"Chicago is Our Kind of Town"

What a City! This will be one of the largest cities we will see and visit on our trip.

The 11 to 12 mile trip from Crowley's on the Calumet River to Chicago was good under a bright sun. The 7 foot waves from the previous afternoon and evening had calmed down to 5 to 6 foot rollers that were well spaced out. Up one side and surf down the other. Rock and roll. Now we know what it will be like on the ocean. We now know what it is like to be a trawler. They are teasing us that we are "trawler wannnabe's" The boat certainly does move differently without the mast and sails.

We have tied up in Burnham Harbor Trusty III is here also. What a harbor this is - it has about 1600 slips. Boats of every shape and size. It is close to the public transit system and you can ride for $14. for 3 days. We have paid to stay here for 3 nights and plan to take in as much of the tourist activities as possible.

Security is great .... each finger dock has its own locked gate with its own security code and another security code for the washrooms. We all are on a different finger dock. That means 4 different codes in all. The security is sooooo good that we are lucky to remember our own 2 codes.

Friday night in Chicago, Claude and Yvette co-ordinated. They took us to the the top of the Hancock Building for drinks. Terrific view of the city from 96 floors high.

Then we were off to dinner at a restaurant called Shaws' that is famous for its seafood. We wanted to celebrate Jim and Linda's 48 Wedding Anniversary (September 15th). This restaurant was outstanding. Everything that comes out of that kitchen is extraordinary. We were glutens and still couldn't finish everything. Linda confessed she was a "food snob" and this was exactly the kind of restaurant that she really enjoyed. We thought the Bistro in White Lake had been the best restaurant we had on the trip but Shaw's beat it hands down.

Saturday in Chicago. After the rain storm came through and while the skies still look threatening; we put on our Tilley hats, don our jackets and umbrella in hand make our way to the transit shelter. Over to Navy Pier to do the Architecture Tour aboard a boat. A guided tour of the buildings along the Chicgao River (main) and portions of the North Chicago and South Chicago. Chicago got a second chance to re-invent itself after the great fire in 1871. I can't remember the names of any of the architects but a few buildings really are memorable. Two buildings they nicknamed the "corn cobs" are tall cylindrical buildings where you can dock your boat below, park your car on one of the next 16 levels of the building and then live in one of the condos that climb into the sky. The buildings are quite self contained with stores and shops of every kind within.

Chicago is a railway town. All railroads have come into Chicago at one time or another. Buildings and railroad co-exist peacefully. If you need more rails and a building is in the way; they take the building down. If the rails are in the way of the building.... they just build overtop of the rails and voila - another skyscraper.

Back to the Navy Pier terminal .... filled with food places and tourist type shops for hats, tshirts. Chicago is well known for its stained glass artists and there is an exhibition of some of the artworks. Very well done. As you proceed along this terminal there is a historical timeline which outlines what happened in Chicago of note in given years. i.e. 1871 - the great fire which destroyed most of Chicago, something like 10,000 people were homeless, within the next 5 years over 70% of the children died, not too long after that another 10,000 people died of diptheria due to the contaminated water; they dredged the Chicago River to give them access to the Great Lakes and in doing this they dug it so deep that they changed the direction so that the Chicago River started to flow to St. Louis and into the Mississippi and finally into the Gulf of Mexico.