to see faces, and the ivy is right there.
~4:20p
Last out. Don't rush the garage — let the crowd clear for twenty minutes rather than sitting in it.
~5:00p
Drive up to Wilmette — about 12 miles, 25–30 min, with the bags already aboard. You're going the right way; the post-game jam is all headed south into the city.
Pre-book the garage on SpotHero, at least a day out. Day-game spots start around $15–25 booked ahead; walk-up lots near the park run $30–60 and fill early, and same-day prices climb sharply after 11am. Book something you can walk from with two kids rather than the absolute cheapest pin on the map, and screenshot the reservation — phone signal around Wrigley on a Cardinals Friday is unreliable.
No backpacks at Wrigley — not even clear ones. Bags must be under 16 × 16 × 8 inches; purses, totes, drawstring bags, fanny packs and soft-sided coolers are all fine. Diaper bags are exempt but that's aimed at guests with infants, so don't count on it covering a six-year-old. Repack before you leave the hotel — this is the single most common way families get turned around at the gate.
Your seats: right side of the park, wrong row for shade. Section 106 is on the third-base side, which is the shade side at Wrigley — as the afternoon moves the upper deck throws shadow across it, while the first-base line and the bleachers bake all game. You got the better half. But the overhang only reaches down to about Row 10, and you're in Row 5 — so expect full sun through the early innings, with shade arriving as the game goes on. Sunscreen on at the hotel, hats for both girls, and reapply around the second inning. If Eloise needs a break from it, the concourse directly behind 106 is shaded and thirty seconds away.
Family restrooms with changing tables: two on the main concourse (the First Aid station near the Marquee Gate, and across from Aisle 112), two in the 300 level, one in the bleachers.
Your work calendar is still booked over this. First pitch is 1:20 CT = 2:20 ET, and you have a Focus time block 3:00–6:00p ET running straight through the middle innings, plus the 9:00a team check-in. Nothing on Aug 11–16 is marked out-of-office.
Sat Aug 15💍

Ainsley's Wedding

Morning
Slow start in Wilmette. If the girls need running-around before a long evening, Gillson Park is minutes away — a proper North Shore lake beach, and the beach day that fell out of the plan when you moved to River North.
Midday
Downtime, steam the suit and dresses, kids nap so everyone's fresh for the evening.
Afternoon
Get ready. Order the car ~75 min before the ceremony — Wilmette to Long Grove is roughly 35–45 min, plus a buffer.
Evening
Royal Melbourne Country Club, Long Grove. Celebrate.
Wilmette makes this much easier than it looked. From downtown the venue was a 55–70 minute haul; from the North Shore it's about 25 miles, 35–45 minutes. You're already most of the way there.
Book the ride home, not just the ride there. Ubering out to Long Grove is easy — you're leaving a dense area at a normal hour. Coming back at eleven or midnight from a country club in a low-density far suburb is the leg that fails: thin driver supply, long waits, and surge on top. Arrange that return in advance — a scheduled car, or ask whether Ainsley has put on a shuttle, which weddings at venues like this often do. Worst case you're four people including a six-year-old standing in a car park at midnight refreshing an app.
Sun Aug 16✈️

Home Early

6:00a
Alarm. The morning after a wedding, with two kids — this is the hard part of the trip. Set two.
6:30a
Drive Wilmette to O'Hare — about 18 miles, 30 min on an empty Sunday. The short hop is one more thing the North Shore buys you.
7:10a
Return the rental, shuttle to Terminal 5 — not Terminal 2, which is where Delta used to be. Budget 20 minutes for the return and shuttle.
9:30a
Delta 2252, ORD → LGA — A220-300, nonstop, 2h 16m.
12:46p
Land at LaGuardia, Terminal C. See the Scotland note under Getting There.
04

Where to Eat

No Portillo's. These are rooms worth the calories — and all on Resy, so Global Dining Access and the $400 credit apply. Walking times are from The Langham.

Breakfast & brunch
⭐ Brunch on the park · Michigan Ave

Cindy's Rooftop

Top floor of the Chicago Athletic Association, looking straight down over Millennium Park and the Bean. Genuinely good food rather than a view charging rent — and it puts brunch and the morning's activity in the same place. Book it; the room fills.

👶 The view does the entertaining
The default · 8 min walk

Beatrix

River North's most reliably good brunch — inventive without being precious, and it absorbs a family at 9:30am without blinking. The one to fall back on any morning.👶 Great for kids

Fast & excellent · 6 min walk

Do-Rite Donuts

For the mornings you want to be out the door in twenty minutes. Proper yeast-raised doughnuts and a fried chicken biscuit worth the detour — a world away from a hotel buffet.👶 Obviously

Lunch
Mediterranean · 8 min walk

Ēma

Bright, herby, vegetable-forward mezze built for sharing — the best midday room in River North and the antidote to a heavy Chicago week. Hummus and pita the girls will demolish; whole grilled fish for you.👶 Great for kids

Small plates · 5 min walk

The Purple Pig

444 N Michigan. Cult Mediterranean small plates, and close enough to walk back if anyone fades. Works as a long lunch or an easy dinner.👶 Kid-friendly

Elevated diner · West Loop

Little Goat Diner

Stephanie Izard's diner — the cooking of a serious kitchen in a room where nobody minds a six-year-old. The best version of a big American lunch in this city.👶 Great for kids

The deep dish question
Deep dish · Lincoln Park

Pequod's — not Malnati's

You asked for foodie, so I'm swapping the pick. Malnati's is the tourist rite; Pequod's is the one Chicago cooks actually argue about — a pan pizza whose cheese is pushed up the side of the pan and caramelises into a burnt, chewy crust ring. It's a 15-minute ride to Clybourn and worth every one of them. Order the moment you sit; it takes 40 minutes, and there's usually a wait for a table on top of that.

👶 Loud, casual, no one minds kids
Dinners · à la carte, all on Resy
★ Michelin · Lincoln Park

Boka

Lee Wolen's Michelin-starred contemporary American in a lush, intimate room, served à la carte — all the polish of a special-occasion dinner, none of the four-hour prepaid commitment. Thursday is the night for it.

👶 Refined but relaxed
Pasta · West Loop

Monteverde

Sarah Grueneberg's handmade-pasta temple. Serious enough for foodies, lively enough for kids.👶 Great for kids

Live-fire small plates · West Loop

Girl & the Goat

Izard's iconic shared-plates room — a quintessential modern-Chicago night.👶 Kid-friendly

French steakhouse · 10 min walk

Bavette's

Dim, jazzy, red-leather River North icon. The 21-day booking window has closed — set a Resy Notify.

Mediterranean · West Loop

Avec

The wood-panelled original — warm, communal, one of Chicago's most beloved rooms.

Steakhouse · short ride

Swift & Sons

The modern Chicago steakhouse, if you'd rather chophouse than tasting menu.

You're inside two weeks now. Standard Resy inventory for a summer Saturday is gone, so work the back door: set Notify alerts on Boka, Monteverde and Girl & the Goat, and check the purple Global Dining Access slots your Platinum unlocks — those are held back from general release and are the realistic way in this late.
05

Budget Snapshot

The July estimate for a family of four, with the ballgame now trued up to what you actually paid — $712 of tickets plus $152 of fees, about $364 over the estimate. Everything still in grey is an estimate worth reconciling against your real numbers.

Flights · Delta C+ ×4
~$1,500
Hotel · 3 nts (Tue–Thu)
~$2,300
Food
~$1,300
Cubs tickets ×4 · actual
$864
Activities & pier
~$450
Enterprise SUV + parking
~$330
Transfers + wedding car
~$450
Estimated total
~$6,860
Against an $18K annual travel budget · points can still cover most of the flights
06

Before We Go

Two days out. The big three are booked, so what's left is the wedding logistics, the car, and clearing your own calendar. Tap to check off; progress saves on this device.

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Shared list — ticks sync between your phone and Jeanette's within a few seconds. Works offline too; anything you tick without signal syncs when you're back.

Built for the Forkan family · Chicago, Aug 2026
See you on the lake ♥