What to do in the Chicago airport for 8 hours?

If you are checking in kitties with Virgin Atlantic, that will take an hour to two hours right there.  It took an hour and 45 minutes for me to check my dogs in at Boston Logan.  As they checked in one dog, I took the other for a walk and vice versa.  They were brilliant, btw!

If my flight hadn't been delayed, I would have only had about two hours until departure (after the general check-in and security mess).

Maybe it's just me needing to be super cautious and super early for flights, etc. but I can't imagine leaving the airport and going downtown with a toddler in tow, and then assuming all will go smoothly and I'll be back in time for check in....that thought makes me nervous.

I had more than two hours to make a connecting flight at O'Hare and *everything* took forever, every line was long, the tram was reduced to running on one track only (the wait was long!), I was told to get in the wrong line 3 times, etc. etc.  No surprise that I missed the flight.

I was thinking the same exact thing as you were Andee. if it was me I would be so worried about making it back in time I don't think I could or would actually be able to relax & enjoy myself until I got back to the airport an was checked into my flight but thats just me.

Yeah, I think maybe us staying in the airport would be better just for the unpredictable aspect of things with the little one and you just never know what will happen!  The cats will take forever I'm sure.  Probably closer to 3 hours for all three.  I'm hoping they have a way for a kitty to go bathroom.  They don't have leashes, but I could get them with a harness I suppose.  We'll have a wander around and try to find a sit down place to eat and hopefully a place to plug in the DVD player to keep her occupied!  Thanks for the suggestions!!!  I'll have to keep it all in mind!  I have an uncle that lives close, but I'm guessing he'll be working since we are there during the day. 

Also please allow at the very least an hour to get through international security at O'hare! The lines are always wrapped around up to the ticket counters and at least 6 deep! It's ridiculous! If you're flying American you'll fly out of the domestic terminal so its not too bad but the international terminal at O'hare is small and always a nightmare!

Last time I flew through Chicago my connecting flight (to Manchester) was cancelled and I was rebooked on a Swiss Air flight to Zurich - rechecking my baggage and getting my new boarding pass took u a good hour and a half of wait time! 

Yikes!  I'm hoping everything goes very smooth.  We'll have lots of time to get through the lines and check the cats in and then relax a bit.  I would hate to have to re-book anything!!  Our cat stuff would be messed up as well as our bags and everything!  I'm going to try to not worry!!!

O'Hare is the 8th wonder of the world. You will have no trouble finding things to do right inside of it. You can also take the blue line train into the city, if you want, but the CTA is horribly unreliable, so this might be risky (I live in Chicago - trust me on this. We hate CTA here).

This is only 2 months late, but I took the blue line out to downtown Chicago twice without a problem, and one was in December when they had those bus routes to reconnect you. Easy peasy, but cant blame anyone for not wanting to risk it.

bit of an update, we did make it and didn't have too much time to kill by the time our cats were processed and we made it back to the actual airport and through security.  The cats took over 2 hours to get ready for the plane!  Otherwise, we may have been able to do something fun.  Thanks for the ideas though in case we need to do it again!