Long Weekend in Chicago

Our Family Labour Day Weekend in Chicago

We are really, really, really looking forward to seeing our kids!!

Jeff and Shannon, the newlyweds; Chris and Tayler, the sweethearts; Ruff and Copper, the grand dogs.

We are looking forward to seeing my sister Joanne and her husband Dwayne.

We are looking forward to seeing the City of Chicago.

We are looking forward to being on land, walking and biking.

We are looking forward to eating out.

Shortcut through the park

We unloaded our bikes and headed uptown for supplies.
 Brian had researched the phone companies, and we were anxious to get a U.S. phone and plan.

Well, my bike had a flat tire, so I had to walk the mile uptown, while Brian pedalled slowly beside me.

I hit Starbucks while he went phone shopping and we met up at the grocery store. 

This time we did remember our carry bags, but we had so much stuff...we couldn't carry them!

We used the bike as a mule and headed back to the marina.

The kids arrived about 6:30 Friday night, and we immediately ordered some special Chicago pizza. Each of them weighed about 10 lbs.
We had a relaxing evening on the sundeck, watching the sunset, getting caught up and telling stories of our trip so far.

Burnham Harbour Marina - Downtown Chicago

 It was hot, but we had a good breeze on the water.
We had a full house, and everyone was a good sport, camping out with us for the weekend!

Saturday, we began our venture into the city for some sightseeing.

We walked along the Lakefront trail over to Navy Pier,  uptown to the Magnificent Mile, past the Jazz Festival, through the Maggie Daley memorial park, by the fountains and back to the marina.

People watching on Magnificent Mile

Someone said we went 17 km or 22,000 steps.

 Both the kids and the dogs jumped in the lake to cool off and we hung out and had a BBQ on board.

A tired Copper

Sunday was another hot day, Joey and Dwayne joined us for an afternoon on the lake.

The water was cool but refreshing and the harbour was busy and popular.

 A bit of excitement when our boat started to drift, but a great afternoon!

 Even Ruff jumped in the lake with us!

We then headed over to Wrigleyville the see the sights and grab some dinner. 

The local police officers who appeared to be big, burly, tough guys, were neighbourly, and dog lovers, as they offered the pups a drink from their water bottles.     A great night all around!

Monday was the drive home day, so the kids had to leave. A very, very teary day for Janice!

So, we just got busy. Started cleaning up, doing laundry and getting some chores done. 

We needed to take down the mast to fit under the bridges, in preparation for heading out tomorrow.
We topped up our water tanks, as we have heard that some resources can be scarce down the rivers.

We were just chatting about our morning departure when Brian thought he heard a pump running. 

When investigating, he found that we were actually starting to sink!  But just sort of.
There was an abandoned through hull vent, that had started letting water into the bilge because it was below the water line!  So, why was it below the water line??  Since we had filled up the fresh water to about 300 gallons, we were HEAVY.  We ran some taps for a couple of hours and were able to stop sinking.

Tuesday was departure day.

 As always, a final weather check before leaving and there was a good size thunderstorm cell approaching.
We didn't enjoy the thought of having our first river day in a heavy rain, so we hunkered down for another shore day.

Brian changed the oil in the fuel injector pump, we got some blogging done, then we caught up with Joey and Dwayne again later on  for a bike ride uptown and a Mexican dinner.

The Bean

Condo living downtown. Note the car parking on the first 12 floors.

Biking Downtown past Buckingham Fountain

An unusual Mexican fajita sandwich in broth

A little surprise after dinner…. 

Janice's bike tire was flat again!!

 We were about about 4 miles from the marina, it was already near dusk, and we had to get creative.  Dwayne tried to give the tire a co2 shot, but that didn't hold up.

 Being the athletes we all are, Joanne rode on Dwayne's bike seat; 

 Dwayne pedalled standing up; 

Janice rode Brian's bike; 

 Brian rode Joanne's bike and carried Janice's disabled bike. 

 We were quite a sight, laughing all the way! 

 Good thing we had lots of solid Mexican food to fuel us along. 

 A great night again, and a good forecast for morning.

Goodbye Chicago….What a great city!!

Mackinaw Island to Chicago

Motoring Down Lake Michigan
August 26- September 3

The Great Lake Michigan deserves a great deal of respect. 

Once paid, it can treat you reasonably well!

After sitting out a weather day on Tuesday 25th, at Mackinac Island, this was one of those 'Go or Don't Go' days.
Two boats made the decision that the wind was in the best direction possible, so it was a 'Go' day.
We had the option of stopping at Mackinac City, if things weren't good out in the straights.

Weather reports were for water 1-2 feet , so we scooted out about 8:15, to catch the calmest of the day.
We were on our way to Charlevoix. It was a marathon run at 65 miles to go.

As the 2 Lakes met, we needed to make a hard left turn, to change direction and head south....that's where we met the 'other' Lake Michigan, the one we had heard about! The one that can show you 12 foot waves! But today, waves were closer to 6 feet, and very close together.  We could hear the kitchen relocating itself, and a huge bang from the back of the boat. We got straightened around to our new course and everything  seemed to be ok, no more banging.  We were at a spot where we just couldn't pull over and stop. A few minutes later, I went down to check things out.  At that point I noticed the kayak had been bounced off its saddle hooks and was wedged down between the swim platform and the dinghy!! By the time we got to slow down enough for Brian to check, my kayak was already gone!

I hope some nice family on Lake Michigan enjoys it!

As we arrived in Charlevoix approximately 8 hours later, we were met by the people who made the trip ahead of us, and the other 'Loopers' that were already there. There were about 12 couples, some from as far away as Australia and some who had been waiting out weather for 12 days! We got the very last available slip!
We were introduced to the famed 'Dock-tails' event, which is the very popular pre-dinner cocktail party. You bring a drink and an appetizer to share, and everyone has a story to tell, often at the same time!

 We were the new people, who just smiled and nodded, handed out and collected boat cards, and never moved away from the countertop since we didn't have our land legs yet.  Many people have coached us on the labelling and filing of boat cards, so we can somehow possibly remember all these people. And this is just the first one, we hear  there are many more to come!


The day ended well, so... All's well, that ends well...so they say.

As Brian asked "Have you ever ridden a mechanical bull?"    "For 8 hours straight?!!"
Feeling pretty beat up today, and looking forward to a hot shower and a good sleep.

Charlevoix to Frankfort

With a good forecast predicted there was a mass exodus of boats this morning. We passed under the 7 am bridge opening with 5 other boats, to a beautiful morning.

Today was the day we washed our front decks and both anchors, which are 8 feet above the water. The whole crew made it to Frankfort but everyone was exhausted. Some were sickish, but the crew of Fugitive was fine. 

We were impressed with the immense sand dunes,
reminding Brian of a huge Sand Banks at West
Lake where he had fun as a youngster.

We had a nice walk uptown and were surprised to find a great little print shop where Janice cut the last of our boat cards and Brian did some scanning for work.

Frankfort to Manistee

With a fair forecast predicted, 3 of us headed out at 8am with a planned destination of Ludington. By noon it was rough enough for us to divert to Manistee, putting in only about 30 miles.

Creative waterfront access!

Our traveling partners explained a good way to help us conquer this Great Lake, 

"The only way to eat an elephant is one bite at a time!" 

 So true for this situation. Today we took another bite.

Paloma's shopping bags.
You gotta get some.

We walked uptown and found an accent pillow for our new boat seats, then headed to the grocery store. This was our first walking trip for  groceries. We had forgotten our back packs, but had Paloma's grocery bags.
This is another new thing we need to learn, reprovisioning our boat on foot.
Tonight we were invited to our first 'Bring your own.'  Another event often held by Loopers. After appetizers on one boat, the six of us headed to the other boat, with our own meat, or dinner. There our host Jack cooked the dinner that we brought for ourselves, and along with another dish we had prepared to share, we had a feast.

It was a lovely evening and we got to make some new friends.

Tied up to the Riverwalk Wall

Manistee to Pentwater

We left later in the morning, waiting for the wind to calm down and had smooth water, less than a foot.

Most inlets were marked with lighthouses

We headed 38 miles south and pulled in at the small town of Pentwater. There we  discovered this cute local town with friendly people. We met an elderly marine store proprietor that had a very well stocked store, lots of antiques, and some pretty random inventory. She had the flares we needed and even had the special light bulbs.

 She scolded Brian for not having a record of exact bulb inventory on board.

 Our walk uptown ended when it started to rain, so we went back to the municipal pavilion, barbequed our dinner and enjoyed visiting with some other tourists.

Pentwater to Grand Haven

Finally wearing T- shirts again.
 Left early for a 57 mile run to Grand Haven.
We were grateful for an unusually smooth day.

It's a great waterfront beach town and we were happy to get out and walk.

There were 5 Looper boats plus ourselves in port.



That night there was great free entertainment with live music, a lighted fountain musical show which we watched from our sun deck.

Grand Haven to Benton Harbour

Last day of August already?

 It was foggy at 8:15 as we headed for St Joseph's Inlet, a 69 mile run.

It feels like we are out on the ocean.






We are only 20 miles from shore but we can't see the coastline on any side. No other boats or fishermen today.






 At 28 degrees it's a lazy hazy day.

This Lighthouse was under renovation.

  On our way into the harbour we admired some of the new condos with float in garages.

We arrived at our resort marina at 4:45 and enjoyed a hot tub and a beautiful sunset.

Benton Harbour to New Buffalo

It's the first day of September and it's 29 degrees.
Brian was working this morning but at noon we decided to head out.
The run was 29 miles to New Buffalo.

The lake was flat calm and the air hot and heavy.

Brian said "It sure looks like a good day for a thunder storm to pop up."
 About 2:30, we were calling ahead to the Harbour Master who said "We have room for you, but we are getting some weather here and it's headed your way!"

 We only had an hour to go, so we watched the radar, the dark towering cumulus around us and the little patch of sunshine directly overhead.

We are the little black dot

Just missed us!

We got some heavy rain for a few minutes but watched the worst of it pass us by.











We arrived in New Buffalo to a sunny afternoon, dug out our bicycles from under our bed, unfolded our pull cart and walked 5 blocks to the laundrymat.

It was very hot!!!

The next day we decided to have a 'stay put' day.

We unfolded our bikes, pumped up the tires and rode up to the city library. We had some printing and scanning done for a whopping 20 cent fee. It was a beautiful new facility with both excellent air conditioning and internet connection, so we stayed until we had finished our long blog.

Brian had more work to do, so Janice headed to the beach. It may have been the best swim ever.

We rode our bikes again uptown for supper.  Brian had scoped out a Mexican reastaurant on his morning ride. After supper we had to sneak home the back way as it was getting dark and we have no lights on our bikes yet.

Authentic Mexican food in Michigan? Definatley!

New Buffalo to Chicago

We got fueled up before we left for the 45 miles across the bottom end of Lake Michigan to Chicago.

This is the last bite out of this elephant!

Another hot, humid and flat calm day. We had a fabulous view of the city skyline as we approached.

We pulled into Burnham Park Marina in time to hear the Bears pre- game show and enjoy the fireworks and sunset.

Finally completed Lake Michigan!  Welcome to Chicago!

After successfully motoring down Lake Michigan, we have learned a few things, and met many people.

We have now met enough fellow "Loopers" that we could be considered part of what they have reffered to as a "pod'!  I like that analagy. Many single units or beings, headed in the same direction, on the same waters, but at different times. Some synchronised, others a little more random.

We will most likely cross paths with many of them again at some stage of the journey.

We can't wait to see our kids and grand dogs tomorrow!!