Today I popped to Chicago, where Bree is getting married tomorrow. After a delicious rehearsal dinner at Viand, I dodged the rain and skipped to the John Hancock Center to give the city a good look.

I’ve only been to Chicago once before – for 4th July about five years ago – but I always include it in my list when I’m asked for my favourite U.S. cities. And tonight confirmed its place on that list.

I’ve been to the top of buildings in lots of cities, from New York to London to Seattle. And while every place is obviously different, I do think there are only so many you can see in this way – only so many non-descript buildings you can look over and lines of car lights and people you can compare to the size of a toy town. So I was surprised to find this was actually really exciting.

Chicago is such a good-looking city – it is so well kept and its skyline is really beautiful. There are so many interesting buildings – the Sears Tower, Trump Tower, 900 N Michigan and the diamond-shaped Smurfit-Stone Building (which the architect said was a response to there being too many phallic buildings in the skyline, I learned tonight). It was also a chance to see just how bloody huge that lake is.