September 20, Day 99 - In Chicago

Gerry woke up this morning sneezing his head off and Linda didn’t feel too well either. We are blaming Gerry’s cold on the close quarters in the Sears Towers Elevators that we spent so much time in yesterday and Linda’s touchy tummy on eating too much pizza.

Gerry took the mast down so we can clear the bridges for the next leg of the trip. Next, we helped Michel and Carole deal with their computer issues this morning (cell phone calls to Best Buy) and we made our arrangements to go through the carp barrier tomorrow afternoon.

Linda updated the blog and we headed over to the Navy Pier to check it out. We had lunch at a Mexican place that was ok, but nothing to shout about. Then we walked through a pavillion area that had some pretty neat fountains and lots of plants. All of Navy Pier is pretty touristy .. shops, carnival rides and lots of charter boats that will take you out to Lake Michigan or down the Chicago River. None of this really appealed to us, especially the boat rides.

The highlight was at the Beer Garden where one of the Chicago World Music Festival bands was playing – Little Cow, from Budapest, Hungary. Their music was a little different, but it had a crowd of people dancing all over the place – even a couple of older folks that appeared to be in their eighty’s. It definitely had a good beat to it. See them at My Space for a sample:
http://www.myspace.com/littlecowband

On the way back, we stopped at the Fox & Oble grocery store to pick up a few things to eat for the next week. This is a pretty high-end market, so we only got the necessities. We got back to the boat just as it started to rain hard – the first rain we have seen in weeks.

Since neither one of us felt great, we had a quiet evening. We cooked on board (Linda used the pressure cooker), Gerry worked on his routes and watched a little football, then off to bed. Tomorrow we start our river journey. We expect to clear the “Carp Barrier” in the afternoon and make it to Joliet for the evening. They have free docks there.



On our way over to Navy Pier, we passed the Chicago Lock. This is the first lock we will encounter tomorrow.

The entrance to Navy Pier

Some interesting fountains in the pavillion right outside the Children's Museum

Clip of Little Cow and a couple of older lady's dancing. This band brought life to the elderly.