Chicago - All That Jazz

Chicago was a very impressive city to drive into. The sky was clear and although it had been a long driving day, I was totally alert and glancing from window to window, trying to take it all in. To my right was Lake Michigan, glistening beneath the sail boats and flanked by pristine beaches. On the left it was a stark contrast of majestic office buildings and residential apartments, separated by lush parks and fountains. I couldn’t wait to explore the city.

We rarely stopped throughout the tour and after quickly settling into the hotel, we were heading out for dinner. We ate at a gorgeous little Italian place and later that evening took the bus into town to see the nightlife.

The bar we went to was everything I wanted to expect from a bar in Chicago. The exposed brick walls were draped with fairy lights and the deep mahogany floor and bar areas gave it a dingy and cosy ambience. A raised area held a pool table and juke boxes and the busty barmaids were free pouring to disastrous effect. The girls and I chatted to tourists from New York, Canada and Ireland, everyone was in high spirits and the evening passed in a haze of dancing, laughing and too much Jack Daniels.

The next morning I walked for over an hour from the hotel into the centre of Chicago to meet the girls. It was good to see more of the residential areas, the leafy suburbs and streets lined with quirky little cafes and shops. A lot of the houses had stoops, or 'small staircases leading to the entrance of an apartment or building' and the whole place reminded me of that Nickelodeon cartoon, ‘Hey Arnold!’

I had no map, but in the distance I could see the 100-storey John Hancock Center, so I walked towards it and hoped for the best. I met the girls and they decided to go to the top of the building, but feeling a little fragile, I opted to stay within the grounds. I thought I might wander around the coffee shops and boutiques. However, I had made the unfortunate decision to wear a dress that day. They don’t call Chicago ‘the windy city’ for nothing and I found myself trapped in some kind of wind tunnel desperately trying to uphold my dignity amongst the smirking, trouser-clad locals. All I could do was sit on some freezing cold steps with the pigeons and wait 40 minutes for the girls to get back to act as my shield. Not the best start but I had a great day none-the-less.

We laughed a lot that day, Christina, Steph, Lisa and I. Everything from Steph’s snapped flip flop to our plans to form the next world famous girl group cracked us up.

After a brief sunbathe in the park, we headed to Buckingham Fountain, a public icon of Chicago. The wrought bronze sculpture was beautiful and every hour there is a light and water display with the centre jet being able to shoot water up to 150 feet in the air. We had ice cream and real lemonade and chilled in the sun. We didn’t stay too long though as some strange, smiley tourist was taking pictures of us with his long lens camera.

Chicago was a little different to the other cities we had visited, because although it had the tall, impressive buildings, it seemed to have much more open space, more light and really individual little quirks. Such as ‘Cloud Gate’, nicknamed ‘the bean’ and the centrepiece of Millennium Park. The sculpture reflects Chicago’s skyline, giving us great photo opportunities and I think we enjoyed looking at our morphed reflections as much as the kids did. Chicago’s recreational areas had a much more digital and futuristic theme compared to anywhere else I have seen and it seemed like a city that had something for everyone.

As the sun was going down we were in Macy’s being sold expensive beauty products by the most over enthusiastic, typically American sales woman I have ever met. She looked and spoke like a Stepford Wife and before we knew it we were ‘throwing our negative energy out of the door and onto the street’, comparing the softness of each other’s hands and trying to contain the urge to laugh in her face and run out of the shop. We were being given the hard sell, but luckily it wasn’t long before we were skipping out of the shop laden with free samples, exhausted but happy. My main regret about Chicago was not being persistent enough to make it to Oprah's studios. They were a short commute away but I decided to stay in the city. And I call myself her No1 Fan...