175 ways to celebrate Chicago's birthday

Talk about a Herculean task!

Chicago celebrates its 175th birthday on March 4, and that’s a lot of birthday-cake candles to extinguish! (The city invites one and all to Chicago’s 175th birthday party from noon to 5 p.m. March 4 at the Chicago History Museum, 1601 N. Clark.)

We’d like to give the city a gift, but what do you get a city that has everything?

So we decided instead to pay it forward. We came up with recommendations — 175 of them — for the coolest things to experience in the city all year ’round. (We hope all those fine attractions outside the city limits proper cut us some slack!)

Call it our way of inviting everyone to celebrate this milestone brithday by enjoying all that the city has to offer. So, in no particular order, click through the photo gallery to see our suggestions on how to do just that in the coming months.

http://www.suntimes.com