North of the Chicago River are a number of attractions you should not overlook, including several museums and buildings, the city's greatest park, a zoo, and one of the world's most impressive research libraries. Most of these sites are either on the Magnificent Mile (North Michigan Ave.) and its surrounding blocks or not too far from there, on the Near North Side.

Summer Solstice--If you're here in mid-June, don't miss the Museum of Contemporary Art's annual Summer Solstice celebration (tel. 312/280-2660), a 24-hour festival of contemporary art and music. During the daylight hours, there are plenty of hands-on activities for kids; after dark, the museum turns into an avant-garde nightclub. After a night of nonstop performances, soak in the sunrise over the lake before crashing back at your hotel.

Rock Around the World--The impressive, gothic Tribune Tower, just north of the Chicago River on the east side of Michigan Avenue, is home to one of the country's media giants and the Chicago Tribune newspaper. But it's also notable for an array of architectural fragments jutting out from the exterior. The collection was started shortly after the building's completion in 1925 by the newspaper's notoriously despotic publisher, Robert R. McCormick, who gathered them during his world travels. Tribune correspondents then began supplying building fragments that they acquired on assignment. Each one now bears the name of the structure and country whence it came. There are 138 pieces in all, including chunks and shards from the Great Wall of China, the Taj Mahal, the White House, the Arc de Triomphe, the Berlin Wall, the Roman Colosseum, London's Houses of Parliament, the Great Pyramid of Cheops in Giza, Egypt, and the original tomb of Abraham Lincoln in Springfield, IL.