Sad and Glad at the same time.

We made it to Chicago on Thursday which means we have now traveled across 3 of the 5 Great Lakes. That is the good news, the bad news is that Cherie is leaving us today. We have planned this trip for the last 5 years and Cherie has been excited for us the whole time and she has been looking forward to joining us for quite a while now. I never thought the trip would happen and I am sure Cherie felt the same way, but the trip did happen and Cherie has been with us for two weeks now and she said the time flew by. We will miss her very much but maybe she can join us again in the winter. I will stop being sad and tell you what has been happening since we left South Haven. We went from South Haven to St. Joeseph/Benton Harbor on Wednesday. When we got to the marina they said they did not have space and the fuel pumps were off because of the power. They let us tie up the fuel dock and within 1/2 hour we had a slip and the power was back on. There was really only one thing I wanted to do and that was to go to Wolf's Marine Store. It is supposed to be the largest marine store with a ton of stuff. They picked us up at the marina and took us to the store. I could have spent a full day in the store. If you are a boater then you should not miss it. I only spent $400 and I didn't see half the stuff. The prices were better than West Marine and the selection was outstanding. Now I am sad about two things, Cherie leaving and not being able to go to Wolf's again. We had originally planned to go to Chicago on Friday but the weather was supposed to be great on Thursday so we went early. We followed a freighter out of the channel and I tried to convince Ginny to out run it which was of course stupid and she smartly waited until it set a course and then we set ours and proceeded at our usual pace of 10MPH. The seas were calm but it was very hazy so we could not see the city until we were about 3-4 miles out. We are staying at Burnham Harbor which is a little to the South of the main harbor where Navy Pier is. The marina is huge and the office and bathrooms are in the middle. We are on one of the furthest docks from the office. Chicago is not like any of the other cities, nothing is very close. We ate lunch on the boat and decided to walk to the Shedd Aquarium to look at fish. The walk was about 15 minutes but it was unbelievably hot, upper 90's with 100% humidity. The aquarium was nice but we only had general admission passes so we couldn't see everything. We then took a water taxi to Navy Pier and went on an architectural boat tour of the Chicago River. Even though it was hot and we were in the sun the trip was great and they sold beer. A boat ride in a great city with someone else driving and drinking beer, what's not to like. We have been debating about whether to take our boat down the Chicago River or go a little South and take another less crowded route. I honestly have never seen a waterway that crowded with tour boats and personal boats, not to mention the low bridges. Since Ginny is the pilot, I asked her if she wanted to take the Chicago River when we left town and she said no fricking way. We had dinner at the Navy Pier and then took a cab back to the boat. The marina is right across the street from Soldier Field and the Bears were at home against the Browns so the traffic was bad to say the least. We made it fine and the girls took showers to cool off and we went to bed. We are going to be in Chicago until Monday spending time with Ginny's sister, Cathy, and I hope the weather gets cooler quick.

Leaving South Haven

Coming into St. Joeseph

A view from the marina

My favorite store in the whole world

This was just a tiny piece of the store

I could make a comment about my large balls that I got at Wolf's but I won't

Downtown Benton Harbor

A nice fountain in the city

Leaving St. Joeseph

The freighter that Ginny tried to race :-)

Perfect day to cross the lake

Doesn't she look good in a hat

This freighter was only a couple of miles away

A crib light and fog horn in the Chicago Harbor

The city at last

Soldier Field

What the heck is this guy looking at?

Shedd's

A man and his fish

You can see where us boaters rank

Low bridges