Chicago

We crossed Lake Michigan Saturday August 18th from New Buffalo. The crossing was not too bad but we did have confused water with swells left over from the day and night before from the north and winds from the east. I started calling it Lake Maytag. It was a rainy day and we arrived in Chicago during the first of two days of the Chicago Air Show.

We had originally picked up a mooring ball in Monroe Harbor but the space they had for us was right in the opening of the breakwaters and with the east wind we were getting rocked terribly. We would not be able to get off the boat at all. The harbor itself is very nice and has somewhere around 1200 mooring cans installed.

I called DuSable marina next door and they said we could tie up to their wall. We gladly moved to the wall and we were able to watch the air show from our boat.

We were secure and stable but the rain continued. The next day the air show was cancelled due to the rain and fog. Bill and Birute on B & B were with us and they had friends in Chicago. Since we were right in downtown we walked around between showers to see what was in the immediate vicinity. The city has parks all along the waterfront so it is a very public place. People are in constant motion walking, running, biking and just hanging out on the waterfront. Next to our harbor is Millenium Park. This park has a large outdoor concert facility and gardens and sculptures everywhere. We saw two different free concerts at this park and watched as the kids played in these interesting video mosiac fountains that featured the faces of the people in Chicago.

There was a sculpture that was inspired by a pool of mercury that was all stainless steel and reflected the skyline and anything in front of it. It was sort of bean shaped and you could walk under the center of it and look up into it as in the second photo below. This was an interesting sculpture and quite a few people were always around it taking pictures of themselves in the mirrored finish.

On Monday we took our bikes out and rode the paths along the waterfront and then into town to the "Magnificent Mile" of shopping on Michigan Avenue. We didn't quite fit the profile for shoppers in this area.

Tuesday found us at the Museum of Science and Industry. This was a fascinating place and houses the original German U-Boat U-505 that was captured by the U.S. and was the source for the capture of the Enigma code machine. Because the capture of the U-Boat was kept secret the German High Command did not know that the Enigma codes had been compromised and this allowed the Allies the ability to know where the subs were "hunting". We were able to tour this sub.

The museum had enough exhibits to keep you occupied for an entire day but we only did a few things there that interested us. We went "into" a coal mine and viewed a display of trains. In the train display was a scale model of the train system from Chicago to Seattle. This display was in a very large room.

Bill and Birute were able to get tickets for the four of us to see Wicked, the broadway musical about the witches in the Wizard Of Oz. It was an entertaining show and well done.

We had been keeping up with JUWIKA (Bill & Gail) since their return from the family reunion and they were stuck with the Lake Michigan weather we had been dealing with. They had crossed the lake to Port Washington, WI and had their daughter Kate with them. Kate needed to catch a plane out of Chicago so they rented a car and drove down. They stayed on our boat for two nights and we had a good time catching back up with them. We walked around the city and had pizza (Chicago Deep Dish) from the creator of Chicago Deep Dish, Pizzaria Uno.

On Wednesday we toured the Navy Pier that we were docked near. There is not that much of interest to us there but would be a great place for kids. The pier is quite large and covers a 50 acre area. It has a great view back to the city and there is a stained glass museum on the pier and we walked through that and looked at stained glass panels. Many of these were from old Chicago homes and were donated.

Thursday brought major thunderstorm activity. We were somehow spared the worst of it but a marina just to the north lost docks and the city had downed trees and power lines everywhere. Tornados were reported to have touched down just to the west of the city. From Thursday through Saturday morning we had thunderstorms. All of the rivers in the area are rising and there are flood waters in the rivers where we are headed. Our plan was to leave Friday morning but we were receiving bad reports from downriver so we decided we are much better off just hanging out in Chicago.

It turns out that the "largest triathalon in the U.S." was being held in Chicago on Sunday. We had moved from our slip in DuSable marina to the pump out dock in Monroe Harbor and had a front row seat for this event. The swimming portion was in the harbor and we were docked directly in front of the change over to biking and running. It was an absolute zoo. Bill and Gail, Bill and Birute, Wayne and Lynn Flatt of Skinwalker came to our aft deck to watch the activity.

A guy stopped by to replace a tube in his tire so I helped him get the tire back on the wheel. He was a local so he was just trying to finish and said he wasn't concerned about losing his "sponsors".

All in all Chicago is a great city to be stuck in. There is a great deal to see and do here and we enjoyed it in spite of the seemingly constant rain.

We stayed one more day and then decided to leave Tuesday morning for our run to Joliet. We made it without incident and were able to tie up to the free town wall with electricity provided.

We will probably be here until Friday as we continue waiting for the river levels to drop so that we can continue without being caught somewhere that isn't free or as nice an area.