9/2/15 – 9/12/15          Chicago, IL. and Hammond, IN.

9/2/15 – 9/3/15                        Chicago

The trip down to Chicago was the end of our travels on Lake Michigan. We had spent some good days and some not so good days, but we were glad be done with it before it started to really get unpredictable.

It seems that the realy big cities like New York and Chicago look to be fogged in when approaching them by water.

Once we got close to the breakwater, things started to look clearer and I could get some good shots as we headed into DuSable Marina.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Once we got settled in we headed for Navy Pier. This is a very large pier that has been converted into a tourist complex somewhat like the Inner harbor of Baltimore. It has lots of Eateries and a few shops. But they also have a huge two story Chicago Children’s Museum right at the front. And there are numerous boat tours that start out from the pier.

 

We did the Architectural Tour Boat so we could see the Chicago River and the route we would not be able to take to leave Chicago. Most of the bridges through Chicago do not open and they are only 17 ft. and we didn’t want to try it. So here are some shots from the tour.
 

 

 

Chicago is also in the process of building up it’s River Walk.

 

After the boat ride we decided to find a place to eat over at the River Walk. For those of you from JHHC, you may recognize the gentleman I almost ran over with my bike. I was totally shocked to see him walking our way. For those who aren’t JHHC, this is Jeff Joy, the former COO at JHHC. He now lives in Chicago right on the walk where we ran into him.

 While we enjoyed our dinner we got to watch the fountain along the walk cascade the River with a beautiful waterfall which created a lovely rainbow.
 

 

9/4/15 – 9/12/15          Hammond, IN.

We had planned the short stay in Chicago and a longer stay in Hammond so that we could get to a convenient Walmart to get some necessary medications renewed. We also needed to restock the boat before we started down the inland river system. This was by far the largest marina I have been in. We stayed on U pier and the walk to land was about ¼ mile. The very large building you see in the picture is Binion’s Horseshoe Casino. So we had great places to eat and got to spend some money.
 

 While the casino was right there and the Walmart was about a mile away, it was not very convenient and there was nothing else around. It is also not considered a good area to walk around. We wound up renting a car to do our shopping, etc. We drove 40 minutes to get to the Costco and AT&T store etc. This was in a very nice area and it had every store imaginable along with a large mall.

 

Come back next week for that posting.