CHICAGO, ILL

We left Grand Haven on Oct. 18th at 7:30 when it was still dark. We have about 100+ miles to go to cross Lake Michigan to Chicago. John has been watching the weather and today looks like the best day to cross with the lowest wave height for the coming week. Sounds good to me!

John made brunch for us. We arrived in Chicago at 1:30 but could see the skyline for about 20 miles before we got here. We decided to stay at the Chicago Yacht Club. This was the recommendation from John and Sharon's friend Jeff, who has a boat there.

We ate at the Chicago Yacht Club with Jeff our first night here and then he took us for a night tour of the city after supper. The harbor was really rough during the night and Bob and John were up several times checking the lines. We decided to move to a different marina the next day.

CHICAGO YACHT CLUB

Sunday, Oct. 19 we moved to the DuSable Harbor and Marina. It is much calmer here!

We do have to pay for these marinas because they are open until November 2nd. It still is much cheaper than the east coast. We walked downtown to have pizza and watch the Vikings play the Bears. Sharon and I decided to walk the Miracle Mile instead and do some window shopping.

The weather just hasn't been very nice since we have been here. We have managed to do a few things. We walked over to Navy Pier, went to the Planetarium, visited Millenium Park and saw the musical Jersey Boys. John and Sharon's friend Jeff, and his friend Elena, went with us to the musical. It was just great and no one fell asleep after a big supper at the Italian restaurant, The Village.

John, Sharon and Bob with Chicago in the background.












The weather wasn't very nice so we were on the boat alot. John and Sharon left on Wednesday to go back to Detroit. We really had a good time and were glad for their support in getting us safely to Chicago.

Bob and I did housekeeping things on the boat for a few days until our friends Diane and Ivar Peterson arrived on Saturday.

While Diane and Ivar got acquainted with the Rhody Ray, I watched Paul install the river system on our navigation computer. It took longer than he thought it would. He worked about 7 hours on it. In the meantime, Bob, Ivar and Diane went out to eat and got groceries for the next part of the trip. They made it back to the boat just in time for the fireworks display that is held every Friday and Saturday night.