Breakfast was great: real oatmeal, several choices of cold cereal, boiled eggs, bagels, muffins, biscuit-egg-ham sandwiches, yogurt, juice, coffee, hot water/tea bags, waffles, apples, bananas.

When I booked the room, the web site didn't mention a fitness center, but there was a small one, with a stairmaster, a treadmill, and an exercise bike. There was a computer and printer in the lobby, and free wi-fi (log in with your name each day and start a 24-hour timer.) They also offered to print a boarding pass and slip it under your door the morning of your departure. There was a pile of free USA Today newspapers at the desk each morning, and warm cookies at some point in the afternoon.

The shuttle to Midway is shared among a half dozen hotels located adjacent to one another. In one direction, it picks up near one of the baggage claim stations; in the other direction, it drops you off at the checkin area for your particular airline. While it runs 24x7,they advised us to phone the hotel to trigger it. The shuttle does not go to the Orange Line Midway "el" station per se, but there's a (longish) indoor walking corridor between the Midway terminal and that station.

We were able to visit a variety of Chicago attractions by public transit. The 54B bus stops on Cicero Ave near 65th St, just outside the hotel complex, and runs to the Orange Line Midway station (and beyond.) The Orange Line takes you to the Loop (shopping, Art Institute.) The 55 bus takes you (slowly) from the Orange Line Midway station to the Museum of Science and Industry, the Hyde Park area, U of Chicago, and the Frank Lloyd Wright Robie house. By transferring from 54B to 54 to the Green Line, you can even get to Oak Park where the Frank Lloyd Wright home and studio are located. I bought a CTA pass, good for one person for 72 hours from first use on buses and the "el" (but not on Metra trains, which are not CTA); I bought mine from a machine at the Amtrak station, but they're also sold at CVS and Walgreens. Employees and passengers alike were helpful when I had questions about public transit, and it was a relief not to deal with traffic, unfamiliar streets, parking, and gas. It was also cheap! The downside, of course, is that it takes longer. However, the trains and buses I mentioned above run so often and are so well coordinated that I spent very little time waiting to get on; the extra time was due mostly to frequent stops on the buses. There's a printable route guide on the CTA web site, but I found I needed to use Google maps (clicking on the "public transit" icon) to figure out which buses and trains to take and when they arrived.