We finally arrived in Chicago around 2:00 PM (there was a time difference – we were now in Central time). I had a couple of priorities while in town, and immediately went about setting up what I could: figuring out how to get around by public transportation, how to get to Chinatown for a meal, which walking tour to take, etc, etc…After messing around on the computer for a while, I had a walking tour picked out, the location where we could get 3-day passes for public transportation figured out, and the way to get to Chinatown figured out, so all we had to do was to GO!!
The marina (Du Sable Harbor) is literally right downtown, so we stepped off our boat and walked right into downtown Chicago. It was about ten blocks to the area where we would catch the metro and also buy our passes, but it was a pleasure to take the hike in such a vibrant city. The sun was shining (the first time we’d seen it in quite a while), the streets were full of people going places, eating at outdoor cafés, shopping, doing all the things people do in cities. The city has parks a-plenty, and has a wonderful open, busy, uncluttered feel.
Roy and I found the place to buy our passes and get on the metro, and we were off to Chinatown! We’d left early so we’d have plenty of time to stroll and decide which restaurant to patronize, and we were both really looking forward to some good Chinese food!
The metro was wonderful (I love public transportation!) and we arrived in short order and cruised the main street of Chinatown. We weren’t finding that any particular place jumped out at us, so asked an Asian woman walking down the street with a carry-out bag if she could recommend one. No, she said, she was brand new in town, and wasn’t able to make a suggestion. We walked a bit further, and asked a gentleman in a beautiful classic car, and he was able to help us. He suggested the very last restaurant on the block, and that’s where we went.
Boy, the food was excellent! We were the only non-Asians in the place, the service was great, and the food was plentiful and delicious. After dinner we wandered back to the metro with our leftovers, stopping on the way to pick up some cookies at a Chinese bakery!
We arrived at the metro platform, and when the train came, Roy didn’t like the looks of someone in the car in front of us, so we walked ahead to another car. As Roy was getting in they announced that the doors were closing, and, by God, they closed, with no further ado! Fortunately, I’d resisted the impulse to stick my arm in like you do in an elevator that’s closing, because I don’t think that these doors work the same way, and I might have either lost an arm or been dragged along with the train!
There was no way to communicate with Roy as the train pulled away, and I thought about what I should do – would he wait for me at the next stop? Would he get off and come back? What I surely didn’t want was for us to be riding trains in opposite directions to each meet the other. I decided to just wait, hoping that, if he was waiting for me, when I didn’t get off the next train, he’d figure out that I was waiting in Chinatown. Well, about three trains back to Chinatown passed by, and Roy wasn’t on any of them. I dug out my MCI phone card (of course I had no change!) and called him on the (fortunately) working pay phone on the platform, and had to leave a message. After a couple of more trains, I called and got him on the phone. He said he’d wait for me at such and such a stop.
I took the next train to that stop, and got off, and wandered the platform looking for Roy, but couldn’t find him. Which exit to street level to try? I went out one of them, and quickly realized that there would be no finding him on the busy street. Back down I went, wandering the platform, and finally decided to go up to the street and to go to Border’s and call him and tell him I was there. That’s what I did, and when he got the message, that’s where he met me. He had thought he’d been perfectly clear about where he’d be waiting for me, and he waited there for me until he got my message from Border’s. What a fiasco! But we had finally found each other, and took ourselves and our leftovers back to Mer Sea.
The next morning, I took off after breakfast and walked through the beautiful Grant Park downtown to buy Theatre tickets to Wicked for Saturday afternoon, and Architectural Tour tickets for Friday afternoon. I got back to Mer Sea in time to change my shoes and head back downtown with Roy for lunch and the Archi. Tour.
We had lunch in an outdoor restaurant (have I mentioned that the sun was shining, and the weather was beautiful in Chicago?) in the park – a delicious, reasonably priced lunch. We strolled over to the Archi. Store where the tour was to begin.
The tour was great! We saw many facades and heard the stories of many architects, and went inside several buildings with some real treasures inside, like the Cultural Center and Marshall Fields. Our guide was engaging, and we had a great time!
After dinner back at Mer Sea, we walked over to the Navy Pier, a Harborplace-like touristy shopping and entertainment development on the lake. Our goal was the IMAX theatre and the new Superman movie. It was OK. But I was glad to see the Navy Pier, which is a big deal in Chicago, and, of course, what we needed was a little more walking that day!! We practically crawled home and fell into bed!
The next day, Saturday, we had theatre tickets with our friends on Katie Sue, who had now joined us in Chicago, and then dinner reservations at Morton’s with our friends on Tardis. It was going to be a busy day! We decided to have lunch before the matinee, so set out in the late morning in the general direction of the theatre.
We had lunch in the restaurant of one of the hotels that had been on our tour the day before (I can’t remember the name of it right now), and it was really delicious. We then went on to the theatre and found our seats. As it turned out, the seats were in chairs that were free-standing, and we were able to move them so that we had really great seats.
The show was great – a fun story and a really well-done production. I haven’t seen a Broadway show in I can’t remember how long, and thoroughly enjoyed it! It’s so much fun to be in a city where all these things are happening and easily accessible from the boat! The longer we spent in Chicago, the more impressed I was with it. I don’t think I could stand the winters, but I’d love to go back again in spring or fall.
We got back to the boat, changed our clothes, and were ready for the next round: dinner at Morton’s. Roy is in search of the perfect slice of prime rib, and we thought that surely we’d find it there! We met Janet and Jeremy from Tardis, and off we went!
We found Morton’s pretty easily, and went on in. I’d never been in a restaurant before where most of the items on the menu are not only described by the waiter, but offered up for viewing – and I’m talking about asparagus and baked potato, as well as various cuts of beef! It was different. We all ordered beef of some sort, as well as some kind of appetizers. I had the smoked salmon, and it was great. Sorry to say, the only one whose dinner wasn’t great was Roy – his prime rib was cooked perfectly, but it was tough. Almost dry – probably cooked too fast, I’d guess. But the rest of us thoroughly enjoyed our dinners, and we all had plenty to take back to our boats!
Before doing so, however, I wanted to go to the top of the John Hancock tower and get a look at the city at night. I’d read that the better thing is to go to the bar on the floor above the observation floor, since you didn’t have to pay to go up there, only buy a drink, and the view would be spectacular.
We took a bus to the tower, and got in line to ride the elevator to the bar. It took us about ½ hour to get up to the bar, and then another 15 minutes to get seated. The view was good, but actually better in the Ladies’ Room! Oh well, it was fun, and the company was great – Janet and Jeremy are good sports and lots of fun.
Sunday morning we (Tardis and Mer Sea) left together to go through downtown Chicago on the Chicago River. This would be one of the highlights of our trip for me. It was spectacular! I think we lucked out going early on a Sunday morning, as there was just about no boat traffic on the river with us. Here’s a photo of us going under one of the many bridges:
We had a beautiful, calm, uneventful ride through the city, and just as we were entering the area where the Chicago River merges with the Sanitary and Ship Canal, we were told by the Coast Guard that we’d be the last boats to go through, because there’d been an accident between a barge and a pleasure boat, and they’d be closing the river to investigate it. Whew! Dodged that bullet!
We got to our first lock on the Illinois River, and there was a barge just entering the lock ahead of us. We were prepared for this to mean a long wait for us, but it turned out that the barge was only one barge wide, and was willing to have us tie to him to get through the lock. SO, the crew on the barge came out and helped us with our lines, and we locked through with them. It was really very gracious of them, as they certainly didn’t have to do that for us. Here’s a photo of Janet on Tardis (also a white-over-blue American Tug) and me on Mer Sea tied to the barge in the lock:
We arrived finally in Joliet, IL and tied up to the free wall along the park, with free electric, and felt our trip on the Western Rivers had truly begun!