Winter travel package at InterContinental

Chicago

Martinis and shopping anyone?

See why out-of-towners are dazzled by Chicago when you snag a winter travel package offered by the InterContinental Chicago. Book the Jazz It Up With A Martini package and you'll soon be sipping four of the hotel's most famous martinis on the house and snapping your fingers with two complimentary tickets to The Joynt, an authentic Chicago jazz club. There are deluxe overnight accommodations, free valet parking and a freshly prepared breakfast for two at the hotel's Zest restaurant. Nightly rates start at $284 per couple. The Magnificent Mile Shopping package includes deluxe overnight accommodations, a $50 MagMile gift certificate, shopping discounts at surrounding stores, a $15 Starbucks gift card, complimentary valet parking and breakfast at Zest. Nightly rates start at $309 per couple.

Packages available until March 31 at InterContinental Chicago, 505 N. Michigan Ave. Call (312) 944-4100 or visit icchicagohotel.com.

Lessons learned

Sashay your way through the month of February on the ice or stage at the free Chicago Winter Dance festival in Millennium Park. Learn the basics of ice skating and play interactive games on the ice during family-friendly sessions open to all ages and skill levels. Weekend nights offer ice dancing performances, live DJ sets and extended ice rink hours. Learn steppin', tango, swing, country line dancing, world/folk, ballroom and Cajun dance during one-hour lessons followed by open dancing indoors. Admission is free, but space is limited and doors open 30 minutes before the lessons begin.

Ice skating lessons from 8 to 10 a.m. Saturdays and Sundays, Feb. 6-28; ice dancing performances and extended rink hours for public skating from 7 to 11 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays, Feb. 5-27, at McCormick Tribune Ice Rink, 55 N. Michigan Ave., Chicago. Dance lessons and dancing will be from 1 to 8 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays, Feb. 6-28, at the Jay Pritzker Pavilion, 201 E. Randolph St. Call (312) 742-1168.

Sweet surrender

Sweet Saturdays, a family-friendly event highlighting plants that help create different varieties of candy, returns to Garfield Park Conservatory in February. The conservatory is a veritable plant-based candy show and home to many living sweets such as bananas, vanilla beans, cinnamon bark and chocolate trees. You'll sample the facts as well as the tantalizing flavors at Tropical Treat Stations; enjoy live music in Horticulture Hall's Tropical Café; participate in designing a scratch-and-sniff necklace with cinnamon and sandpaper, design a "leaf rubbing" Valentine's Day card and make a chocolate sachet at drop-in activity stations; and learn the process of making both vanilla and honey from special guests located in the Sugar From the Sun exhibit.

11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 6 and 13, at Garfield Park Conservatory, 300 N. Central Park Ave., Chicago. Suggested donation is $3. (773) 638-1766 or garfield-conservatory.org.

Midwest

Crazy shade of winter

Door County rocks in the winter with fewer tourists but all the fun. Historic Fish Creek's 23rd annual Winter Festival has a sled-full of activities from kite-making and flying for kids to a Winter Wine & Cherry Fest for adults. Wacky action takes place throughout the day, such as ice bowling, toilet seat tossing, snowshoe dancing, bike tossing, raffles and lots of live music. Hop on and off the free trolley to visit all points of action and refuel with brats, chili, pork sandwiches, wine and beer, hot chocolate and more. Later, it's a candlelight ski and a big rock 'n' roll dance.

6:30 to 10 p.m. Friday, Feb. 5; 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 6; and 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 7, at Fish Creek, Wis. Call (800) 577-1880 or visit fishcreekinfo.com.

Winterlude in Lake Geneva

There are countless snow-sculpting events around the Midwest every winter, but nearby Lave Geneva, Wis., hosts the U.S. National Snow Sculpting Championship, the top competition in the country. The contest is the centerpiece of Lake Geneva's annual Winterfest celebration, a family-friendly festival offering horse-drawn carriage and helicopter rides, kids' entertainment in the famed Riviera Ballroom, a "meltdown" sale in the downtown business district and a winter carnival at Grand Geneva Resort & Spa's downhill ski facility. Teams toil for three days and nights to create elaborate sculptures from 3-ton, 10-foot-tall cylinders of snow using only hand tools.

The Mountain Top at Grand Geneva is the place to be on Saturday for ski school and school patrol demonstrations, ski and snowboard races, scavenger hunts, face painting, games and the torchlight parade and fireworks display.

9 a.m. to 9 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 6, and 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 7, at Lake Geneva, Wis. Call the Lake Geneva Area Convention & Visitors Bureau at (800) 345-1020 or visit lakegenevawi.com.

Short stories

The 2010 Snowdance 10 Minute Comedy Festival is perfect for our time-pressed, attention-challenged 21st-century lifestyle, and it's a heck of a lot of fun. Over Our Head Players presents a competition of 11 original comedies, chosen from more than 240 entrants from around the world for Racine's Snowdance Comedy Festival. In the ultimate interactive experience, the audience votes on who wins the cash prize. Votes will be tallied throughout the festival run and the Snowdance "Best in Snow" will be awarded after the final performance.

7 p.m. Thursdays, Feb. 4, 11, 18 and 25; 8 p.m. Fridays, Feb. 5, 12, 19 and 26; 5:30 and 8 p.m. Saturdays, Feb. 6, 13, 20 and 27; and 2:30 p.m. Sundays, Feb. 7, 14, 21 and 28. Tickets cost $15 on Fridays and Saturdays and $12 on Sundays and Thursdays at Sixth Street Theatre, 318 Sixth St., Racine, Wis. Call (262) 632-6802.

Worth the trip

The nose, the legs, the mouthfeel and finish - it must be the International Water Tasting in Berkeley Springs, W.Va. They'll be talking bouquets and balance in the historic spa town nestled in the West Virginia mountains as judges sip and compare more than 100 national and international entries. Municipal waters compete for the coveted award of best tasting tap water, while purified drinking water and sparkling bottled waters compete in their own categories. Attend seminars, sip samples and vote in a best-package-design contest. The largest and longest-running water-tasting competition in the world is part of the Winter Festival of the Waters featuring special packages, sales and events.

Thursday to Sunday, Feb. 25-28, in Berkeley Springs, W.Va., 90 minutes from the Washington/Baltimore metro area. Call (800) 447-8797 or visit berkeleysprings.com.