{"id":2433,"date":"2019-11-28T07:16:58","date_gmt":"2019-11-28T14:16:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/theaposition.com\/traveltattler\/?p=2433"},"modified":"2019-11-28T07:16:58","modified_gmt":"2019-11-28T14:16:58","slug":"nfl-rival-football-citiesbut-chicago-calls-michiganders","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/traveltattler\/travel\/2433\/nfl-rival-football-citiesbut-chicago-calls-michiganders","title":{"rendered":"NFL Rival Football Cities\u2026But Chicago Calls Michiganders"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"unnamed1\"<\/a>The NFL\u2019s Chicago Bears are coming across Lake Michigan to Detroit Thursday for the Lion\u2019s traditional Thanksgiving Day gridiron game\u00a0at noon. The Monsters of the Midway hosted the Lions two weeks ago in the Windy City and sent them back to the Motor City with a 20-13 loss. But most Michiganders return from Chicago with bursting shopping bags and full stomachs after living in the lap of luxury on Michigan Avenue.<\/p>\n

John Stack, of Chicago\u2019s Peninsula Hotel, situated on the Miracle Mile, is a football fan.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese games with the Lions have been critical for both teams. Both teams play with a lot of pride. Chicago Bears fans are fans for life,\u201d said Stack. \u201cThe Bears are a tough defense and the Lions score a lot of points. That makes for good games.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Shoppers<\/a>

Shoppers can load up the hotel\u2019s \u201cPeninsula green\u201d hotel cars with Miracle Mile packages. (Photo by Harrison Shiels)<\/p><\/div>\n

The Peninsula Hotel is close to Bears games at Solider Field but the sports fans choose to stay in and enjoy in the comfort of their couch get a good view, too. \u201cIn our hotel the TV\u2019s are light and bright. Our rooms have 55-inch screens with surround sound and 24-hour, in-room dining if the game goes to overtime.\u201d<\/p>\n

If the Bears aren\u2019t playing visitors can still get inside their home stadium and experience the field, visitor\u2019s locker room, famed colonnades and more with a tour via\u00a0SoldierField.net<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Back across Millennium Park Peninsula\u2019s new Z Bar is on the rooftop with a terrace; and the hotel\u2019s \u201csky rink\u201d (Chicago\u2019s only hotel skating rink), both offer a vantage of the annual holiday Miracle Mile Lights Festival. One million lights on\u00a0200 trees illuminate Michigan Avenue\u00a0for the shopping season.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt started 28 years ago and was developed to celebrate one of the great avenues of the world,\u201d said Stack. \u201cPeninsula is surrounded by all the shops and boutiques and we have a house car service for our guests.\u201d<\/p>\n

The two \u201cPeninsula green\u201d Mini Cooper\u2019s can fill up fast with packages, and there are plenty of memorable restaurants within walking distance. Gibson\u2019s Bar and Steakhouse is a favorite of celebrities \u2013 evidenced by the signed photos on the wall \u2013 and Gibson\u2019s draws a contemporary, professional bar crowd. The restaurant\u2019s snazzy art-deco interior is classic but lively thanks to plenty of big windows looking out onto Rush Street. Look across the street to see Lou Malnati\u2019s Pizzeria, a colorful, casual spot in which to consume the city\u2019s culinary king: the celebrated Chicago deep dish pizza. Classic Lou\u2019s thick but flaky buttery pizza pie crust is topped with gooey hot Wisconsin mozzarella cheese and lean sausage swimming in vine-ripened tomato sauce.<\/p>\n

Chicago is a 3.5-hour drive from Lansing, and Amtrak runs trains to Union Station in downtown Chicago while Capital Region International Airport offers non-stop flights.<\/p>\n

Contact<\/em>\u00a0Travel Writer Michael Patrick Shiels at\u00a0MShiels@aol.com\u00a0\u00a0His radio program may be heard weekdays at\u00a0MiBigShow.com<\/a>\u00a0or in Lansing on WJIM am 1240\u00a0from 9-noon.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The NFL\u2019s Chicago Bears are coming across Lake Michigan to Detroit Thursday for the Lion\u2019s traditional Thanksgiving Day gridiron game\u00a0at… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":43,"featured_media":2434,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[4998,1023675,4655,153855,1023678],"class_list":["post-2433","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-travel","tag-michael-patrick-shiels","tag-thanksgiving-football","tag-chicago-bears","tag-detroit-lions","tag-thursday-football-games"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/traveltattler\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/34\/2019\/11\/unnamed-e1574950545966.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/traveltattler\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2433","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/traveltattler\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/traveltattler\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/traveltattler\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/43"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/traveltattler\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2433"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/traveltattler\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2433\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2436,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/traveltattler\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2433\/revisions\/2436"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/traveltattler\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2434"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/traveltattler\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2433"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/traveltattler\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2433"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/traveltattler\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2433"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}