Passing time in the BIG City

Today was dreadfully HOT 97 degrees the weatherman said it would feel like 105 and it did.  But we took the bikes into town anyway.  We locked them up at Millennium Park and continued on by foot.  The section we did was the Loop which includes...........

Millennium Park                                                                                                 

I would  

 of loved to stand under this for awhile today.

                St. Peters Church

Daley Plaza Battle of the Bands Pep Rally

The Chicago Football Classic presents a Band Pep Rally featuring Alabama A &; M University vs. Hampton University.

The Chicago Picasso was commissioned in 1963 by the architects of the Richard J. Daley Center to anchor the plaza on the east side of the building. Most public art in large cities at this time was calm and stoic, mainly depicting historical figures, but in the 1960s, architecture in American cities began to reflect the many cultural and modern changes taking place throughout the country. The Daley Center’s architects decided to commission the renowned Spanish artist, Pablo Picasso, to create a monumental sculpture for their plaza.

Hmmm I look at this and it looks very, socialist to me.  Anyone have any info on this one?

              The theater district

        After all that we stopped for lunch at Millers Pub it was quite good.

Some of Jim's favorites I look at the one below and can only hope he isn't planning on putting it somewhere on his body. I see a tattoo in the making. Scary aye?

This was one of my favorites very calming and peaceful its called the equestrian a piece from China from the Tang dynasty the 2nd quarter of the 8th century.


After a long hot day, did I mention it was 97 degrees today? We got back to the boat and received a call from Greg and Kate to join then on Grianan for cocktails.  So we cleaned ourselves up and took a walk over to DuSable marina next door for happy hour.  We were later joined by the crew of Godspeed from Louisiana, we had not seen them since Deltaville VA it was a nice night sharing travel stories.  Tomorrow morning Grianan will be leaving Chicago, and heading down the River system southbound,  and very happy to be off Lake Michigan I am sure!  See you downstream, safe travels.

St. Joseph's MI to Chicago IL

Today was a great day to cross over to Chicago its a 60 miles trip across Lake Michigan to Chicago.  It really could not of been better!

Happy Hours in St. Joe's, 6 looper boats were there and with a big trip across the lake in the morning cocktails were in order.  Of the 6 boats 3 of us were going on to Chicago in the morning and the others had different destinations in mind.  One was going down a little further to Michigan City, another going down to Indiana just after Michigan City, and the 3rd was off to north of Chicago somewhere to get their mast stepped.  Safe trip everyone!  See you in Chicago.

It was overcast today and very hot and humid, upper 90's today and tomorrow.  But we will be here for at least 5 days and they say a cold front in due in over the weekend.

Navy Pier

More Navy Pier

Later in the day when it cooled down some. we took the bikes off the boat and headed to Navy Pier to investigate.

Jim managed to get a couple of good night shots of the City.

This is Jim's first time in Chicago so he has a list of things he wants to do.  I went to school in West Chicago some 30 odd years ago but there is still plenty of things I will look forward to seeing.  More later....................

aug 27-30th Holland to St Joseph's MI

Another early start for us leaving Holland after 2 days.

Too early for beach goers

Here are a couple of statues in Holland

Downtown Holland MI


When we left Holland we once again followed Grianan to the next stop....the original plan was to travel to South Haven but the weather was so nice we ended up in St. Joes.  Once in we called Wolfe's marine supply they will shuttle you to their store and back.  Its advertised as the largest marine supply store in the Midwest.  So the four of us went off to investigate!  Getting back to the marina proved to be a bit more difficult as we had all purchased quite a few things, some of them quite large, like the 8' antenna Greg bought and the only car available to return us to the marina was a very small car.

Good thing it was a convertible but not built for 5 people Jim needed to squeeze in next to Kate.  I called shotgun!

Greg and Kate left St. Josephs this morning heading to Chicago, we will follow in a couple days.  In the meantime Jim will be installing all the items he bought at Wolfs and we will enjoy our $47/night dockage before Chicago empties our wallet.

Manistee to Grand Haven MI Aug 21 -26th

Grand Haven Musical Fountain

Most towns have their own special flavor or a certain theme, Grand Haven is noted for the water and light show set to music it was fabulous, we had the best seats in the house, right off our sundeck.

We were in slip #1 right next to Waterfront Stadium

Manistee Fountain this fountain is very similar to the one in our hometown.

It was Sunday, sadly the Lodge was closed

We fueled up in Pentwater they had just lowered the price!  But what was shown here is not what we paid.  Wish it were!

Local sailing club in Pentwater

After 5 days in Pentwater we got the chance to make our own waves.  Super early start for us.....so this is what 6:30am looks like.  I must say though, I have many many photos of sunsets but I have very few sunrises.

Busy beach day in Grand Haven, and this is a Monday.

Grand Haven Lighthouse

Nice waterfront shopping right off the dock, and also a nice downtown a couple of blocks away.

Happy Hour aboard SweetPea other than the looper crawl in Norfolk VA this is the most people we have had onboard.  In attendance are the crew of Moonstruck, OnceAround, SomethingSpecial, BrownEyedGirl and SeaMoore.

Hey where did all the guys go?

Charlevoix to Leland and Frankfort MI

August 18th and 19th

Today was to be and early start but we were held up by fog and a farmers market here in town.  It has been about a month or more since we have had the opportunity to visit a farmers market so we took advantage.  We picked up some homemade breads and fresh flowers for the boat, and headed out at the 9;30 bridge opening in Charlevoix.  The lake was a bit choppy but not to bad for the first 3 hours but the last hour and half the seas were building lucky for us we only had planned a 37 mile day.  We spotted Grianan as we got close to Leland and they followed us in to the marina.  There are 4 loopers here, yesterday in Charlevoix we met a couple who just started the loop a couple of weeks ago from Ohio (Brown eyed Girl) they too were here when we got in.  We headed into town to check it out it has a New England feel about it.  This is there sidewalk sale weekend so all the shops had their wares out on sale.  It is a very convenient town to stock up on groceries as is Charlevoix,  its just a short walk away as is the liquor store, restaurants, and of course our Jim's favorite the ice cream shop. 

Aug 20th

We ended up 2 days in Leland due to wind, but left early this morning for Frankfort 4 hours travel another nice small town.  As luck would have it, there was a farmers market, car show, and art and crafts fair happening here today.  The farmers market was all FRESH locally grown with quite a nice array of veggies and fruits (tis the season) the local farmers had fresh eggs, homemade cheeses, jams jelly's, goat cheese a woman we were talking with has 93 goats that she has to milk.  Lots of homemade sausages, fresh packed meats of course pies, cookies,breads etc.  This is the first farmers market with real farmers, with there own products not something being resold.  Although the one thing I was looking for I didn't see,  potted herbs so I can pot up the planter that SOMEONE tossed as we entered Canada. 

 Leaving Leland theres that beautiful blue water

 nice paint job

 Sunset at Leland Thursday night

 Theres Grianan (left) and Nectar (right) Nectar completed the great loop in 2002 this is there home waters.

 Sunset the 2nd night in Leland cool! AY?

 Today (Sat) we left Leland with Grianan, Nectar and Lifestyles

 the next few photos are of Sleeping Bear State Park

 The entrance of Frankfort MI