Boston Museums
The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum is a monument to one woman’s taste (and despite the loss of a few masterpieces in a daring 1990 robbery, still trove of paintings, sculpture, furniture, and textiles) housed in an Italian-style villa. The collection includes works by Titian, Matisse, Van Dyck, Rubens, and Botticelli. 280 The Fenway, tel 617/566-1401 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting 617/566-1401 . Open Tues.-Sun. Admission charged.

The Museum of Fine Arts has holdings of American art that surpasses those of all but a few other American museums, plus the most extensive collection of Asiatic art under one roof, and a European collection representing the 11th through 20th centuries. 465 Huntington Ave., tel. 617/267-9300. Open Tues.-Sun. Admission charged.

Museum of Science has more than 400 exhibits covering astronomy, anthropology, and earth sciences. Also housed here are the Hayden Planetarium and the Mugar Omni Theater. Science Park, across the Charles River on Green Line, tel 617/523-6664. Open daily. Admission charged.?

Boston Restaurants
The main ingredient in the Boston’s restaurant fare is still the bounty of North Atlantic, the daily catch of fish and shellfish that appears on virtually every menu of any Boston Restaurant. Seafood or no, the choice of dining experience in Boston has expanded to include a variety of ethnic cuisines beyond French and Italian; Thai and Indian restaurants, for example, are often attractive, affordable options. Price categories per person, excluding 5% tax, service, and drinks, are Expensive, over 25$; Moderate, $15-25; and Inexpensive, under $15.

Miami, city of choice for meetings of chiefs of state from around the Americas, the hemisphere’s most active free trade zone, and hub of Latin American air travel. Only three generations ago, Miami still slumbered during the summer, seasonally reviving with runaway hordes from miserable northern winters. Yet today you can believe the hype when this metropolis  of more than 2 million residents calls itself the capital of Latin America.

As a resort destination, Miami has never ranked better. Blue sea beckons beyond broad beaches. The Art Deco District’s steadily improving hotels, brilliant restaurants, and celebrity cafe society make South Beach the lure of paparazzi from around the world. The city boasts franchises in all four major-league sports, as well as annual world class golf and tennis events.

On the cultured side, acclaimed opera, ballet, and symphonic troupes call Miami home. So does a stable of celebrated writers (many affiliated with the Miami Herald, one of the best dailies in America), and a pop music scene that ranges from MTV Latino to some of the brightest upcoming rock and roll, blues, jazz, and world beat musicians, all of whom appear up and down South Beach, and across the bay downtown and in Coconut Grove.

The best months for weather – when evenings are cool and the humidity relents – are mid-November through mid-April. Most affordable time of the year is between Easter and Memorial Day, and again between Labor Day and mid-December. Between mid-December and mid-March, cold fronts can blow in and lower overnight temperature to near freezing, leaving daytime temperatures barely into the 70s. Most nights are in the 50s, days reaching to the low 80s. Early spring and late fall are pleasant but between mid-April and mid-October temperatures can reach into the 90s. Humidity is oppressive June through October. But since everything is air-conditioned and the beach and ocean are otherwise the place to be, vacationers find Miami bearable any time of the year. Early fall’s low rates come coupled  with the tail end of hurricane season (which begins in June). Hurricane reporting typically provides alerts days in advance. Rain otherwise tends to fall in afternoon showers. With all its gifts, Miami remains one of the bargain vacation cities of the world.

Chicago has everything for city lovers: culture, commerce, historic buildings, public transportation, ethnic neighborhoods, chic boutiques, and grit and grime. Masterpieces of skyscraper  architecture embrace the curving shore of Lake Michigan, creating one of the most spectacular skylines in the world. An elegant system of boulevards and parks encircles the central city.

Home to the blues and the Chicago Symphony, to storefront theaters and the Lyric Opera, to neighborhood murals and the Art Institute, Chicago has come a long way in shedding its rough-and-tumble image as “city of the big shoulders,” immortalized in the writings of Theodore Dreiser, Upton Sinclair, and Carl Sandburg. The infamous stockyards have long been closed, and the steel mills to the south lie largely idle. Except for a few bullet holes in the masonry around the Biograph Theatre (where John Dillinger was shot), few traces remain of the disreputable 1920′s gangster period that made Chicago infamous around the world; the Biograph itself is now run by the Cineplex Odeon chain, and Chicago has become, for better or worse, a hub of finance second only to New York. But Chicagoans remain friendly in the mid-western manner: helpful and generally lacking in pretense.

Long and thin (in many spots less than 10 miles wide), Chicago proper hugs the shore of Lake Michigan. Many of the major attractions are clustered within a mile of the lakefront, either in the Loop (defined by the tracks of the elevated train) or near the Loop, in the Near North Side.

There’s free admission to most major museums on one day  a week: The Art Institute and the Museum of Contemporary Art are free on Tuesday; the Chicago Academy of Sciences and the Chicago Historical Society, Monday; and the Field Museum of Natural History and the Museum of Science and Industry, Thursday. The Chicago Children’s Museum is free Thursday evening. The Chicago Cultural Center, the Czechoslovakian Society of American Heritage Museum and Archives, the David and Alfred Smart Museum of Art, the Mexican Fine Arts Center Museum, the Museum of Broadcast Communications, and the Oriental Institute are free every day.

Travelers whose principal concern is to have comfortable weather, such as their china tour, for touring the city may prefer spring or fall when moderate temperatures can make it a pleasure to be out and about, and the city’s cultural institutions are well into their seasons.

Summertime brings many opportunities for outdoor recreation. yet the temperatures will climb to the 90s in hot spells, and the humidity can be uncomfortably high. In more temperate times, the presence of Lake Michigan has a moderating effect on the city’s weather, keeping it several degrees cooler in summer, a bit warmer in winter.

Those winters can see very raw weather, and occasional news-making blizzards and the temperatures in the teens (or even in the single negative digits in December and January) are to be expected. There are January sales to reward those who venture out, and many indoor venues let one look out on the cold in warm comfort.

Visitors can speed up to the 103rd floor in 70 seconds by elevator and see a panoramic view that extends as far as Wisconsin and Michigan in good weather conditions. A piece entitled ‘Universe’ by sculptor Alexander Calder can be found in the lobby.

This museum ranks high on the list of Chicago’s attractions because of the interactive presentation of science and technology that help make a visit a “hands-on experience” in the true sense of the word.

Among other things, visitors can board a model of a World War II submarine, walk down a reconstructed street from around 1900, marvel at a 16-foot walk-through human heart, ride in the cage of a coal mine or enter a flight simulator to be catapulted into space. Perhaps you’d rather take a journey through your body or discover the mysteries and secrets of Egypt’s Pyramids.

100 stories, rising 1,127 feet skyward, have earned the John Hancock Building, built in 1870, the nickname “Big John”.

Visitors not suffering from vertigo can enjoy views of the city and Lake Michigan from the Skydeck on the 94th floor at the Hancock Observatory (http://www.hancock-observatory.com) or take the high-speed elevator up to the 95th floor, where “The 95th” is the highest restaurant in the city, with no less dizzying prices. The “Signature Lounge” (http://www.signatureroom.com), on the 96th floor, offers a much more affordable panoramic view, ideal for enjoying the illuminated skyline over an evening cocktail.

This government building is among the most controversial of Chicago’s modern buildings. Completed in 1985 by Helmut Jahn, the 17-story round glass structure has been ridiculed for looking like a crash-landed spaceship.
Those who focused more on its functionality joked about it as “Thompson’s Folly” (after Governor Jim Thompson, who commissioned the building) because of the exorbitant costs and the initial problems with the air conditioning system and the intense sunlight, necessitating workers to wear gloves in the winter and sunglasses in the summer.

The building not only houses offices, but also shops, cafés and restaurants, as well as an art gallery well worth a visit. Various events attract the young and old to the Center with its futuristic feel.

Lincoln Park Zoo, is one of the most superb in the U.S., has free entrance with an adjacent petting zoo and miniature farm. Numerous attractions and recreational activities – for example,
golf, mini-golf and tennis, swimming, horseback riding and paddle boats – are available in Chicago’s largest park, founded on the lake shore in 1868. Free-flying birds can be seen in the rookery, renovated by Frank Lloyd Wright in 1907. Flora from around the world can be seen in the lovely greenhouses of the Lincoln Park Conservatory. There are also three yacht harbors in the park available for the public.

Housed in a building that is a classicist showpiece, the Museum of Natural History promises a journey of discovery for both young and old.

Only a fraction of the 16 million exhibits can be shown at once. They are organized thematically and guide visitors through the world of dinosaurs with the world’s largest dinosaur skeleton or into ancient Egypt with a faithful copy of a Pharaoh’s tomb, for example. No less exciting are the superbly presented annual exhibits.