It’s been nearly eight months, so perhaps you’ve forgotten that March night when we were helplessly asleep and the hour between 2 and 3am was snatched away. We awoke groggy, our clocks were wrong, but we soon forgot about those 60 minutes, focusing instead on fantasies of the long summer days ahead.
Well summer’s over folks, and on November 1, Daylight Saving Time is too, as we “fall back” into darkness for a spell. But then, when 2am becomes 1am this Sunday, we get that hour back. It might not seem like much, but it’s ours. Here are 11 perfect things you can do to make the most of an hour in Chicago.
1. Take a tour at the Museum of Contemporary Art. The museum offers docent-led tours that run 30 to 45 minutes and touch on key themes from MCA’s exhibits.
2. Float away to pure serenity in a sensory deprivation tank at Chicago Float Tanks. An hour session runs $50, but this ultimate de-stress session is priceless.
3. Make the most of an hour and see 30 plays in 60 minutes at the Neo-Futurists’ fantastic Too Much Light Makes the Baby Go Blind.
4. Use the time to test your riddle-solving skills at one of the DOA Room Escapes, where you and your team must use your wits to solve your way to freedom within one hour or accept defeat.
5. Treat yourself to a quick and lovely facial at Balance Spa. Use that time to feel fresh-faced and ready for anything.
6. Give yourself an hour of playtime on classic arcade games at one of Chicago’s best arcade bars.
7. Enrich your mind and build your core at one of Moksha Yoga’s hour-long classes to find your center.
8. Throw on a fall coat and take yourself on a DIY public art tour downtown to visit Calder’s vibrant “Flamingo,” meet Miro’s “Chicago,” dip into Dubuffet's monument "Standing Beast” or slide down the “Chicago Picasso.” Bring your smartphone to hear many tell you a thing or two in the ongoing Statue Stories project.
9. One hour is the perfect amount of time to indulge in one of our city's juicy burgers. Waiting for one at Au Cheval will probably take too much time, but you can find a killer burger at many other just-fast-enough spots, like Red Hot Ranch.
10. Live it up at the Chicago Athletic Association’s Game Room, where you can play chess or shuffleboard while sipping a well-made cocktail.
11. Have the perfect perk-me-up on an Intelligentsia Coffee public tour at 1850 West Fulton St. For a cool $30, see how your favorite beans are roasted and leave with a free 12-ounce bag to boot.