Chicago

With predictions for storms on Wednesday, Sept. 11, we chose to leave Racine on Tuesday and go straight to Chicago.  The ride was bouncy in 2-3 footers but we arrived safely in hazy Chicago by late afternoon.  In Our Element, Freya and Sun Gypsy were already there.  The next morning the haze had lifted and the water calmed--no storm!!!

Breakwater entrance to Chicago Harbor

Navy Pier

 Tom and I had a leisurely breakfast ( 4 hour bacon!) and headed to sight see on Michigan Avenue.  Tom's tolerance for that did not last long, so he went back to the boat and I enjoyed the stroll alone.  When I returned to the dock, Cathy and Gary aboard After Taxes had arrived having had a very smooth crossing from Benton Harbor.  We had last been with them in August 2012 at Little Current in the North Channel.  That evening we took a taxi to Halsted Street and feasted on a family style Greek dinner.  Delicious but way too much food!  Still I managed to find space for baklava!

The Pirates!  Judy, Tom, Rick, Gary, Cathy

Canoe sculpture near Navy Pier
Tom commented that it looked like
the aftermath of a week-end on the
Huzzah River!

Entrance to Navy Pier

Thursday, Judy Sheets and her fiance, Rick, came by and we went to lunch at the Billy Goat Tavern on Navy Pier where we ordered "cheezborgers".  We  followed that with a spin on the giant ferris wheel.  Beautiful view on a super clear day!

Cathy and Gary in Ferris Wheel

Harbor view from ferris wheel

After Taxes and Raydiance--buddy boats!

Cathy and Gary are domino players, so the evening called for a game.  The ladies were victorious---by a large margin!  But who's counting?

Friday my Cornell College gang arrived.  Shelley and Ed from St. Louis, Lynn Pier from Holland, MI, Pam Rechel from Portland, OR and Dana Flor from Minneapolis.  Although we have been passing around a chain letter since college graduation, we have only met in person a half dozen times.  Last time was five years ago in Minneapolis.  After everyone arrived, we again headed to Navy Pier--this time to Bubba Gump's Shrimp Shack.  Somehow we managed to eat between all the conversation.

Shelley, Pam, Linda, Dana (whistling??), Lynn

We had hoped to go for a Raydiance cruise on Friday, but Thursday night the winds started to howl and did not end until Friday late.  Instead we toured Millennium Park and upper Michigan Avenue.  Shelley's daughter and her husband, Mikeil, were great tour guides.  Tom and Ed escaped from us and went to the Museum of Science and Industry.

Carrie and Mikeil

Cityscape reflection in The Bean in Millennium Park

Our reflection in the Bean

Recreation of Cornell kickline
Linda, Pam, Shelley, Dana, Lynn

Silliness by sculptures in Millennium Park

Friday evening Carrie and Mikeil graciously invited all of us to their home in Skokie where we enjoyed a delicious barbeque dinner.  Saturday turned out to be a beautiful day, and we were able to take a cruise before everyone had to disperse.  What fun it is when we get together.

Queen waves to the adoring public

Calm water, blue sky, amazing skyline, good friends.
It doesn't get better than this!

Cruising the Chicago River.
Trump tower in the center.

Ken and Barb aboard Loop Dreams arrived at DuSable Saturday afternoon. We had last seen them on the Tenn-Tom in Nov. 2011.  We went to dinner at Uno's, home of the original Chicago pizza.   Usually I am not a fan of thick crust pizza, but this crust was crunchy, not chewy.  It was delicious! One piece was a meal!

Sunday, Missy arrived by train and Rich by car via Ludington fishing trip.  They will ride with us from Chicago to Hoppies at Kimmswick.  Ed and Mary Schultz, Pentwater cottage friends, came for cocktails that evening followed by dinner at Gage.  Again, a wonderful meal.  I see weight watchers in my future!

Rich, Tom, Mary, Ed, Missy

 

Wisconsin Shore of Lake Michigan

Storms threatened from Sister Bay to Kewaunee, but with the help of Sirius weather radar we managed to avoid them.  Monday, Sept. 2, we moved on to Manitowoc.

Approaching Manitowoc

We heard the radio broadcast announcing the Badger's arrival from Ludington and went to watch.  A sailboat was aground very near the arrival path of the Badger.  The coast guard was there and another boat trying to free the sailboat, but without success.  The Badger came right past him (probably not as close as it looked from our viewpoint), turned and backed into it's dock.  I imagine it was a tense moment for the sailboat crew.

Badger entering breakwater

Sailboat aground

The moment of truth

  I contacted one of the many Linda's in my high school graduating class, Linda Wenzel, who met us at the marina and gave us a car tour of the area. Manitowoc has done a great job of enhancing the lake shore with parks, bike/hike paths, sculpture, etc.  We ate dinner at a local diner with great hamburgers and fried cheese curds.  The next day Linda joined us as we rode from Manitowoc to Port Washington, about 50 miles.  The waves were on the beam so we had a rolly ride at first, but it flattened a bit later and as we turned to make our approach to  Port Washington the waves were astern.  It was good to have a long visit with Linda and catch up with her life since high school as well as reminisce.

Two Linda's

The scenery now includes farms along the shore

In Port Washington, we met up with Donna Counselman and Donna and Louie Lawinger, more PHS friends.  We had a great visit and enjoyed dinner at a nearby restaurant recommended for its seafood. Donna C. stayed the night with us and we had a revenge game of Five Crowns which had a fabulous ending!!!

Donna C., Donna L, and Louie

The town of Port Washington was a fun stop.  The skyline is dominated by St. Mary's Church which boasted a great view of Lake Michigan if you were willing to climb the 85 steps.  I talked Tom into this only to find the view obstructed by trees. Oh well, it was good exercise!

Fisherman statue with unique channel
marker in the background

Port Washington Harbor
St. Mary's steeple towering above

Tranquility
Think we could trade even?

Port Washington visitor center
completely covered in lake pebbles

We left Port Washington Friday morning and cruised to Milwaukee.  There as we were walking to the kite shop we came across two loopers, Bob and Debi aboard In Our Element and Maryann and Ozel aboard Freya.  We later joined them for cocktails.  In the meantime, Tom purchased a Sopwith Camel bi-plane kite to go with his Red Baron tri-plane kite.  Then of course we had to fly it.

Boys and toys

A fine day to fly a kite!

Saturday morning, Louie picked up Tom and they toured the Harley Davidson museum while I went to the kite festival in the park.  Around noon, lightening brought a quick end to the kite flying.

Deep concentration and concern

Joy

Kites away

Milwaukee art museum

Stephanie (my niece), Marcus (her husband), Rachel (my 9 month old great niece), and Joe and MaryJo (Marcus's parents) joined us mid-afternoon to ride to Racine.  We had to wait about an hour for the storms to pass, but then we had a fairly smooth ride.  Adorable, active Rachel kept us entertained.  We were so glad the timing worked out for all of them to join us.

Captain Rachel

Co-captains
Rachel and Stephanie

MaryJo and Joe on deck

Ride 'em Rachel

Rock a bye baby

Modeling Aunt Linda's present
with mom and dad

Rachel captured the day and the wheel!

Joe and MaryJo at the helm

In Racine we stayed at Reef Point Marina.  Loopers Bob and Madeline Vreeland (Betty L) offered a BOGO certificate for the marina on the AGLCA Forum and we took them up on it.  They also mentioned that we should look up gold loopers Dean and Beth Johns aboard Kismet while there.  Before I had a chance to get to their boat, Beth showed up at ours and volunteered to drive me to the grocery store.  Such a nice thing to do since the store was beyond walking distance, especially when carrying cartons of soda!  She said she was  paying it forward for all the times someone had given them lifts while they were on the loop.  Later that day, Freya and Sun Gypsy (Rick and Leila Minnis) arrived.  All gathered on our boat for cocktails and stories that evening.

Rick, Ozel, Dean, Maryann, Leila and Beth

 On Monday, we met Stephanie for lunch.  She is a reporter for the newspaper in Racine and she gave us a tour of her office after lunch.  Tuesday the weather was sunny and the wind and waves were moderate so we decided to head off to Chicago a day early.

Across Lake Michigan and Door County

Thursday, Aug. 29, our guardian angels worked overtime turning Lake Michigan into glass.  We could not have asked for a smoother crossing.

North Manitou Island Shoal Light
now home to hundreds of cormorants.

A flock of about 20 white swans
bid us farewell from the Michigan shore
near Manitou Islands

As we neared Death's Door (the passage between Washington Island and the tip of the peninsula),  small waves started forming.  We had called Sister Bay to make a reservation (you cannot make them until the day of arrival) before losing phone service on the Michigan side and were told we were 11th on the waiting list.  We did not get service back until we rounded the peninsula near Ellison Bay.  When we finally did reach the marina,  we were delighted to learn they had a space reserved for us.  Our dock neighbor turned out to be a looper--George and Mary aboard Beach Quest.

Bluffs on Green Bay side of Door County

Perhaps Door County's version of House on the Rock?

Lighthouse near Death's Door

Pat and Jim drove up to join us Friday and Saturday.  Sister Bay Marina was hosting their 20th annual marina fest Saturday, so we had all kinds of activities and food to enjoy.  After beginning the day with a pancake breakfast sponsored by the fire and rescue squads, we toured the boat show.  Most were wooden boats, but this aquaboat was quite a crowd pleaser.

Cruising along the breakwater

Aquaboat's license plate
Be sure to notice the bumper sticker

The wooden boats were beautiful.  The upkeep must be massive!

My favorite--a new england guideboat
made by the man sitting behind it.
Has oars in the front and a paddle in back.

An old Cruisers wooden boat.

Beautiful 1920's craft.

Many activities were planned for children.  The boat building tent was an especially  big hit.

Intense concentration at the
boat building tent.

Coast Guard's Coastie was there
promoting the use of life jackets. He
was remote controlled and talked to the kids.

There were also items of interest for older kids.

Tom and Jim studying Kahlenburg Steam Engine

Pat by Little Tug, On Deck

The afternoon began with a dinghy poker run.  We chose not to enter and decided after seeing the pre-game water gun fight that it was a wise, warm decision.

Gearing up for the poker run.

In the afternoon a water ski troupe from Green Bay entertained.  Their staging area was directly behind Raydiance.  What a performance!  In less than perfectly still water, they built pyramids, skied barefoot, upside down, backward.  I found myself holding my breath several times.

Daddy-daughter duos

How do they do this??

Raydiance kept an eye on the gear.

The evening ended with a fine fireworks display over the water directly behind Raydiance.

Love the reflections in the water.

Sunday morning we were going to get an early start, but storms were threatening so we forced ourselves to eat another breakfast of Swedish pancakes at Al Johnson's with Pat and Jim before heading out.  Al Johnson's Restaurant features a grass roof that is kept manicured by goats.

Yes, they are real goats!

After breakfast, we said good-bye to Pat and Jim and headed off to Kewaunee, Wisconsin.  We have spent time with Pat and Jim on or near her birthday, Sept. 2nd, the last two years.  So much fun.  I hope it becomes a tradition.