Chicago

chicago-caroline-and-scottIf you have never seen a baseball game, seeing a game at Wrigley Field will make you a fan. If you have seen plenty of baseball games, Wrigley Field will remind you of what’s still to love about baseball.

Rick Bayless’s Frontera Grill has been called the best restaurant in America. Why limit that accolade to America? Rick has resisted all importuning to dilute his personal touch by opening outposts in New York, London, or Las Vegas. But if you make the pilgrimage to Chicago and can’t get a table, pssst: he has a cafeteria-style place called Frontera Fresco on the seventh floor of Marshall Field’s (Macy’s), that serves the Mexican street food of your dreams. Macy’s intends to open Frontera Frescos in several others of their stores. Help is on the way!

The Museum of Science and Industry will make you will feel some of the old excitement of going to a school field trip. They have an amazing model train display, which follows a route from Chicago to Seattle, huffing, puffing, and whistling, and the original German U-505 submarine. You can walk the length of the sub, feel it shudder from a torpedo attack, and live to go up to the gift shop.

The Second City is the famous cauldron of comedy talent in the funniest, most theater-rich city in America. Nichols and May, Ackroyd and Belushi, all the most famous names in comedy, past and future, have come out of here. The improvisations that follow two nightly shows are free, and each set contains the crackle of excitement and discovery.

You don’t know the allure of pure chemical attraction until you’ve exchanged smiles with an orangutan at the Lincoln Park Zoo.