We spent 5 short days in Chicago and we found that it was not nearly enough time to experience all that this great city has to offer. Unique among great American cities, Chicago has kept its waterfront as a public playground and there are not too many places in the world where you can float your boat within a few hundred feet of the tallest and most impressive skyline that you will ever see. There are numerous well-maintained harbors that are actually in park-like settings. We took full advantage of the miles of bike paths that provided easy and inexpensive transportation to visit museums, parks, the zoo, Navy Pier, the aquarium, restaurants and our favorite market – Mariano’s! We were quite impressed with the city’s dedication to providing scenic, safe and enjoyable walking, running and biking access to the downtown waterfront areas. (We also were introduced to the CURB and UBER “apps” for calling taxis!) We kept the boat at DuSable Marina, which is known for it’s proximity to the heart of the city. It was great to be able to sit on the bridge of the boat and just stare at the impressive site above us, but it was even greater to be within 5 minutes of the “Magnificent Mile”, Grant Park or Millennium Park. If you have not yet been to Chicago, then go…and go before the end of September, because as you can tell from the photos, it can get a bit chilly as fall approaches.
As Stel and I were looking at all of the things to do in Chicago, we discovered that the Zac Brown Band was performing at Wrigley Field on the last evening that we were going to be in town. We were fortunate to find some tickets and WOW, what a treat! It was great enough to be able to go to historic Wrigley Field (not originally on Stel’s bucket list), but Zac Brown and his unbelievably talented band played for 3 hours and it was probably the best concert that we have ever been to.
We were sad to leave, but due to incoming weather, we pulled out of the marina early the next morning and passed through the Chicago lock, which lowers you about 3 feet into the narrow river passage through the most impressive skyscrapers of the city and then on toward the Illinois River system. As soon as we got into the middle of Chicago, we were informed by a fellow looper that a railroad bridge was under repair and we would not be able to pass beyond the city for another 3 days. We immediately turned the boat around, went back through the lock and back into Lake Michigan toward Calumet Harbor, an alternative route located about 15 miles south of Chicago. We were fortunate to have friendly weather conditions for the rest of that day, but it made for a very long run before we reached a safe stopping place in Joliet, Illinois. It was quite a industrial environment on the Cal-Sag Channel and we quickly realized that the rivers leading us down south were going to be vastly different from our days on the “inland sea”, Lake Michigan.
- Biking friendly city
- Not connected to the mafia enough to get one of these slips
- Stel sporting her beautiful grocery store luggage
- Two bean heads at Millennium Park
- Concert grounds at Millennium Park
- I like his thinking and his mustache
- Sorry we spoiled the unbelievable view, but we had to prove we were there
- Enjoying the park weather, after it finally warmed up a bit
- After a long bike ride to the Lincoln Park Zoo
- Stel rides beside Caribbean-like water on the way back to the marina
- I had to see what an Asian Carp looked like before going down the Illinois River…..Ugggggly!
- Chicago taxi driver wondering where we came from with our strange accents
- Taking a “selfie” after arriving at Wrigley Field before the Zac Brown concert
- In the lock as we leave Chicago. Little did we know that we would be back in the lock 30 minutes later
- Entering the Lock to make our final pass through Chicago….so we thought.
- View of river through Chicago before we were told to make a U-turn.
- Leaving Chicago on our way to the alternate route toward the southern rivers
- On the bow of a Chicago Architectural Tour boat
- Wrigley Clock Tower taken from the Chicago River…makes me want to smack on some gum
- Hancock Building….fell from the title of the tallest in the world
- Thinking about going by to see Mr. Trump and asking him for a job after shopping in Chicago