Chicago - Second to None

What do you do when you have just a few days in Chicago? I had grand plans to spend time with my sister and brother-in-law who live there and whom I hadn't seen for months; to meet their "babies" (read: puppies); see the city landmarks; go on endless shopping outings on the renowned Michigan Avenue (aka The Magnificent Mile); try out lots of yummy fancy restaurants… the list goes on. Unfortunately two dear friends of mine decided to drop in: "cold" and "jet lag." I don't like them very much.

The blunt cold and the taxing jet-lag set a limit on my grand plans. Dinner reservations were cancelled when I would fall asleep by 5:00 p.m.. Walks around the city were rushed in order to avoid the cold.   Michigan Avenue was out of the question - indoor mall please!! I do however feel like I did very little and yet so much in those 5 days. And even though I may have seen just a small fraction of Chicago, I left thinking that I agree with the slogan: Chicago - Second to None.

Chicago from Above

With regards to that slogan, here's a little fact you may have not known: Chicago was for a long time known as 'The Second City'. From what I gather, this is due to one of two reasons: i) For decades, Chicago was the second most-populated city in the United States, earning it the nickname 'The Second City'; ii) Chicago’s nickname originated from it’s reconstruction after the Great Chicago Fire in the 19th century. Anyways, keen to shake off this less-than-positive label, the city of Chicago adopted the slogan ‘Second to None’ in 2011.

My lovely Sister and Brother-in-Law with their Babies

My sister and brother-in-law were the perfect hosts. We spent a lot of time laughing, and they were understanding in terms of my jet-lag. We did just a little bit of sight-seeing, a little bit of shopping, a little bit of the restaurant scene… and a lot of the stayinghome-cooking-playingwithpuppies-laughing-chatting-catchingup :) which was oh-so-lovely. I loved every moment. I'll leave you with a few shots of the Chicago Bean which I snapped hastily before being chased away by the cold. You can get an idea of how impressive and trippy this XXL-sized gleaming bean is. I went back to Chicago for Christmas to spend time with the fam-bam. Again I had grand plans of seeing a lot more. But who was I kidding? Did I even dare set foot outside with that kind of weather? More about that in another post!!