Condon gives an Australian tourist's perspective on the city's warm welcome, and gets excited about visiting the booth Frank Sinatra preferred at the Pump Room (1301 N. State Parkway), so excited in fact that he seems to almost prefer the Windy City to NYC. Well, to be fair, maybe his preference is based more on the abundance of cheaper food and Frank Lloyd Wright structures. He doesn't mention Oak Park, but his visit to Evanston was memorable, especially the barbecue place, Hecky's.
Clearly, Sean Condon's happy experiences of the city, from the Magnificent Mile to Soldier's Field (Soldier's, I repeat Soldier's, who do you think they built it for anyway?) was in part due to his Chicago friends who showed him around, as well as his personal finances: he stayed with his wife at the Drake. That notwithstanding, many of the city's wonders (views of the architecture, Hecky's, Chicago style pizza, and the hotdogs on Maxwell Street) are available to those with less disposable cash.