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We spent a night and a day in the Windy City, revelling in the type of big city downtown that the US seems to excel at: monumental buildings, gracious parks and a real feeling of scale.  We stayed (for a treat) at the Palmer House Hilton, a gracious old hotel evocative of the St Gregory (immortalised in Arthur Halley's novel Hotel) and had dinner at Navy Pier.

In the morning we took the subway to get our bearings from the observation gallery of the John Hancock building (only the third tallest in Chicago, but it put us where we wanted to be: Michigan Avenue, for a spot of glamour shopping).

After a river and lake cruise to inspect some of Chicago's best architecture from a different angle (highly recommended), we had lunch in Grant Park and visited the grand dame of Illinois department stores: Marshall Fields.  OK, sounds like a lot of shopping but that's what you get for marrying someone with a background in fashion design...