Illinois: Chicago (Day 4)

Day: 75
No Travel

Once again we packed more activities into a single day than one would think possible.  We started the day to a thick fog cover, which we were concerned might interfere with our bicycle trip plans.  Luckily by the time we were ready to go, the fog had lifted enough to make the bike trail visible.

Fog Cover at the Marina in Chicago, IL

Jeff, Devon, and Brandon (along with Sierra) joined Clark and me for a bike ride this morning.  We followed the bike trail along Shore Drive until we veered off to go to the bike rental place to get a bike with child seat for Jeff / Sierra to ride.  No sooner did Jeff put Sierra in the bike seat than she let go full force with a wail clearly indicating her thoughts about the whole bike ride idea.  She continued to complain loudly for a long time.

Biking along foggy shoreline in Chicago
Jeff with Sierra in orange seat, Devon, Ev
Brandon in rear i.e. front of picture

She did not stop complaining in fact until we took her out of the bike seat at the Lincoln Park Zoo.

Lincoln Park Zoo in Chicago, IL

Kangaroos

Giraffe Eating lunch

We could not believe that such a nice zoo with so many animals had free admission.  We got to see all the favorites of lions, tigers, monkeys of several varieties, as well as several species of birds.  I don't remember ever seeing kangaroos in a zoo before, so I added that to the list of exhibits we needed to see as we walked through the zoo.  Jeff wanted to see gorillas which he got to see, and Clark was looking for giraffes which we found as obviated by the picture above.

After a couple of hours of walking around, my feet hurt and I was hungry.  Everyone agreed it was time for lunch and we found some picnic benches and plopped ourselves down to eat the lunches we brought from "home", i.e. the boat and condo.

We finished our zoo tour after lunch and worked our way out of the zoo and back to the bike trail to complete today's mission.  I had two things on my agenda for Chicago - 1) to bike the lake side trail and 2) go up in the Ferris wheel at Navy Pier.  With the bike ride to the zoo, I got item one out of the way.  On the bike ride back to the boat, we got list item two checked off as well.

Navy Pier Ferris Wheel in Chicago, IL

View of Chicago from Ferris Wheel -
note the building chopped into two pieces
by the persistent fog (taken at 4:00 pm)

After our quick Ferris Wheel ride, we jumped back on our bikes and headed back to the boat to take it out for a run with our family guests to fill up with fuel and empty the holding tank for the head. Natalyn was not available earlier for the bike ride, but she walked over from the condo to join us for the boat ride.

The ride to the fuel dock at Burnham Harbor was uneventful - just the way we like it.  The whole trip took us no more than one hour, but it was fun to take out the crew for the quick trip and view of Chicago from the lake.  On the way back to the DuSable Harbor Marina, I brought out some snacks which we ate as we chatted and enjoyed the views.

Once we had the boat "put to bed" with the electric plugged in again and the lines secure, we headed over to Brandon's condo to pick up his car to go out to dinner at a Chicago Brewery.

Goose Island Brewing Co. - for dinner tonight

I suggested the brewery idea because I know one of Jeff's favorite things is to sample home brews in pubs that brew their own beer.  Goose Island had 16 varieties that could be sampled with a max of four per person.  Generally I do not partake of alcoholic beverages, but to get the full 16 samples, we implied that I would be sampling the drinks as well as Jeff, Devon, and Brandon.  When the waitress asked for proof of age to be able to drink, she asked to see my ID as well.  I haven't been carded in so long I don't remember the last time.  I suppose I should feel flattered but I suspect that she is obligated to card anyone who will be drinking regardless of what she thinks their age might be.

When the 16 5 ounce samples came and Brandon, Jeff and Devon started their tasting, I decided 'what the heck I would sample too'.  It was interesting to taste the varieties.  We started with the milder wheat brews and worked our way up through the hoppy, Belgian, and bitter brews.  I learned that I am partial to wheat and have no interest in hoppy or Belgian at all.

Clark is not a drinker and did not sample.  The food was standard pub food - burgers, fries, fish & chips, ...  Clark missed his vegetables as none were served except his salad side dish.   After dinner he suggested that we go find an ice cream shop for dessert.  Brandon had driven us to the brewery, and he generously agreed to drive us to an ice cream shop before heading back tot he condo.  We went to what appeared to be a very popular place called Margie's Candies.

Brandon drove around the block twice at Margie's Candies trying to find a legal parking space - none existed.  Then we noticed that all the cars parked in front of the ice cream shop were illegally parked, so Brandon pulled into a space vacated by another car and sat in the car to wait for us in case he had to move in a hurry. Jeff noted that we were probably safe with the car placement as a police car was illegally parked a few spaces down from Brandon with the cops in the shop buying their ice cream to go.  When they pulled out, they drove right by Brandon and the other cars sitting in front of the shop as if no cars were parked there at all.

As we finished our ice cream cones, Brandon drove us back to his place where we had to say our sad farewells.  Jeff, Devon and Sierra fly out to go home to Idaho tomorrow at 7:00.  Brandon is up at 5:00 to head into work at the hospital.  Clark and I depart Chicago and start our trip south down the Chicago River to the Illinois Waterway tomorrow as well.  We said our farewells to Natalyn before dinner as she had to work starting at 8:00 tonight and could not join us.

We packed a lot into our short stay in Chicago, and I thoroughly enjoyed our visit.  It will be interesting as of tomorrow getting back into the daily travel mode of stopping into small towns instead of staying at a large marina for a few days in a big city.

Illinois: Chicago (Day 3)

Day: 74
No Travel

The weather today promised to be overcast with intermittent rain throughout the day.  That pretty much wiped out much in the way of outdoor activities but made the day an excellent choice for a trip to the Shedd Aquarium just down the waterfront from the marina.  Despite the threat of rain, we enjoyed the walk there.  Sierra enjoyed stomping in the puddles as she loves water.

On our way there we stopped and got a group photo.

Clark, Ev, Jeff, Devon, and sleeping Sierra with
Chicago in the background

Of course a long line stretched out the door and around the building when we got to the aquarium, so we had a rather long wait to get in.  Devon's brother, Brandon, and her sister-in-law, Natalyn, joined us for the outing.  They graciously agreed to stand in the long line for us, so that we could walk around the area and see some of the sites instead of just standing in line.  We headed over in the direction of the planetarium to get a different angle on our view of the city.

As we walked I realized I was famished, it was 1:30, we hadn't eaten lunch and we wouldn't be eating it any time soon.  Just about that time, as we walked towards the planetarium, a young boy approached me, maybe 10 years old, selling Famous Amos Chocolate Chip cookies on the sidewalk for a fundraiser.  He definitely has entrepreneur salesperson prospects for his future.  When I asked if he had change, he convinced me that I could buy more cookies for the amount of money I had in hand.  I bought twice as many cookies as I intended but was so hungry I didn't care.  Plus I love Famous Amos Chocolate chip cookies so not a serious hardship.  I scoffed down two bags immediately and saved more for later.  Those cookies turned out to be my only lunch today.

Outside the planetarium is a display of the animals of the Chinese New Year, which we all agreed looked rather "creepy" with their heads all on spikes.

Chinese New Year -
Rat, Goat, Bear, Rabbit

Chinese New Year -
Dragon, Snake, Horse, Boar

We walked around behind the planetarium, and Clark captured the below picture of Chicago.  I am sure it would have been much better on a sunny day.

View of Chicago -
taken outside planetarium

We got the call from Brandon that we needed to hurry back to the aquarium because they had almost reached the entrance, so we hightailed it back to join them in line.  Once inside we found a long, slow-moving queue in a hot, dark hallway.  I couldn't wait until we got to the ticket counter. Amazingly an aquarium employee appeared out of nowhere, asked us how many were in our party (7), and said we should follow another employee to a second ticket counter.  We followed her through a number of "employee only" doors and eventually found ourselves at a booth where tickets could be purchased.  A few other folks were tapped on the shoulder and followed us.  I'm still wondering how we got lucky to be pulled out of line, but I'm thankful for the small blessing.

The aquarium is laid out by area such as amazon, the tropics, reptiles, etc so that like creatures are on display with others from their similar habitat.  We saw numerous fish in a large variety of colors and sizes.  We also saw some of my favorites.

An Arrogant Turtle

Playful Penguins

Sea Horses

We also saw a few unpleasant looking creatures.  One such beast was the Asian Carp, which is an invasive species in the Mississippi river system.  Although Carp average 40 pounds in weight and can get as big as 110 pounds, they can jump up to 10 feet in the air when startled by motorized vessels.  We have been warned that boats of our design with a low and open cockpit have been known to have the carp jump onboard.  Boaters have been injured by being hit by "flying" carp.  We have also been told it is illegal to throw a live carp back into the water if it lands on our boat.

Asian Carp - big and ugly
I do not want this guy jumping onto my boat!

After viewing tons of fish, some sea lions, dolphins, sharks, and whales, we left the aquarium just before 5:30.  Other than my Famous Amos cookies that I ate earlier, none of us had had any "real" lunch.  One of the items on Devon's list to do in Chicago was to eat Chicago-style pizza.  The decision was made that we should have a taste-off between pizza from Lou Malnati's and Giordano's to see which each of us liked best.  Brandon placed orders for delivery by phone as we walked back to his condo in hopes that the food would arrive shortly after we did.

Both pizzas were delivered to the condo within a couple of minutes of each other.  The consensus seemed to be Giordano's as the winner.  I must admit I voted for Giordano's early on, but as I continued to eat, I vacillated between the two choices as to which I actually preferred.  In truth, I much prefer New Jersey pizza to either choice!

We hung out at Natalyn and Brandon's condo for the evening and watched the Bears vs. Bengals game on TV.  Neither Clark nor I found the game all that riveting, but it was interesting to watch the game with Bengals fans in Bears territory.  Sierra fell asleep earlier than usual.  Since she was fast asleep, I asked if I could hold her as she's not the cuddly type when she is awake.  I was able to cuddle her in my lap for a good long time before she woke up enough to realize she was in my lap and not her mother's.  It was wonderful while it lasted!

The game wasn't over, but the Bengals were winning 21 to 3 when we got up to leave to walk back to our boat.  The walk from Natalyn's condo to the boat is like a magic trick.  Using the Google maps directions it is a reasonably long walk between the two sites.  However, Natalyn showed us the trick of using the elevator in the parking garage separating the two areas.  We go in on the 6th floor on the condo side less than a block from the front door of the condo building, and we come out on the 1st floor less than a block from the entrance to the marina parking area.  Like I said, magic!  It must reduce the walk from 15 or 20 minutes down to 5 max!

Shortly after we got back to our boat, I was pulling the window curtains closed and looked out the front window to see fireworks in the distance.  Clark thought they might have been coming from Burnham Harbor.  We stood there and watched the show through the finale.  A while later, when I was working on the blog, I heard more boom, boom, boom, and we looked out the side window to see a full-blown fireworks display practically right outside our boat coming from Navy Pier.  Two great, professional shows in one night!  Awesome!

Illinois: Chicago (Day 2)

Day: 73
No Travel

We started the day with breakfast at Wildberry Pancakes and Cafe with my son Jeff, his wife Devon, my granddaughter Sierra, and Devon's sister-in-law Natalyn.  The pancakes tasted like desserts instead of breakfast food.  Clark had Blueberry Glaze, Natalyn had Oreo S'mores, and I had cranberry pecan pancakes just to name a few of the choices.  Absolutely yummy!  Many folks in Chicago must think so too because we had an hour's wait to get a table for breakfast.  We were all pretty hungry by the time we actually got to sit down and order our food.

After breakfast we decided to walk through Millenium Park directly across the street from the restaurant.

Millennium Park

The park offers a number of entertainments and interesting artwork.  The fact that Sierra let me carry her for part of our walk through the park pleased me no end!

Walking through Millennium Park in Chicago, IL

One feature of the park that Sierra particularly appreciated was the water fountain.  The facial expressions on the wall change over time until finally the "mouth" spews water on unsuspecting passers by.

Fountain in Millennium Park
for children of all ages to play in

Sierra thought this area was great fun as she loves all things related to water.  Devon took Sierra's outerwear off so Sierra could get good and wet.  Despite the chill in the air, Sierra was as happy as could be running around in the water.

Devon and Jeff
Watching Sierra play in the water at the fountain

Eventually we decided that we needed to move on to the next point of interest in the park, so Sierra got her clothes on, and we strolled over to check out "the bean".  I had no idea what this was until I got there.  When constructed, the point of "the bean" was to reflect the city skyline.  Quickly, however, it became a point of interest for people to look at themselves.

Family Photo with Bean behind us
Reflecting the city skyscrapers
Devon, Sierra, Jeff, Clark, and Ev

Walking "into" or under the bean provides lots of photo opportunities.  The picture below shows the reflections of some people inside the bean.

Sierra checking out the overhead view in 'the bean'

After playing at the bean for a while, we decided to head back to Natalyn's home.  We took the winding path shown below which goes over the highway and allows pedestrians safe passage from one side of the park to the other.

Winding path through Millennium Park

The view from Natalyn's home is truly amazing.  She also took us up to the roof observation areas so we could get even better views of Chicago from her building.  On one side of the building we could see the marina where we have our boat.  Because of the green and orange kayaks, we found our boat easily.

View of Navy Pier from Top of Building

Looking down from Natalyn's living room we could see the Chicago River which looked rather green.  I had heard that a fountain spews water across the Chicago River annoying boaters that happen to cross its path at the wrong time.  We got to see it in operation and it clearly does spew water from one side of the river to the other.  While we were there, I only saw it spraying once from 1:55 until 2:00, so I couldn't tell if the "on the hour" was the pattern or not.  We'll have to pass by here after we leave our current dock space.  I hope we time it correctly, so we don't get a shower as we go by!

Chicago River Fountain

Another object of interest for us as boaters was the view of the lock separating the Chicago River from Lake Michigan.  We are planning to travel through this lock on Monday.

Lock separating Chicago River from Lake Michigan

While Clark, Jeff, Natalyn, and I were up on the roof taking pictures and gawking at Chicago skyscrapers, Sierra enjoyed her afternoon nap with Devon nearby should she be needed.  When we finally returned to the condo, we found that Devon's brother, Brandon, was home from work.  We sat and talked until Sierra finished her nap and then we set out to walk to the boat to get warmer clothes for both Clark and myself in preparation for going out for dinner this evening.

Clark and I both changed to long pants and grabbed  our jackets.  Then we all headed over to the River Walk to stroll along the Chicago River.  I swear Sierra walked four times the distance the rest of us covered, except for Jeff who chased her up and down the path, as she went forwards and backwards exploring and re-exploring all aspects of the path.  As we walked along, we passed by a one-man steel drum and reggae band.  I like steel drum music but Clark said this one sounded like the drum was out of tune.

As we walked the path, Natalyn and Brandon kept an eye on the clock because we had a dinner invitation to dine with Natalyn's parents in Chinatown at 6:00.  At the designated time we all piled into Brandon's car, and he drove us to the restaurant.  We had a chance to walk around before dinner, and Clark busily added photos to our collection.

Welcome to Chinatown in Chicago, IL

Chinatown building  in Chicago, IL

Natalyn's parents treated us to a wonderful, traditional Chinese banquet with multiple courses starting with soups and appetizers, containing more main dishes than I could count, and ending with tasty sweet treats for dessert.  For our meal, we enjoyed lobster, beef, chicken, and fish dishes along with fried rice, noodles, and a number of other selections such as the Chinese equivalent of calamari. With so many selections there was something for everyone to enjoy, and we all ate more than we probably should have.  The picture below shows one of the tasty treats served at the end of the meal.

Mango Jell-o Pudding for Dessert - Unexpectedly Delicious!!!
(served in fish molded form)

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)

Michigan: New Buffalo (Day 5)

Day: 70
No Travel

Note:  Before going into today's blog, let me point out that, no, we did not jump back to Canada yesterday.  The blog entry published yesterday dated back to Day 33 of the trip but was never published at that time.  Sorry if that caused anyone confusion.

I did not post a blog yesterday because I did not think anyone would want to read the blow-by-blow on my doing my laundry, which quite honestly was about the most excitement I had yesterday.  The winds continued to blow and get stronger as the day progressed leaving few options for outdoor entertainment.  I think it is the first day on the trip that no pictures were taken by either of us.

Clark managed to be quite productive however.  While I was up at the laundromat, he vacuumed the boat, which I had thought about doing when I got back, so that was a very pleasant surprise to find it done already. Also, he noticed after our trip from South Haven to New Buffalo that we had more water in the bilge, so he pulled out the wrenches and tightened the packing some more.  He even played a little guitar to pass the time.

As dinner time approached, I decided to walk up to Barney's food market and buy a pizza to cook for supper.  I don't remember the last time I used the oven in the boat to cook dinner.  I remember one fourth of July a few years back that I used it to reheat some food, but even that was a long time ago. Well, cooking the pizza turned into a bit of a disaster as the bottom of the crust burned black in the middle, and I mean black with a capital B, while the top still looked rather anemic.  I guess I have to learn the oven's idiosyncrasies if I plan to use it more often.

Today I continued the burned food theme by burning some of the pancakes that I made for breakfast. I'm not used to cooking pancakes on the boat either as we usually don't have time for that luxury.   I noticed on this trip that one of the burners on the stove seems to be higher heat / cook faster than the others.  I had two small fry pans to make the pancakes somewhat in parallel.  One pancake turned out fine; the other burned.  I generally don't mind "well done" food so, unlike the burned pizza, I ate the overcooked pancakes.  I actually ended up scorching two of the three I made for myself.  I gave Clark the ones that turned out well.

Having not ridden my bicycle for the duration of our time here in New Buffalo, I really wanted to go out for a ride.  We walked uptown to buy some groceries first and then when we got back, we pulled the bikes out for a ride.  We first rode out to the beach to see what was happening out there.
We were surprised to see that the wind warranted a two red flag day meaning extreme danger on the water.  Previously, one red flag was the most we had seen.

2 Red Flag Day at New Buffalo, MI 

Not surprisingly the beach and beach parking lot were, for the most part, deserted.  In fact, unlike two days ago when the parking lot was absolutely full of seagulls (all facing towards the wind like rows of soldiers), today only three brave birds faced the wind.   I had to wonder where all they others were hanging out.

After the beach, we headed back through town and out the other side to the town's railroad museum.   The museum offers free admission with a very knowledgeable tour guide who walked us through the museum and gave us the low-down on the displays intermingled with an interesting history of New Buffalo, which grew as a city due to its railroad business.

As the story goes, New Buffalo was the end of the line for the railroad, and anyone going from there to Milwaukee or Chicago had to hang out in town to wait for the steamship to go the rest of the way. Since the steamship travel was so unreliable, people frequently ended up staying in New Buffalo for several days which resulted in the establishment of a number of hotels, restaurants, and tourist-type businesses.

WW II Troop Sleeper Pullman Car at the
New Buffalo Railroad Museum

The tour included walking through two actual train cars.  The troop sleeper car showed the accommodations for traveling troops and also contained pictures and memorabilia from New Buffalo WW II veterans.  The guide, Kim, said that locals are encouraged to donate their items instead of leaving them stuffed in the backs of closets.

Next to and connected with the Pullman car sat a "Chessie" freight car.  Chessie was an actual cat / kitten that was used to represent the Chesapeake and Ohio railroad in advertising campaigns in the 1930s.  The Chessie symbol was printed on the side of the car.

Inside the building was a working HO model railroad setup maintained by a local club.  I learned that HO means Half O where O is another model railroad size.  The buildings in the scene are not to scale as they are not from kits but were handmade to represent the buildings in New Buffalo.  Pelican Lake is included in the display.  We learned that Pelican Lake is an old railroad term used to describe any body of water in a railroad yard where the ash and lime used by the trains was dumped.  Bottom Line - don't swim or go wading in any Pelican Lake near an old railroad!

HO Model railroad with hand-built buildings
and landscape depicting New Buffalo, MI

The New Buffalo, MI roundhouse

As an interesting touch to the New Buffalo railroad history, we learned that the engine used in the Polar Express story came from New Buffalo.  The engine, the Pere Marquette 1225, ceased being used in 1951 and moved to Michigan State University to be on display there in 1957.  The author of the book Polar Express saw the engine often as a child and made the association of the engine number 1225 with 12/25 for Christmas Day and came up with the children's story idea from there.  In the year 2000 the roundhouse from New Buffalo was purchased and relocated to be used in conjunction with the restored engine 1225 which pulls excursion trains over the Great Lakes Central Railroad lines several times a year.

After the tour of the museum we went back to the boat for lunch.  I had hoped for a longer bike ride but it wasn't in the cards for today.  We ended up spending the rest of the afternoon cleaning the dirt marks off the fiberglass to spruce the boat up a bit.  At first Clark was polishing alone, but I decided that I needed something to do, so I went out to assist him.  That should give some indication of my level of boredom in that cleaning appealed to me as a past-time!

Yesterday we talked to the owners of Sno-Daz, and we agreed to get together for dinner tonight.  We met around 6:20 and walked up to Brewster's Italian Cafe.  Our dinner conversation included tales of Sno-Daz great loop trip (they just crossed their wake), discussion on the sale of Sno-Daz which is in the final stages of completion, and recommendations for where to stay in Florida when we get that far.   Even though there is a chill in the air, after dinner we walked up to Oink's Dutch Treat ice cream shop for a yummy dessert.  It's never too cold for ice cream!

While I worked on my blog, Clark channel surfed his way around the TV ad nauseum trying to find a good channel to watch.  Our one good station last night where we watched 'So You Think You Can Dance' was too pixelated to be viewable tonight.  So far I've seen 5 minutes of Law and Order, 5 minutes of Brooklyn Nine Nine, snippets of several old movies, and finally he landed on Bay Watch on Cozi TV, and though I can't fathom why, he remained glued there.  If I ask, he'll say he was waiting for the weather to come on, but I know that Cozi TV is not a station that provides a weather report.

The water has settled down this afternoon as the wind finally subsided.  The boat is no longer being jostled around as the water is as flat as can be.  We could leave here tomorrow if we wished, but Thursday looks to be a good travel day as well.  Since our reservation in Chicago is for Thursday night, we plan on waiting that one additional day before moving on.

Georgian Bay, Canada: Regatta Bay to Unnamed Anchorage

Day 33

Travel Time: 4.5 hours

NM today: 24

NM total: 732

Locks today: 0

Locks total: 70

We woke up to fog – not predicted, not expected!  Once again travel plans were uncertain.  Navigating in these waters is hard enough without a cloak of invisibility covering the buoys and land marks.  Instead of lifting as expected more fog kept rolling in and the winds were picking up. 

Morning Fog in Regatta Bay

 We decided our first order of business was to decide whether to go back to Killbear Marine Store for the float switch or abort that agenda item.  Clark decided to call the marine store for more information.  When he dialed, he thought he was redialing the marine store number, but instead he called the AGLCA harbor host whom he forgot he had tried to call last night.  That became a diversion as Clark asked for and received very useful navigation details and recommendations for these waters. 

That business out of the way, Clark called Killbear marine and decided that we really should go back to buy the part.  He said that if he knew the waters and there was no fog, he could use the dinghy to go the 6 miles back to the store, but since neither was true, we had to pull up anchor and travel there by big boat.  Six miles doesn’t sound far, but with so many islands around this area, it is very easy to get lost and travel is slow going.

If you read the last blog entry, you may remember that a local boater tied our boat to a tree when we anchored.  Well, when it came time to leave, he and his dinghy were nowhere to be seen. 

Dilemma helped us tie stern to shore

Clark launched his kayak and paddled over to untie us.  Since the kayak is on top of the boat, launching is not a two-minute job.  The paddling and untying were the two minutes part, but all told it took about thirty minutes to get ourselves released from the anchorage and on our way.

We learned from the owner of St Tropez that we could safely travel canoe passage aptly named as when we approached it looked like the trees were almost touching across the passage.  Along the way up here, we’ve seen signs for 10 km/hr and 9 km/hr, but Canoe Passage was marked 8 km/hr.  I’m telling you that is slow going! 

Canoe Passage

Before we knew it, we were done with Canoe Passage and back at Killbear Marine Store.  Clark bought the replacement switch for a whopping $66.  They are advertised online for $35, so they have some nice markup going on here.  Before leaving the marina, Clark screwed the switch into place to make sure it would fit.  He didn’t wire it in though as he figured he could do that later.

While he was dealing with the switch issue and introducing himself to the owners of St Tropez who pulled into the marina while we were there, I stopped into the marina store to see what food they had on hand.  Not surprisingly they had the same food as yesterday.  I remembered they had potatoes and onions, but I didn’t know if they had any other vegetables.  I found canned corn, which neither Clark nor I eat, and that was it, so no produce to add to my food supplies. Ah well, no problem as I still have some veggies on hand.

The trip to our next anchorage was rather long.  We decided that the day had cleared enough that we should move on to our next stop (Plan A) as opposed to going back to Regatta Bay (Plan B) where we had anchored last night.  We left Regatta Bay at around 10:45 this morning and arrived at a secluded no-name bay at just after 3:00.  Clark decided that the peninsula where we are anchored looks like a pointing finger, so he has named it Pointing Finger Bay.  We entered at mile marker 31.5 and made a sharp 90 degree turn to port.  The bay is west of Stairs Island and east of Eureka Point.  Very secluded spot as we are the only ones here!

We notice that there are for sale signs all over the place up here.  Lots of cottages are available for purchase should we decide we want to live in mosquito country.  Even in this remote and pristine hideaway bay with nothing around us, there is a big for sale sign on the shore.  I wonder if that means the island is for sale as I don’t see a cottage. 

I can’t help but wonder as we pass by these developed islands, what it costs to build a house on a piece of land where every stick of wood and plumbing fixture and everything in between must be carried in by boat.  When we were there, I saw a speedboat go by the Big Sound Marina in Parry Sound with a load of lumber in the side seat.  It looked like it was ready for a jousting match.  If a repair is required at a house on an island, the raw materials get brought in by whatever means makes sense, i.e. by boat.  I wonder how close The Home Depot is to the docks!

The sun finally made an appearance at 4:00.  I headed for my laptop to work on the blog, and Clark pulled out his charts to plot a course for our next destination.  After he finished with that tedious job, he decided to work on the sump pump repair.  With repair jobs one thing always leads to another and another and another.  To connect the wires of the float switch to the power source Clark used ‘butt connectors’ that require a heat gun to shrink wrap the connection.  Since it was just about 5:30, he said he was going to turn on the generator for the heat gun and did I want to use electricity to make dinner.  That put me into high gear to throw some things together to cook with the luxury of electric. 

I have been looking and looking in stores for sweet treats for Clark to eat at night before bed, but most of what I have found has not been to his liking so I haven’t bothered to buy it.  As soon as he said electric, I knew I wanted to jump on the chance to make him one of his favorite treats – Applesauce Cake.  The recipe for this is something that I got from Clark’s mother years ago.  I scanned the recipe into my computer along with a few other favorites before we left NJ.  I normally don’t carry baking ingredients on the boat, but I packed up all the ingredients to a few of Clark’s favorites including the necessary spices.

I had to half the recipe because the only electric oven I have is a two-slice GE toaster oven that I have owned for as long as I can remember.  I know I used it on our old boat in 1993 to make toast for everyone because we were freezing cold in Lake Champlain area, and I don’t know how many years I owned it before then.  Well anyway, I digress, but it’s an old faithful for sure.  The small loaf pan I use for this recipe was just right to fit in the toaster oven.

As I was trying to mix the ingredients to the cake and get that going, I was also digging out my rice cooker to take advantage of making rice for a side dish.  While all that was going on, Clark asked me for a solution to a sump pump issue.  Now that he had a new float switch, the strainer no longer fit in the pump.  I asked him the dimensions of what he needed and got very unhelpful answers. “The opening is 1.156 inches”, he said.  “By how long?” I queried.  “Four inches or I can’t measure”, he replied.  Huh?

He asked if I could rig up something with my plastic canvas, though he doesn’t know it’s called that, similar to the solution I put in place with his scupper holes always getting clogged.  I said I could if I knew the dimensions.  He showed me what he had in mind, and I cut a piece of plastic canvas for him to “play” with to determine the right size.  Together we came up with a solution.

Now remember that I was trying to mix the ingredients for a cake, start the rice cooker, and make the rest of dinner while this discussion was going on.  I asked if he could wait until after dinner for me to actually assemble his new plastic strainer.  He agreed it could wait, so I baked my cake, cooked my rice, and sautéed my chicken before pulling out my sewing needles.

One dilemma I had regarding the creation of the filter was what to use for thread.  I had no lanyard on board but if I did it would not fit through the holes in the plastic canvas, so for this to work, I had to find another solution.  Thread would just rot in a short time.  Looking through my “tools” I found something my sister will appreciate called “Stretch Magic” used for jewelry making.  I decided this was “just the ticket”.  It is some sort of stretchy plastic type material used to make bracelets, etc.  I could thread a needle with it, and I could get the needle through the fine mesh of the plastic canvas.  Perfect!

The strainer slid into place and looks like it will work.  The dinner was yummy.  Clark hasn’t tried the applesauce cake yet (that will happen at bedtime), but I’m hoping for a home run on tonight’s activities.  At 5:00 I was wondering how I would be spending my peaceful evening.  By the time I had finished my impulse activities, it was already going on for 9:00.  My how time flies by on a boat!

Michigan: New Buffalo (Day 3)

Day: 68
No Travel

As opposed to yesterday which was full of activity,  today was, overall, a "ho-hum" sort of day.  Our weather reports indicated thunder & lightening storms for 11:00, and our phone app "Rainy Days" supported that conjecture.  I need to do laundry but figured that if I took it up town and washed and dried it, it would just get wet again on the return trip to the boat.  I decided that laundry could wait one more day.

We have a device that when aimed at the water returns the temperature.  I tried to use it yesterday before our kayak trip and found the battery dead.  The battery type is one I am not familiar with and do not stock on the boat, so a search for a replacement battery was a good excuse to go shopping in town today.  

Shops on the main street, Whitaker Street, run for about three blocks.  The picture below shows the whole length of the main drag.  Lake Michigan is shown in the background.  At the edge of town, before the marina area, Amtrak has a train station stop in New Buffalo.  That must be for all the Chicago visitors to this cute little town which comes alive on Saturday nights and goes back to sleep on Sunday nights.

Whitaker Street, New Buffalo, MI

New Buffalo Shopping area

The owners of Sno-Daz told Clark that we should check two different stores as a potential source for the battery - the boat supply store and the pharmacy.  From the outside the boat supply store looks like a clothing store.  Once inside, however, the store reminded me of a general store with a focus on boating supplies.   We found batteries but not the odd size we needed.

Fortunately the trip to this store was not wasted as I bought myself two shirts and a pair of Crocs.  I also found the fender straps we use on the boat, so I bought two.  It cost less for two at this store than it did for one at West Marine in South Haven.  Back in Drummond we lost one strap when the fender caught on the dock.  That was the cause of my hand injury.  During the high winds and wave action in South Haven, we lost another fender strap because it broke from all the strain on the line.  At the moment I have no fender straps attached to any of the fenders.  they are just tied on to the rails with two half-hitch knots.  I'll start using the fender hangers again on the river system.

From the boat supply store we crossed the street to the pharmacy and found the battery we needed. We could buy one Duracell for $3.95 or two Energizer for the same price.  Now one would expect that it would be an easy decision to buy two for the price of one, but we debated which to buy.  I figure that when we next need to replace the battery we won't remember we have a spare and will go out and buy one anyway.  We bought the "twofer".  Only time will tell if we remember we have one on hand.  It could be years before we need another of these since the only thing we own that needs it is the infrared temp reader.

Besides the battery, I found a crafts department (uh-oh) in the pharmacy, which was also more like a general store than an ordinary pharmacy and reminded me of a non-chain store version of a Walgreen's.  I planned to bring sewing needles back from NJ when I visit out there over Labor Day, but an assortment package of needles I found in the pharmacy was only $4, so I bought it now.  

We got back to the boat around 11:30, and the rain had not hit yet but was definitely getting closer.  I am not sure why but I found myself quite hungry and decided that I needed to eat lunch even though it seemed early considering when I ate breakfast.  As I prepared my lunch, Clark put up the new cover we bought for the stairway to the upper helm, which serves to keep the back deck on the lower level dryer.  He then pulled out a deck chair and set himself up to watch the rain.  For a while it poured buckets and he really seemed to be enjoying the show, so after I finished my lunch, I made his and gave it to him to eat outdoors.

I'm not sure why but shortly after that, as I was reading my current novel, I got very very tired.  I laid down on the couch and "passed out".  I am not sure how long I slept.  I woke when I heard Clark making some noise or other in the cabin of the boat.  Even though I was awake it took a long time for me to convince myself to get into a sitting position.  I finally dragged myself up and decided that I needed something to do to keep myself awake.  I decided to modify two shirts I have that needed some adjustments.

When I came back to sit on the couch to do my sewing, I found Clark stretched out occupying the entire length snoring!  I was gone all of two minutes max!  I took myself outside and sat in the now vacant seat on the back deck to do my shirt mods.  As I worked on my shirts I decided that I needed some snaps to complete the job, so I peeked in to see Clark still snoring away, left him a note, and walked back into town to see if the pharmacy had the snaps I needed. They did, and I bought them as well as a package of assorted thread (only $1.25 for 30 colors - how is that possible?).

I also wanted to check out the laundromat while I was out walking around to get the lay of the land, know how much they cost, where the shop is, etc.  I finally found the laundromat across the street from a recommended ice cream shop in town called "Oinks".   I took note of Oinks for future ice cream excursion reference.  Now I am not excited about dragging my laundry up the main street through town, so I walked back via an alternate, residential route to check that out for when I do decide to do my laundry.  The walk was cool, quiet, pleasant, and has less of an incline than the main street - so a definite winner.

By the time I got back to the boat, around 5:00 or so, Clark was up and about.  I suggested that I might gather up my laundry and head back up to the laundromat, but he suggested that since it was late in the day I wait until tomorrow.  Any excuse not to do laundry is a good one, so I readily agreed.  Instead I pulled out my new snaps and thread and worked on my shirts until it was time to make dinner.

Clark suggested that we take a walk out to the beach to see the sunset and the wave action after dinner.  Another wind storm is stirring up Lake Michigan and expected to last for several days. Though the wave action on the beach was impressive, the inlet itself is protected from direct wave action, which is good for us.  We expect to stay in New Buffalo until it is time to move to the Chicago marina where we have a reservation.  Fortunately, although we can hear the waves sploshing on the sides of the boat, we are not being thrown around while on board as we were in the last port.

We walked out to the beach to watch the sunset and got a couple of good sunset pictures on the jetty.

Sunset over Lake Michigan from New Buffalo Beach

As the sun approached the horizon, we left the beach and climbed up to the top of the observation deck for a different view.

Sunset over Lake Michigan seen from observation deck
at New Buffalo Beach

The result ... two totally different sunsets on the same night.

Note: Yesterday afternoon, when we walked out to the beach, Clark got a great shot of the lighthouse which I neglected to include in the blog.  Here is that picture.

New Buffalo Lighthouse around 5:00 p.m.