Day 2-289 nice (long) trip to Chicago

     The Admiral was busy during her early morning walk. She took a walking tour through the waterfront art park during part of the walk. Probably her favorite was this stainless steel piece that looks something like a tilted Greek letter pi. Anyway, the art park is a very nice feature of the waterfront in Kenosha.

     She also got a great view of the lighthouse during her walk. We are usually too busy to take lighthouse pictures as we enter or leave small harbors, thus this picture from land is a nice reminder for me of what I saw but was too busy to photograph. As you can probably see, this is another "near" sunrise picture. However, the really important things that you can see in the photo are the scattered clouds and the modest breeze. The forecast was for the wind to shift to the northeast and build up to 10 mph. The forecasts for the waves varied from 1 to 2 feet to up to 3 feet. All of those numbers are within our comfort range so we made the decision to depart for Chicago. We left the dock at 8:15 am in light wind and waves less than 1 foot. The trip was 53.3 miles and took a little over 6.5 hours. The winds did shift to the northeast and was probably never over 10 mph. Since we were headed more or less due south, the waves (1 to 2 feet) hit the stern at about a 45 degree angle. This meant that we "wallowed" most of the trip. By wallowing I mean that that waves knocked us off course while also causing some rocking and rolling. In big waves this would be really uncomfortable, but we managed quite well.

     When we were about 40 miles from Chicago, it was clear enough to see some of the skyline in the far distance. When we first saw New York City from the water, we came around the New Jersey Highlands, and then the skyline was already impressive since we were only 25 miles away. Today, we got to see the buildings continue to "grow" over the next 5 hours. It was kind of like very slow motion, but it just kept getting more impressive. The picture at the right is from about 20 miles away.

The picture at the left was taken about 4 miles off the shore, and it was as close as we could get and still get most of the skyline in one photo. For scale, the breakwater in the foreground was about what the skyline looked like from 40 miles out so watching it grow was really a fun experience.

We did not enter the outer harbor through the main entrance, but as we passed across the entrance, we got this great view (picture at right) of a 4-masted schooner (the Windy) and the Chicago Lighthouse. The schooner is a commercial tour boat, but it is a beautiful sight along the shore.

     Several miles off the coast there are three huge water intake structures spaced along the coast (one in picture at left). These water intakes seem to be very popular with the birds who seemed to be enjoying the sun.

     To get to the DuSable Marina we went around the south end of the outer harbor break wall. As we turned west to enter the outer harbor, we were headed straight at Grant Park, which is a symbol of the beauty of Chicago (picture at right). It also achieved fame during demonstrations held there during the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago. We got to perhaps a half mile from the fountain before we turned north to enter our marina. It really is a beautiful sight.

     We had an early dinner at a waterfront restaurant that was about 100 feet from the end of the pier where Lucky Us is moored. Just after dinner, we saw this lovely sunset sky off to the north.The apartment building at the left is the Lake Point Tower, which is affectionately referred to as the "peanut" by locals. It sits at the landward end of Navy Pier, which has now been converted into a venue for restaurants, shops and even an amusement park with the large Ferris Wheel.

     The DuSable Marina is about 150 yards from Chicago River, which we will enter as we leave Chicago to head south along the river system to the Gulf of Mexico and ultimately back home to Texas. As part of a walk after dinner, we walked along a lake and riverfront walkway to get a view of both the river and some of the many tall buildings along the river (picture at right).

     To top off the excitement of our arrival in Chicago, there was a great fireworks display at about 9:15 pm that was just a mile or so off shore from Lucky Us. Thanks Chicago! You sure know how to make us feel welcome...