Welcome to Chicago, where the inches of snow are higher than the temperature.

The Windy City lived up to its name on my first visit there last weekend. A foot of snow, 7º and 35mph winds made for an unforgettable experience trekking across town.

We started our trip off visiting the Willis (Sears) Tower Skydeck, where we stood inside a glass box hanging off the side of the building 103 floors (1,353 feet) above the ground. (No, I’m not counting this as #1: Stand on top of a skyscraper, because we weren’t outside on the actual roof.)

Then we had Chicago-style deep dish pizza, looked at ourselves in Cloud Gate (a.k.a. the Bean), flew down supersonic slides in Millennium Park, speed-walked to the aquarium and saw Anjelah Johnson at Chicago Improv.

The next day included lots of snow, a stop by Mr. Trump’s tower, a random German festival, a visit to Burberry, some Uber rides, one big mural and a show at Second City. We topped it all off with a Christmas parade and the lighting of Chicago’s (surprisingly small) Christmas tree.

All in all, a great trip to a great new city. Chicago, I will be coming back — next time during the summer.

 

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Another item on my list was to visit an aquarium. The last time I went to a real one was in New Orleans when I was six months old, so obviously I don’t remember that.

It never fails — every time I watch Finding Nemo or see a bunch of fish, I want to go out and buy a huge fish tank and stock it full.

The Shedd Aquarium is one of the largest in the world, and has all kinds of fish. Some of my favorites were (obviously) the sharks, the dolphins and the huge beluga whales. It’s located right on the shores of Lake Michigan and although we missed the aquatic show by a few minutes, the pretzel I had while we were there made up for it.