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See the Field Museum's New RoboSUE, an Animatronic T. Rex Machine

SUE comes to life in "Waking the T. rex 3-D: The Story of SUE."

SUE, the most complete and best-preserved T. rex fossil unearthed, is the Chicago Field Museum's most famous resident. And at 42 feet long from head to tail, she's also the biggest attraction. To celebrate her 10-year anniversary at the museum, she's getting an animatronic makeover that will turn her into RoboSUE.

The summer-long anniversary celebration kicks off May 26. While SUE's old bones will still be on display in Stanley Field Hall, steps away there'll be a realistic-looking robotic version that will supposedly will scare the bejeezus out of you. When you visit RoboSUE, she'll respond by looking directly at you and reacting to your movements.

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Jog Around an Abandoned Airport in Downtown Chicago

One of the coolest, most unique things you can do in Chicago is to walk or bike or jog out onto the runways of a former airport situated downtown, right on Lake Michigan. The runways might be grass now, but it wasn't too long ago they were tarmac and landing jets, and the old control tower and 1960s terminal building still stand to prove it. This area is a park called Northerly Island, the former Meigs Field Airport, which has a dramatic historical past and a sunny future.

In 1933, this bit of land that jutted out from downtown Chicago was made the center of the World's Fair; if you've read Devil in the White City, you'll know where we're talking about. In 1948, the land became the single runway airport Meigs Field, which was controversially closed for good in 2003 when Chicago's mayor Daley tore up the runways in the middle of the night, with the aim of making it a park according to the 1909 plan of Chicago's city planner, Daniel Burnham.

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Chicago Gets Some Bling with The Field Museum's 'Diamond' Exhibit

This tiara, which Salma Hayek donned for a 1998 White House correspondent's dinner (who knew such dinners had a royalty dress code), will be featured at the Field.

Chicago will see some dazzle when "The Nature of Diamonds" brings more than 800 jewels to the Field Museum on October 23. You'll see bling from top-notch designers such as Tiffany & Co., Van Cleef & Arpels, Boucheron and Cartier.

The centerpiece of the exhibit will be The Vault, a reproduced vault that will showcase rare pieces that have rarely been on display. See the diamond jewelry owned by Mae West, Catherine the Great, Joan Crawford, Elton John and other celebs. A highlight is the 128.54-carat Tiffany Diamond, one of the world's largest and finest yellow diamonds, and the 407.48-carat Incomparable Diamond, the largest flawless diamond graded by the Gemological Institute of America and the third-largest cut diamond ever recorded.

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