After using TripAdvisor's travel forums, I decided the best architectural cruise in Chicago for my family would be the one offered by the Chicago Architecture Foundation and Chicago's First Lady Cruises. I was right!

The boarding location at Michigan and Wacker is clearly marked, the staff and crew are extremely helpful, the boats are clean, comfortable and safe, and the trained CAF docents seem to know practically everything about Chicago's architecture.

Not only was our tour guide well-prepared with her "script", there wasn't a question thrown at her for which she didn't have a pretty good answer.

While my son is the real architecture buff, I'm an amateur photographer. As a photographer, I couldn't have asked for more, getting shots of Chicago's magnificent buildings from angles and perspectives that I could have never gotten any other way.

The cruise was about an hour-and-a-half long, and made a loop from the loading location west, then north on the Chicago River to Duck Island, south to River City and then out to the mouth of the river before turning around and completing the loop at the dock.

The CAF Cruise may cost a few dollars more, but, for the true architecture buff -- or even amateur photographer -- those dollars are a great investment in "first class"!