New York may have bigger and better museums, shops, and restaurants, and even Los Angeles has more people, but Chicago is still the most all-American city, and one of the most exciting and enjoyable places to visit in the world. Commerce capital of Middle America, where something like 80 percent of the nation’s agricultural produce is bought and sold, Chicago’s location at the crossroads between the settled East and the wide-open West has helped it to give birth to many new things we now take for granted: the skyscraper, the blues, and the atomic bomb.
Away from The Loop, the skyscraper-spiked lakefront business district that holds the world’s tallest and most impressive collection of modern architecture in its oblong square mile, much of Chicago is surprisingly low-rise and residential. Also surprising, considering its inland location, is that Chicago has the highest percentage of immigrants of any American city—300,000 Poles form the largest community outside Warsaw, and Hispanics constitute 20 percent of Chicago’s population of three million—with a multi-ethnic character readily apparent in numerous enclaves all over the city. Whatever their origin, however, residents take a particular pride in identifying themselves as Chicagoans, and despite the city’s rusting infrastructure, their good-natured enthusiasm for the place can be contagious.
For an unbeatable introduction to Chicago, hop aboard a river cruise offered by the Chicago Architecture Foundation (daily May–Nov. only; $25; 312/922-3432). Departing from where the Michigan Avenue Bridge crosses the river and Wacker Drive, these informative and enjoyable tours offer an unusual look up at the city’s magnificent towers. Enthusiastic expert guides give the city’s general historical background as well as pointed architectural history. North from the river, the “Magnificent Mile” of Michigan Avenue is a bustling shopping strip that holds yet more distinctive towers, along with many of the city’s top shops, restaurants, and hotels. Starting with the gothic-style Tribune Tower—decorated with bits of famous buildings stolen by Tribune staffers from around the globe—and running past the circa-1869 Historic Water Tower at its midpoint, the “Mag Mile” ends in the north with the 95-story John Hancock Center.
Along the lakefront at the heart of downtown, the Art Institute of Chicago ($12, free Tues.; 312/443-3600), 111 S. Michigan Avenue, boasts one of the world’s great collections of 19th- and 20th-century French painting, and a broad survey of fine art from all over the world. Among its many fine paintings, the Institute also demonstrates a pride of place with Grant Wood’s American Gothic, which he painted as a student and sold to the Institute for $300. North and east of the museum is Chicago’s latest great claim to fame: Millennium Park, a 25-acre public garden full of fabulous sculptures and a magical, Frank Gehry–designed outdoor concert pavilion that’s home to numerous summer concerts and events.
More than just another baseball game, watching the Chicago Cubs play at Wrigley Field (773/404-2827), 1060 W. Addison Street, is a rite of passage that taps into the deepest meanings of the national pastime. It’s also a hugely pretty scene, with ivy covering the redbrick outfield walls, and Chicagoans of all stripes rooting on the perennial not-quite winners. The “other” Chicago baseball team, the World Series–winning White Sox, play at modern new US Cellular Field (312/674-1000), south of the Loop alongside I-94 at 333 W. 35th Street.
