Saturday 29 August 2015

South Haven Marina and arriving in Chicago

Checking the weather and winds we have decided to stay put another 2 days.  Winds and waves should be calm on Thursday August 27th so we will get up early and travel 74 miles across the lake to Chicago. 

Tuesday we thought we would check out the bike trails in South Haven.  We found a trail that connects South Haven and Kalamazoo, 39 miles.  We cycled to mile 5and then turned around so it was a great ride through forests, past the river and through farmers fields.


Wednesday we spent cleaning and doing laundry.  It rained most of the day so it was a good day to do chores. 

Thursday morning I heard Steve get up.  I checked the time and it was 4:30am.  I figured he would be right back to bed and then........the sound of the electric tooth brush...really??  By the time we got hydro and water unhooked and took Dexter for a walk it was 5:30 and we were ready to go.  We exited the entrance to South Haven, which had been literally impassible for the past 4 days due to high winds and waves.  Out to the lake and set our course and was it ever dark.  We were both quiet and then Steve said "what time does it get light out?"  I just laughed and reminded him that I was fast asleep an hour ago.

It was a beautiful ride across.  There wasn't a ripple in the water and we first spotted Chicago when we were 37 miles away.  The smooth ride even allowed Steve to do some last minute deck scrubbing.
Nice and clean for Chicago.


The ride across was 9 hours but Chicago is an hour behind so we arrived at
1:30pm.  Still lots of time in the day. 

We pulled in to the Marina and were met by 4 other Looper boats.  There is one right beside us. "Sea to See" - Ron and Vicki Montgomery.  While we were checking in at the Marina Harbour we heard someone ask, "Can you please tell us where One Bay at a Time is located?  We told them that was us and they are also Loopers staying in the same Marina, "Sea Moss" - Clark and Evelyn Woodworth.  Then 2 other couples came over to our boats and we talked until 8pm (7pm Chicago time).  "Knot Home" -Al and Kaye Sterling, "Namaste" - Jim and Joann McFail.  Ron, Vicki, Al and Kaye decided to go for dinner and asked us to join them but we had had a long day and were looking forward to a hot shower and a pillow. 

The next day we thought we would take a walk and see the sights of Chicago.  We walked out to the Navy Pier and decided take an architectural boat tour.  It was a 75 minute tour of the Chicago River with all the history of the buildings and interesting architecture.




  After the boat tour we took Dexter for a long walk and then decided we would go on a hunt for Chicago deep dish pizza.  We found the address but walked and walked but never could find it.  Turns out we were walking under the street not on the street.  By the time we realized what we had done we had walked a long way so we came back to the boat and made burgers for dinner. 

The view from our boat at the Marina after dark.   
The next day was rainy and damp so we thought we would check out the Aquarium.  When we arrived there was a very long line to the entrance of the Aquarium.  We waited for an hour before we even entered the Aquarium and we were both just a little disappointed.  It was crowded and the shows were not until 4pm which would have been too long to leave Dexter on the boat so we just walked around and looked at marine life. 
When we left the Aquarium we thought we'd give our hunt for deep dish pizza another try....GREAT SUCCESS!!   Now that's what I call a pizza pie.  We ate at 3pm and that was lunch and dinner.  We also had left overs coming back to the boat. 
 We are both exhausted from all of the walking but we needed to burn some calories today after the pizza lunch.  Got back to the boat just in time to avoid the rain.  Heading south tomorrow on the river....not sure what that has in store for us but what ever....we will take it "One Bay at a Time."

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