Travel Info for PIR 11/6

[FrankSmom]

I am a mom who has a son PIR on 11/6. I live near by RTC and has been in the area over 15 years. I thought I might be helpful for anyone to arrange for PIR travels. I suggest to use lastminute.com. You can book airline/hotel or airline/rental car comb for a unbelievalbe tickets. But you can only book them no earlier than two weeks ahead, in our situation, it is a perfect time (that is when your kids passed their battle stations). I also suggest you to stay in down town chicago. The Metra station to RTC in only <5mins walk (I did today personally just to confirm it). I think your kids want to see the city if they never been there. If you do choose to stay near by RTC, I suggest Gurnee, Libertyville, or Vernon Hills, these three town. Avoid Waukegan, North Chicago area.

If you have any questions, feel free to post it and I will try my best to answer them.

P.S. I saw one division march across Rt 137 through tunnel, just can't see the #. Based on the way they walk, I am sure are kids only been there within a couple weeks. It looks like their RDC are vey nice to them when correct their marching.

I will try to find time go there more often to share what I see with all of you.

For more details about hotels, please refer to my reply on 9/27.

I add more dinning information to my reply on 9/28.

[Amanda-Alek'sMom (AECF - ET)]

On the flyer that came in the form letter, it looks like most of the Waukegan hotels are along Green Bay Rd.

[FrankSmom]

No, not familiar with.

[FrankSmom]

Thank you all for your responses. I am so glad that I can be helpful.

A little more about hotels in Waukegan. You will be safe inside of hotels like Ramada and Quality Inn in Waukegan. But I won't go out do too much activities around these place after dark. For a similar price in Waukegan, you may want to consider hotels that are west of Rt. 41 and South Rt. 120. Few of them are brand new, like Crossland Chicago, Candlewood Suite (they are across a shoping mall).

For those can afford bit more and with small kids, may want to think about Keylime indoor wanter park resort (http://keylimecove-px.trvlclick.com)

There is an indoor outlet mall (Gurnee Mill) in Gurnee and Six Flags is right next to it. At this time of year, you can find some very good hotel deals in that area. I am sure they also offer discout for Navy boot camp. The nice thing is shoping is right there, tons of variaty of restaurants, Rinkside is in Gurnee Mills with indoor ice rink, laser tag, and a big arcade game area. So your kids get to have some fun while on liberty.

In next day or two, I will also put together some local restaurants to recommend.

Have a nice day.

[Nette]

The restaurant list would be great! I looked on MyTourGuide for restaurants, but who knows how good they really are. My son and I watched "Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives" weekly, even went to Texwasabi in Sacramento before he left. I told my son that maybe we could do our own "Triple D" during grad weekend. Any restaurants that fall into those categories that have really good food would be great!! Thanks:):)

[FrankSmom]

Detail info for local dining (I am not include any national chain restaurants here): I am try to using 5 star (** means every day's food OK) and $$$ ($ being a little bit more than fast food place) to prepresent the quality and price:

Near by Gurnee Mill:

Monkey Dish Bar & Grill - ***, $$
Avalon (Am Breakfast) - **, $
Salutos Pizza & Pasta - ***, $$
Royal Thai - ***, $$
Lovely Thai - **, $
Hayash Gurnee (Japnese) - ***, $$
Ichiban Japanese Steak House - ***, $$$

Not far away from RTC in Libertyville (a nice area):

Wildberry Pancake Cafe (Breakfast, open until 2:30pm- ****, $$
Tavern (American) - *****, $$$
Mickey Finn's Brewery (Bar type) - ****, $$
Trattoria Pomigliano (Italian) - ****, $$$
Sushi Thai - ****, $$ (Mon-Wed 3:30pm-5:30pm, 1/2 for all Sushi Rolls)
New China Buffet (don't mix with Chian Buffet) - **, $

Also not far from RTC:

Silk Mandarin (Chinese) - ****, $$
Tsukasa of Tokyo (Japan Sushi and steak house) - *****, $$$
On the Border (Mexican) - ****, $$

You can also find a long list of national chain restaurants when search with Gurnee Mill Address - 6170 W. Grand Ave.Gurnee, IL 60031

Also, Please visit the following website for more visit info specifically for us, even include coupons.

http://www.lakecounty.org/naval.cfm

Good luck.

See more shoping and tour info coming in a day or two.

[ramriv]

Hi I saw your travel info and I thank you so much. I wil be coming from California and booked the Red Carpet In on Buckley
Road, North Chicago for my husband and myself, is that a good area, or should we think about changing to another hotel?
I thought this was a good location which offers shuttle service to Grad and is also on the hand out we got with the first letter.
What do you think?

[FrankSmom]

North Chicago and Waukegan are two areas that we usually try to avoid for people who live here. But since they are so many navy families use these hotel (they are closer to the site), so the hotel is safe. If you are willing to pay a little extra, I will recommend you Candlewood Suite or thoes near by I94 and Grand Ave in Gurnee. One thing to consider is that your kid will have several hours of Liberty and you would want to take him/her for shoping, eating, or something else. These hotels are perfect location.

[BearsNavyMom~ship04~div851]

my husband is wanting to know of great places to eat. please email me [e-mail].

[FrankSmom]

Pleae see my reply on Sept 28. I gave a long listing.

[myrecruit]

Thank you for this information.I had also booked at the quality Inn.When I visit I want to feel safe stepping out at night if I have too..Thanks....