No, it’s not a typo, but it is a reason to visit Chicago in the dead of winter. You with the earmuffs. You heard me right. Now start packing. P.S. If you’re a local, you’re in luck. Here’s why. First picture Millennium Park—the affectionately nicknamed Bean (aka Anish Kapoor’s massive Cloud Gate sculpture), Frank Gehry’s awesome Pritzker Pavilion, the ever-changing, stories-high faces of Chicagoans on the monoliths of the Crown Fountain. Then install, smack dab in the middle of this genius pool, a 12-foot high, 95-foot wide wall of ice. Not just any wall of ice, but colorful, creative “Paintings Below Zero” by Canadian artist Gordon Halloran. It’s a happening, folks—amazing, inspiring, a modernista must-see on the order of the Chihulys in Garfield Park a few years back. Remember how every Frank Lloyd Wright fiber of your being appreciated the organic, sense-of-place melding of art and Nature? Yes, it’ll be that good. Still skeptical—or don’t own a white down jacket, furry flap hat or United Nude boots? No worries. Hop in a cab to Streeterville, just north of Millennium Park, where you can shop on trendy Michigan Avenue and contemplate your sensory-overloaded day in style at DeLaCosta restaurant, on the east end (toward Navy Pier) of the River East Art Center. Cap off the evening at Whiskey Sky in the W on Lake Shore Drive. There are actually quite a few hip hotels in Chicago—boutique and otherwise, and hundreds of restaurants you wouldn’t mind being seen in. Many of them are very close to Millennium Park. For other goings-on in the city during your visit, click here. After all, what’s a little snow and cold when it’s cool you’re really after?