A New World - Chicago

Chicago - At Last

Four of the five Loopers that had been stuck in Grand Haven took advantage of the travel day on Thursday and headed out.  Of course, we were the last to leave and then we stopped to fuel up and to get a pump out.  Once we got out of the river and past the big waves, we decided to go for Chicago, so instead of heading south with the others we headed more west to cut off about a quarter of Lake Michigan.  The Lake was good to us. The waves were about 2 feet but were more behind us so it was a comfortable trip which took us almost 6 hours for the 112 mile trip. 

During the trip we discovered something new about Q's electronics.  We had not seen anything, no land, no boats, for about an hour, when all of a sudden the depth sounder started flashing "LAST 511".  We had never seen this before.  It didn't take us long, probably milleseconds really, that we realized that we lost the bottom.  The depth sounder probably is only strong enough or sensitive enough to recognize depths to 500 feet.  The lake out there was more than that.  I wonder how long it would take to find something that went down out therre?

Shortly thereafter we could see a lone white speck on the horizon; Chicago at last.  30 minutes later we could see 3-4 high rises in the distance.  An hour later we still could not see land, just the tall buildings.  In the end, we started seeing the skyscrapers 2 and a half hours before we arrived and land about an hour before.  We arrived at Burnham Harbor about 3 PM; 2 PM Central Time.  The harbor here is huge (1200 seasonal slips and 30 transient slips) but the friendliness and helpfulness that we experienced in much of Michigan is non-existent here, for the most part.

Burnham Harbor with Soldier Field in the Background

Arriving in the harbor was impressive but we could not raise the harbormaster on the radio and had to phone in.  We were told to grab slip E55, temporarily.   Once there, with no help and docking against the breeze, we tied up and then had to phone again because the docks have locking gates and we were reluctant to leave the boat. In the end we were allowed to stay in the slip. The rate is $2.45 /ft, plus $20 for transient electrical, plus the state tax of 7%; 3x the rate at the Michigan Marinas.  For the 1200 boats there is only one small washroom facility that has 2 stalls and 2 showers.  They are not the most modern but reasonably clean. For us it takes about 10 minutes to walk there. It is a good thing we use our boat for our showers.  Welcome to Chicago.

As has become our habit, Linda and I decided to find a bar or eating establishment once the boat was all hooked up and the 'exorbitant' fees paid.  There is nothing close to Burnham Harbor.  We walked for 90 minutes before I got my beer.  90 MINUTES.  We were beat, the fuel bill, 6 hours on the water , the shock of a $500 bill for 4 nights, the long walk to salvation....  the beer was refreshing, Harp Lager, and since it was 5 PM our time we feasted on some very tasty back ribs for supper.  We decided to cab it back but after a few beers and supper we decided to go to a corner bakery  for dessert, an excellent decision that lasted for 2 days, and then we ended up walking all the way back to the marina.

Great Skyline (this view is towards the marina not downtown)

On Friday, I asked the harbor staff for directions to the nearest West Marine Store so that we could get the charts that we need for the upcoming rivers.  After 1 hr 15 mins by bike to the "just up 31st Street" we discovered it is no where near there.  In Michigan we were offered the use of vehicles by 2 different people to travel what we could walk in 15 minutes.  Welcome to Chicago.  Since we passed through Chinatown, we went back and bought some local chinese food stuffs.  Linda is really good with "chinese foodstuffs" because of all of her chinese friends from the hospitals.  We saw parts of Chicago that we probably should not have seen.  Our BBQ supper was excellent that night.

Shedd Aquarium

We did manage to tour the Shedd Aquarium Friday afternoon despite being bushed from the 3.5 hr bike ride.  On Saturday we took in the Field Museum of Natural History.  It was huge, way too large for us to take everything in in just a half a day.  What we saw was very interesting.  Our bodies gave out before our interest but we had to call it a day. 

Lazy Dolphin, a fellow Looper who out ran the rest of the pack from Grand Haven, arrived Friday afternoon.  We are meeting up tonight to sample some Chicago style deep dish pizza.  I will let you know if it is better than Windsor's Roma's pizza.

Tomorrow, we root for the Lions here at Soldiers Field.  I will keep you posted.

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