Once we had some food in us, we set out to brave the elements and see the Magnificent Mile of stores on Michigan Avenue.
It was very cold. The skyscrapers were pretty, all lit up in red and green; all the trees along the street were strung with lights in their branches. And Chicagoans do it the right way – they string the lights up in the branches. Some parts of the country just wrap the trunks in lights which makes it look like a forest of stumps. I never have understood that temperament.
There aren’t many of the old fashioned Christmas window displays that I remember from when I was a little kid. However, we ducked into the Mariott to see their tree and found a wonderful display. I love Chicago Dogs – that hot dog with mustard, onion, pickle relish, tomato wedge, sport pepper, and a dash of celery salt – and at the Mariott hotel, they had the world’s largest Chicago Dog. No ketchup, of course.
The display consisted of over 1400 pounds of gingerbread, 500 pounds of sugar, and 600 pounds of candy and decorations. It was really cute.
But it was so cold, way below freezing and aggravated by the Chicago wind, that we had to buy some more outerwear halfway through our walk. Fortunately, there is no shortage of outerwear stores along Michigan Avenue in Chicago (as you might imagine).
