September 9, 2014 - Chicago, Chicago (music notes)

Ahhh...I could dock here forever.  Unfortunately we would go broke and never complete the Great Loop.  We love it here!!

This morning Alan & Lynne (brother & wife) joined us for a mini-tour of Chicago and lunch at Catch 35, a fantastic seafood restaurant.  The food was great, plentiful, and the best part was that Alan picked up the tab as our bon voyage present.  :)  Very sweet!!  He expressed a desire to travel on the Chesapeake so we are holding him to joining us when we reach that area and travel with us for a stretch. We went to Millennium Park where we HAD to take our picture with "The Bean" and then past the Art Museum, which we will plan to visit on our next journey to Chicago.

The 4 of us being "touristy" at "The Bean"

Nice reflection of city buildings

Grandkids always on our minds..."Wouldn't they love to splash around in this?! We have to bring them here."

Entrance to the Chicago Art Museum - "Camden, do you LOVE this huge lion???"

After lunch we walked and walked and walked and walked...enjoying the downtown.  We did a little shopping (can't resist!!!!).

The ceiling of Marshall Field (now Macy's)...so beautiful it makes a girl want to shop 'til she drops!

Our walk ended with purchasing needed grocery supplies at a nearby market - Mariano's.  They sure know how to do it right, and will take over the grocery industry in Chicago...and hopefully other places.  Outstanding!!

As I write this, we are sitting on the dock, enjoying the evening.  Clouds are rolling in and rain is predicted for tomorrow.  (Watch for pictures tomorrow of us in our rain suits, dripping wet.) Our days of watching the waves on Lake Michigan are over. Our next challenge is extensive planning of our travel days, influenced by locks, tows, bridges, and anchorages/marinas/moorings.  This part of the trip involves much more planning for daily trips and more attention to detail during the journey down the river system. Rain is predicted for tomorrow and strong winds on the big lake, so thankfully we have a very short journey from our slip to enter the locks which dump us into the river system. We will begin our journey in early morning to assure that we reach our destination (Lockport or Joliet - 40 miles), allowing for delays introduced by the large tows that we will encounter on the river.

I owe an apology to those of you who think I ramble too much and make this blog posting longer than it needs to be, but you know...I just can't help myself.  My advice...learn to "scan"...or I will try to be more concise.   :) xoxo

NOTE:  We talked with our "AIS" guy today and he said that our AIS is working fine and that Boat Beacon and Boat Watch are maintained by independent groups who may or may not be updating and maintaining it regularly.  That explains why some of you see us in Holland, Saugatuck and Chicago.  Ludington, you WIN, as this is the most accurate reporting of our location.  (Jim Webster, thank you for keeping us updated as to what you're seeing!!) It is not connected to AIS, the system we have on our boat.  So...watch us when you can, but don't panic and think we have been swept up by the water or aliens when you don't find us on the apps. Our main concern was that AIS wasn't working and other boats wouldn't see us.  YIKES!!  No worries....LIFE IS GOOD!

As we travel along on our journey there may be times when we don't have internet access to post to the blog.  Please don't think we are in trouble.  We will post every day that we have internet access.  Hugs and love to you all that are following us and supporting us on this journey.