"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you
didn't do, than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away
from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails.


Explore. Dream. Discover."

-Mark Twain

Tuesday, September 15, 2009

Weekend in Chicago

Navy Pier

Chicago is an amazing place, we stayed in Montrose Harbor by Lincoln park, with the skyscrapers behind us, it was truly beautiful. The bike and walking paths wrap around the city between the lake and the city. We must have biked & walked 50+ miles this weekend.  On Saturday we rented a car and went out to Hawthorn woods where Dennis and Carolyn live, Ian had a soccer game that we were in time to watch. Later in the day we went to dinner with Dennis, Carolyn, Doug, Greg, Connor and Ian, and on Sunday we drove up to Waukegon and watched Connor's baseball game. Carolyn and Dennis came back to the city to see the boat after taking the boys home and Doug and his friend Kerin joined us as well.  The weather was sunny, and mid 70's, not a cloud in the sky, and no wind for the windy city.
On Monday we left Chicago and headed on the next leg of our journey.  I say the next leg because we will leave the great lakes behind us and enter the river system.  Because our boat is 18'7" we cannot take the Illinois river where it connects to lake Michigan, one of the fixed bridges has only 17' feet vertical clearance.  We took lake Michigan to the calumet river which joins the Illinois river,  past the fixed bridge.  The calumet is mostly industrial views, with some tugs pushing barges, our speed is much slower on the river system, around 6 - 7 knots, which is approx. 8 miles an hour. We went thru our first lock, which I have been a bit nervous about.  It was a very small lock, the water level changed only 2 feet, and there was only  a small fishing boat in there with us.  Tomorrow we will go through another lock, not sure if it is a large one, but I do know there is allot of barge traffic, because we will be entering the Illinois river. Which brings me to the update on the asian carp.

As of Sept. 12th, the coast guard decided any boat that was over 20 foot in length, with a motor, could go thru the electric fish barrier without a tow or disconnecting all on board electronics. So we escaped having to pay the $500.00 for a tow. Yeah!!




Barge pushed by a tug on the Calumet



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