Chicago. City of the Big Shoulders.
What started off as a small fur-trading settlement is today a bustling
metropolis. Once considered the "hog butcher of the world, stacker of
wheat, player with railroads and the nation's freight handler",
Chicago's colourful past remains hidden in the nooks and crannies of
this wonderful windy city.


Adventures await, from the glamourous
to the gritty. Sip dirty martinis in an elegant, underground, 1920's
bank vault. Paddle a kayak down the infamous Bubbly Creek of Upton
Sinclair's The Jungle. While away an afternoon in a salt cave,
or smoke a classic cigar in the oldest family-run tobacco shop in the
U.S. Snorkel a 32-acre, limestone sheet shoal, one of the most
biodiverse ecosystems in the Midwest. Dine outdoors in a 23rd floor
Beaux-Arts cupola overlooking the Chicago River. Whether you're an
out-of-towner or a diehard Chicago dweller who thinks you've seen it
all, these 111 hidden places are waiting for you to discover them.

Photographs by: Susie Inverso