Chicago Highlights

June 28-July 2:



View from our boat



 The boats in the downtown harbours (I do have trouble spelling it ‘harbor’) are pretty well all at moorings. At Columbia we transients tied up along side the main dock. The wide dock also serves as the launching spot for junior club sailing. I was surprised to see the kids jumping in the water right at the dock, and playing in the water near their boats. However the water certainly looked clean and we saw no floating junk anywhere around. Of course Chicago does have the lake flowing into the river. The first night we had a good dinner in the Club’s elegant dining room that used to be the first class lounge overlooking the harbour.

formal reception area-stairs kead to dining and bar/lounge

 

There is a nearby great market (Whole Foods type place with large area for beer, wine etc) so we provisioned well!

It was very hot during our 3-4 days there so we didn’t do quite as much as we might have. The grass was all brown but one city block of Millenium Park is lush gardens, grasses, trees and summer flowers.

 

Shopped the Mile. Saturday night we watched the regular but spectacular Navy Pier fireworks from end of pier by the club. Early Sunday we strolled through the Art Fair in Grant Park. Lots of interesting arts and crafts but I settled for a pair of earrings – more portable and we didn’t see any larger pieces that we could not live without! Lunched at the Purple Pig – tapas type dishes, most, made from all parts of the pig. Delicious! In the afternoon another violent thunderstorm went through, centred south of us. It was mostly wind and some heavy rain where we were (in the grocery store at the time) but it south of Chicago very hard and lots of people were without power the next day.

On Monday we visited the Museum of Science and Industry a fantastic place that has fixed up one of the buildings from the 1893 Columbian exhibition. The building is immense and has lots of interactive exhibits  -  we took a tour of a captured German submarine was absolutely fascinating, and horrifying to think how the men lived aboard. The video of how they transported the submarine to the site and then lowered it into its own exhibition hall is a story itself.

Riverwalk tour – fun with a knowledgeable and amusing guide. Since I had just finished reading Devil in the White City, I could show off some of my Chicago bits of info.

We love Chicago and started planning our next visit.in more temperate times…maybe join the throngs of people cycling around the city.