State of the states: Thanks to Mrs O'Leary's cow

Late one night, when we were all in bed,

Mrs. O'Leary lit a lantern in the shed.

Her cow kicked it over,

Then winked her eye and said

"There'll be a hot time in the old town tonight!"

So goes the legend that Mrs O'Leary's cow started the Great Chicago Fire that burned for two days and nights from Sunday, 8 October, 1871 destroying much of old Chicago, leading to a rebuild that surely has resulted in Chicago becoming one of the great cities of the world.

Ahh, Paris, I love you yet and will forever, and always you will be foremost in my heart, but Chicago, too, is my kinda town.

It is, quite possibly, one of the most beautiful cities for architecture in the world and is one of the rare ones where you can take an architectural cruise along the river and be enchanted by everything from Art Deco to minimalist modern. I loved the tiered Sears Tower (I will not call it the Willis). Bec climbed its 103 stories, hopped out onto a glass balcony, with a glass floor, to view the terrain. With nary a tremble.

I loved the Smurfit-Stone triangular stunner, the eye-catching Gotham-like Two Prudential Plaza, and even Donald Trump's glorious new Trump Tower. I did not want to like this one because the man is such a caricature of himself that you want to disown everything he touches, but this building is breathtaking from every beautiful angle. A design triumph. And with the penthouse apartment going for thirty million, it probably needs to be.

Soft clouds roll in off Lake Michigan dancing around and about the towers. Then, just add glints of sunlight or night light, and, at any time of the day or night, Chicago's skyline is utterly and completely irresistible. None of us could get enough of it. And it is not just the buildings: it is also the space, the proportion, the breathing room, the expanse of everything.

Millenium Park rolls out alongside the downtown buildings like a lush green carpet right to the shores of Lake Michigan offering the city a vast, beautiful viewing platform. Itself breathtaking, Millenium is filled with glorious sculptures like the elliptical stainless steel egg, Cloud Gate, and the extraordinary stainess steel serpentine Frank Gehry BP bridge -- my favourite pedestrian bridge on the planet. You can walk for miles, simply ogling.

Then there are the galleries and museums. World class. The Art Institute's Impressionist art display was brilliant. And we bussed south to the Museum of Science and Industry and spent ages in the magnificent expos there. My favourite was the silent screen star Colleen Moore's glorious dollhouse collection, the Fairy Castle in miniature. A complete work of tiny collected art and sculpture, including the tiniest bible ever written, and ancient miniature statues over 2,000 years old.

We visited the Magnificent Mile, rode the El, ate charred Chicago Hot Dogs as well as the justly famous giant stuffed Chicago pizzas, and visited the legendary Buddy Guy's southtown blues joint where we listened to a touch of Chicago electric blues while we chowed down delicious Creole fare, Chicago-style. Had an absolute ball!