Petterino's offers an intimate evening of cabaret
Chicago
Songs in the key of life
Stages are typically dark on Mondays, but Petterino's Monday Night Live offers an intimate evening of cabaret in the heart of Chicago's theater district. The showcase provides a relaxed yet sophisticated setting for established and emerging singers to warble a few tunes while guests experience cabaret at its finest. There's a different show every week, and guest singers have included Nan Mason, Ron Hawking, Jimmy Damon, Denise Tomasello and Dick Judson as well as principal cast members from productions of "Jersey Boys," "Mary Poppins," "A Chorus Line," "Dirty Dancing" and others. You can step up to the open mic, too, just be sure to provide sheet music in your key. Enjoy the performance while sipping cocktails and enjoying classic American cuisine or choose the special three-course "Seven After Seven" menu, featuring a choice of seven appetizers, seven entrees and seven desserts for $19.95. Reservations recommended, but not required.
7:30 p.m., Mondays at 151 N. Dearborn St., Chicago, (312) 422-0150
Couched in art
SOFA Chicago 2009, the popular Sculpture Objects and Functional Art fair, returns to Navy Pier's Festival Hall for its 16th year. More than 68 international galleries from 10 countries are sure to provoke and entertain. The fair will also feature five special exhibits by renowned museums, universities and arts organizations, and an extensive lecture and film series. New this year is SOLO at SOFA, defined spaces where galleries spotlight bodies of works on the cutting-edge by individual artists as well as object groupings.
7 to 9 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 5 (preview night); 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Friday to Saturday, Nov. 6-7; and noon to 6 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 8; at Navy Pier Festival Hall, 600 E. Grand Ave. General admission is $15, or a three-day pass is $25. Thursday Preview Night admission $50. (800) 563- 7632 or sofaexpo.com.
Oh, Christmas tree
Generations of Chicagoans have penciled in a day downtown to see the lighting of the tree in the venerable Walnut Room of Macy's. The 103rd annual celebration features a 45-foot-tall tree trimmed with 10,000 lights and 1,200 ornaments. This year, the theme of the window displays and tree is "How a letter gets to Santa Claus." Also, head to the fifth floor for Macy's SantaLand to get the kids' pictures taken with Santa Claus. SantaLand, previously known as the Cozy Cloud Cottage, has been featured in the State Street store since 1948. That's a lot of "ho-ho-ho's." Tree lighting will be noon, Saturday, Nov. 7. SantaLand will be open through Dec. 24 at 111 N. State St., Chicago. For lunch reservations, call (312) 781-1000.
Midwest
When the gales of November come early
In 1975, the freighter, Edmund Fitzgerald, left Superior, Wis., headed for Detroit with 26,000 tons of taconite. En route, the ship encountered one of the November gales for which Lake Superior is notorious and the ship sank. Every year on Nov. 10, the navigational beacon at Split Rock Lighthouse is lit in memory of the 29 men lost aboard the Edmund Fitzgerald and all the other vessels lost on the Great Lakes. It's the only time during the year that visitors can see the interior of the light tower when the beacon is lit, learn about the operation of the light and take advantage of a rare photo op. A film about the Fitzgerald is shown in the theater continuously, and at 4:30 p.m. the names of the 29 lost crew members will be read to the tolling of a ship's bell.
Noon to 6 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 10, at 3713 Split Rock Lighthouse Road, Two Harbors, Minn. (218) 226-6372 or mnhs.org/places/sites/srl/index.htm.
Birds of a feather
A flock of seagulls are certainly a sight, but imagine up-close views of thousands of tundra swans, ducks, geese, bald eagles and hawks thrown into the mix and you're at the River and Bluffs Fall Birding Festival in Lansing, Iowa. The feathered friends love the sloughs and islands near the northeastern Iowa town, which also boasts some of the Mississippi's best views. The fest offers owl prowls and fall migration boat cruises that include free hot apple cider and a birding expert to help visitors observe, identify and understand the abundant wildlife before them. While in town, visit museums and shops or take a scenic drive up Mount Hosmer. Lansing is 35 miles from La Crosse, Wis.
Birding cruises from 9 a.m. to noon and 1 to 4 p.m. Friday to Sunday, Nov. 6-8 and Nov. 13-15. (800) 824-1424 or lansingiowa.com.
See you at the arboretum
Squeeze the most out of the last few days of autumn color with the Chicago Morton Arboretum Package at the Crowne Plaza Glen Ellyn-Lombard. The package features accommodations, complimentary round-trip shuttle to the Morton Arboretum, plus four admission tickets and complimentary breakfast for up to four people. Hike some of the arboretum's 1,700 acres and enjoy its collection of more than 4,000 trees, shrubs and plants from around the world. Back at the Crowne Plaza, the kids can go for the indoor pool while adults work out in the fitness center. Crowne Plaza Glen Ellyn-Lombard, 1250 Roosevelt Road, Glen Ellyn. The package starts at $184. (630) 629-6000 or Crowne Plaza.com/chi-glenellyn
Worth the trip
Don't wait until Chicago resembles the Arctic to plan a getaway. Concorde Hotels & Resorts is offering crazy rates and savings this winter. The Concorde Winter offer, valid through March 31, includes one night in a double room for two, a complimentary buffet breakfast and a surprise gift for each stay ranging from a cruise along the Seine river in Paris to an insider tour of the Patek Philippe Museum in Geneva, Switzerland. Rates begin at around $118. (Minimum stay of two nights is required. Rates reflect the U.S. dollar-to-Euro rates on the date of Sept. 16). Choose from 21 hotels and resorts around the globe from the heart of Paris at the historic Hotel Lutetia to the Esmeralda Resort in St. Martin, French West Indies.
To book, call (800) 888-4747 or visit concorde-hotels.com/winter2009.