Smile! TravelShark Shares their Sharky Smiles with Chicago

Mako Mark shares his sharky smile with Chicago

By Becca Schwartz | Wednesday June 13, 2012

Day Two on TravelShark’s sharky Chicago adventure was just as jam-packed—if not more—than the first day. Katie O’Block, Mako Mark, and I had started working on a series of hyper-local TravelShark videos about the true travel-finds of the Windy City at the beginning of the week, and so far, we were having a blast doing it.

Because, as it turns out, travelling around with a shark has some serious advantages.

Mako Mark, Chicago’s “rising” star

Mako Mark and Miss Illinois at the Skydeck

Everywhere we’ve gone, Mako Mark seems to draw people’s attention. We were barely steps out the hotel yesterday morning when strangers on the street began asking if they could be in a picture with him. We’d even started handing out small cards with ginning shark teeth on them, just so everyone else could share their “sharky smiles,” just like Mako—and people loved it!

Our first stop for the day was at the world-famous Willis (formerly known as Sears) Tower. We’d made an appointment to tour the Skydeck view-center on the 103rd floor and interview Randy Stancik. Mako Mark, though, had secured us celebrity status (along with other VIP, Miss Illinois), and we our own Ledge glass box roped off for the interview!

Going with the artistic flow

Katie O'Block capture's Van Gough's "The Bedroom"

After we finally descended the tower (Mako Mark had been hamming it up and taking pictures with people for quite some time), we decided to take a water-taxi ride on the Chicago River back up to Michigan Avenue. It was the perfect opportunity for Katie to catch the Chicago skyline and its impressive architecture from the water, and the captain was more than thrilled to have a shark on board.

Next, we headed to the Art Institute of Chicago for a private tour of the museum with PR Director, Chai Lee. It was the perfect opportunity for us to get a more in depth look at Chicago’s cultural prowess—not to mention possibly the fastest, yet most thorough museum tour we’d ever been on!

The sharky nickname investigation continues

Mako Mark hadn’t forgotten our promise to look into Chicago’s nickname “The Windy City,” so, as the day drew to a close, we started walking around the Loop and the Magnificent Mile trying to get the scoop. The more people we spoke to, though, the more we began to realize that there might be a connection between that nickname and the title “The Second City.” One person even suggested that it might be called “The Second City” because it had the second-best pizza in the country.

Well, what were we supposed to do? Guess it’s time to go find some Chicago-style deep-dish pizza!

Becca Schwartz is a chocoholic from New York City who started at TravelShark as a Content Associate last fall. She loves telling stories about how much she loves the Rocky Mountains just as much as she loves telling stories about how much she loves Central Park, but nothing compares to her love for travel.

Posted under: Sharky • Travel Plans and Travel Itineraries • Team TravelShark