Illinois: Chicago (Day 1)

Day: 72
Travel Time: 5 hours
NM Today: 40
NM Total: 1488
Locks Total: 70

Yesterday, Day 6 in New Buffalo, MI, we spruced up the boat a bit in preparation for our trip to Chicago.  I stuffed the bed linens into our largest backpack and biked up to the laundromat to wash/dry them.  While I was gone, even with a light mist in the air, Clark started working on cleaning / waxing the outside of the boat.  When I got back from the laundromat, he was still busy polishing up the boat.  I called him in for lunch and then he went right back out to continue polishing. He worked at it all day and when it got too dark to continue, still some parts remained to be done.

I relaxed a little after lunch, but the guilt finally got to me, and I set to sprucing up the inside in preparation for our change of states.  Eventually I went out with a bucket to clean the boat windows as Clark had requested me to do the day before.  I did the cabin windows downstairs first and was so happy with the result that I got out the plastic cleaner and polish for the plastic panels of the full enclosure around the upper helm, and I washed and polished those "windows" as well.  Sadly the effect doesn't last too long because practically before I could step back to appreciate the effort, the bugs came back and ruined it.  Ah well, we tried!

We had totally calm air and waters yesterday during the day, then the wind picked up later in the afternoon causing some movement of the water, and finally dead calm returned again for this morning.  After 6 days in New Buffalo, I was more than ready to be on our way.  Clark took one last picture of New Buffalo, MI showing the view out the back of our boat during our stay there.  Lake Michigan could be seen from the salon on our boat.

View of Inlet to Lake Michigan from inside our boat
New Buffalo, MI

We traveled 40 nautical miles straight across Lake Michigan to get from New Buffalo, MI to Chicago, IL - almost due west with a bearing of 281 degrees.  Shortly after we left New Buffalo until shortly before we arrived in Chicago, we lost internet on our phones.  The phone showed 2 to 3 bars most of the way, but the phone indicated that no internet service existed.  I guess there are no cell towers in the middle of Lake Michigan.

The water was calm relatively speaking though there was enough wave action to force the pilot (99% Clark) to make constant steering corrections to stay at the 281 bearing.  The hazy sky prevented us from seeing Chicago for quite some time, but eventually Michigan disappeared into the haze behind us, and Chicago slowly came into view in front of us.  As I saw Chicago getting closer and closer, I thought "this must be what it feels like to Loopers coming into New York City for the first time".  I felt excited by and, even though I wasn't driving the boat, intimidated by the large city after so many rustic areas and small towns throughout Canada and Michigan.

Approaching Chicago, IL

 As do many Loopers, we are staying at DuSable Harbor which is a very nice marina close to the Chicago sites with the added convenience for us of being near the home of my daughter-in-law's brother and his wife.  Devon, Jeff and Sierra are coming into Chicago to visit her brother and us at the same time - "killing two birds" so to speak.  Their flight arrived late tonight, so we will see them tomorrow.

 DuSable Harbor is well protected from Lake Michigan by two breakwaters.  Even though we are on the end of one of the docks in the marina, we don't need to worry about any "rock and roll" due to waves from the lake.  We do get a little rock and roll when the police boats that are stationed here go by us, but that appears to be the worst wave action we have to worry about.  Hallelujah!

Each pier at DuSable has about 60 slips with 30 on each side.  We are in slip 30 on E dock which means we are at the very, very end.  In fact we are not actually in a slip, we are just tied to the end of the pier, so it is a long walk down the pier to get to the washroom.  Since we are here for 4 nights, it looks like I'll be getting exercise just going to the "head".  When I walk the pier, I feel like I'm walking sailboat alley as tall masts line the whole length of the pier on both sides as well as on all the other piers.  A few power boats are scattered in among the sailboats but are well hidden in the field of masts in the marina.  The masts can be seen in the picture below of the sailboats in the harbor with Chicago skyscrapers in the background.

Approaching DuSable Harbor in Chicago, IL

After we got settled, I decided that we should find a market to replenish our fresh vegetable supply as well as buy milk.  Someone told me that I should use Almond Milk for my breakfast cereal because it tastes better and lasts longer.  I tried it this morning for the first time thus the urgency to rush out and buy normal milk as soon as we got docked!  Needless to say, I did not like the taste, and  I did not realize that sugar and salt are main ingredients in Almond Milk.  I guess I should have read the nutrition label in the store before buying it as I do with most new products I consider.

The walk to the food store from the marina was somewhat interesting.   I received vague instructions from the staff at the marina to follow the path by the restaurant out of the marina until I got to the gates for the parking lot and then turn left and voila, there is the store.  Well when we turned left, we walked up and found ourselves at a massive clover leaf with multiple overhead roads above us. Google maps showed the route taking us up and over to cross a bridge to get back, and I told Clark we had to go back and try again.

We went back to where we turned left and corrected our direction to continue on straight from the point where we turned to see where it took us.  We walked through the parking garage, under the multiple highway overpasses, and out the other side.  When we got there, the road became a dirt path, but we saw many people walking through the area.  We took this as a good sign and continued on down what became a service road used for truck deliveries.  At the far end of the service road we popped out onto a residential street with a cute, little park.  Google maps indicated that we could walk around the park or through the park to get to the food store, we opted for through the park.  The picture below shows the many fountains lining the pathway through the park.

Park near DuSable Harbor

I found the layout of the grocery store interesting as it is laid out over two floors of a high-rise with the dry goods like breakfast cereal on floor 3 and the fresh produce and meats on floor 4.  We wandered all around the third floor and saw not one fresh vegetable, so I had to ask where they were stocked.  When I discovered they were on the fourth floor, I had to ask how to get my shopping cart up a level.  I saw an up escalator, but that was not going to work for me.  I got directions to the elevator.

After shopping, on our way back through the park to the boat, we saw an advertisement for Movies in the Park featuring "The Lego Movie" as tonight's film.  We had never seen it.  Jeff saw it when it first came out and said he enjoyed it, so I convinced Clark that we should come back after dinner to watch the movie as a form of free entertainment.  The sign said the movie started at sunset, so first thing I did was look up on weatherbug.com when sunset occurred tonight here in Chicago.  Sadly, sunset is an hour earlier here than in Michigan, so the movie started at 7:30.

Clark said he wanted fish for dinner, so I pan fried some tilapia with some potatoes and fresh veggies.  No sooner did we finish eating than it was time to grab our lawn chairs and head back to the park to watch the movie.  We stopped by the washroom before heading over to the park, and while I stood outside with the lawn chairs waiting for Clark to return, Al and Kaye from Knot Home as well as Vicki and Ron from Sea to See saw me and stopped to say hello.

Knot Home has been here a week and is moving on to Hammond tomorrow.  Sea to See arrived today just after we did. (When we checked in earlier in the day, we met Steve from One Bay at a Time who is from Ontario, Canada and just began his Great Loop adventure five weeks ago.)  Because we wanted to get to the park for the beginning of the movie and get our lawn chairs in place, we did not have very long to chat and catch up with the Knot Home crew.  If we don't see them tomorrow before they leave, we'll be watching for them downriver.

When the Lego movie was over, Clark and I agreed that we appreciated the movie a great deal more with free admission than we would have had we paid to see it.  I found the movie so awful that in some weird way I actually liked it.  It all made sense at the end once I figured out "kra  gl e" and the "piece of resistance" and how they fit together.

The view this afternoon from the back of our boat here in Chicago is somewhat different than the view we had off the back of our boat in New Buffalo.  The ferris wheel in the photo below is lit tonight, and the lights flashing in various patterns makes for a very pretty view from the boat.

View of Chicago, IL from our boat
at DuSable Harbor Marina
(ferris wheel in distance)