What does a visitor need to know about the city before going there? The winters are brutal. You get up in the morning and it has snowed, and you go out to your car and not only has it dumped snow, but the snowplows have come and just completely buried your car. You are standing there going, "What the heck am I going to do?" But that's what I love about Chicago. Some guy will drive by and stop, pull over his car, pull out the shovel he keeps in the back of the car, shovel you out, and then say, "See ya." He doesn't expect anything, and he is not doing it for a date. He is just doing it because he knows somewhere in the city some other guy is doing it for his mother or sister. There is just this wonderful, small-town feel in a big city. The other thing is - and I wrote this down because I thought it was really true - a friend of mine described Chicago as a city where they don't give you a lot of frosting, the people there. The people are very nice, incredibly kind and helpful, but they are direct and simple, and they get it done. You get a good cupcake but not a whole lot of frosting. As a matter of fact, they are a little suspicious if there is too much jive going on.

Chicago is famous for its food. Let's begin with lunch. There is a neighborhood called Roscoe Village, and it's kind of where the actors hang out, and there is a restaurant called Turquoise. This is a great place, and you can get a meal for 25 bucks or less. It is delicious, and they deliver. It's upscale Turkish cuisine, and it's fantastic. There is also a great place called Jaks Tap, which has great burgers and about 500 different kinds of beer on tap.

Take us outdoors. I love to run in Lincoln Park, and it also has a fantastic zoo. Lincoln Park Zoo, I think, rivals the Bronx Zoo. It is wonderfully laid out, and it is outside. They give the animals a lot of room. They have the scariest reptile house you have ever seen, with snakes as big as your couch hanging out there. The zoo is in the middle of this big park, and it's not crowded. We used to go running in Lincoln Park, and then we would always end up at the zoo and just sort of walk through and visit it. You see all the schoolkids there, and it is well kept and friendly. It's just a lovely place to spend the day with your children - I was actually doing that even before I had kids.