August 31, 2009

Did I say summer? 'Twas a jest. Six of the past seven days have been in the 50's or 60's, and the early part of the week was so rainy we began to look for the animals coming two by two! One indoor task we accomplished was to test our PFD's. (For the non-boater reading this, a PFD is the Personal Floatation Device one wears when leaving the boat to enter the water—usually unexpectadly.) Back in the days when the boat was 'put in service' in the spring, that was on the check list of things to do—right up there with draining the anti-freeze and charging the batteries. Living oboard is a different ball of wax. It's been over a year, and instead of winterizing, we just took the boat to a warm place. So this is one of the annual events that just slipped by. We do know, now, though. that if a life vest is needed, it'll float! The rain was a good thing in that it kept us here while the workers worked, and it worked to work with them. Got that? We did do some walking early in the week and explored the train station and nearby Waukegan Yacht Club where we had a good lunch! By Friday we were ready to get out of Dodge, and we hopped aboard the Metra and took ourselves to Chicago. We spent the afternoon in the Museum of Science and Industry. Fascinating place. It's Harry Potter time there, but we bypassed the display of movie props. Spent some time with a WW II submarine that was captured just before D-Day. The Allies were so afraid that the Germans would discover the capture of the boat—and encoding machines and charts, etc. etc. etc., that the sub (U-505) which was captured 150 miles from Africa, was towed to Bermuda! Over 1700 miles across the ocean. The German crew (all but one survived) was then put into a POW camp in Louisiana—separated from other German prisoners-- to prevent their talking about the U Boat's capture and compromising the intelligance gains of the Allies. Lots of info about it in google. Very interesting. My favorite exhibit was a huge model train display. It included a mock up of Chicago—harbor and transportation hub, then the tracks took off across (or through) the Rockies to Seattle and a Pacific Ocean display. The only problem with it was the plexiglas wall that prevented touching and playing with the signals etc. There were trains running all over the place! We WERE allowed to touch and move and throw and wind and swing stuff in the Children's area. We actually had to beg, and only got in with special permission since we were not accompanied by anyone under 10 years of age. They are tough at that museum. I guess there was some concern about why we might want to be in the Children's area, as they made us promise not to take any photos. They just didn't know they were dealing with two grown-up sized children. We loved the children's area. No pictures though. We behaved and kept our word. It is a great museum—one we highly recommend. There is even an old time ice cream parlor on the third floor! They make a great Root Beer float! We rounded out the day with a delicious dinner downtown to celebrate our 5th wedding anniversary. Caught the train home and it was a fine day. On Saturday, my neice Mary Newnam and her daughter Kyra drove to Waukegan from their home in Rockton, IL. After they had a tour of YA, we rode into Chicago with them. The one hour trip took over 2-1/2 hours! Traffic came out of nowhere on a Saturday afternoon, and we moved at boat speed a good deal of the time! We drove to the Wendella sightseeing boat tour company. It's right downtown—400 Michigan Ave. I had no idea that the Chicago River is right there! There are many, many bridges over that river--more, we were told, than in any other city. The tour guide discussed the architecture of the city and it was very interesting. Did you know that the Sears Tower is now the Willett Tower? Chicagoans don't care that the name is changed--it'll always be the Sears Tower to them. Donald Trump has a big tall building here, as well. (Just thought you'd like to know.) The tour boat went through a Lock into Lake Michigan, and that was a hoot. It seems that way back when, the sewage being dumped into the River as the city grew was making a mess of the Lake, so the city fathers, in addition to creating sewage management, dug a canal to connect the Chicago River to the Des Plains River. Cleverly named the Chicago Sanitary Canal, it was created to be 15 feet deeper than the Chicago River, and therefore, we were told, when the Canal was opened, the Chicago River began to flow toward the lower point—away from the Lake and into the Des Plains. Thus was created the only River in the whole wide world whose direction of flow has been reversed. Sounds like one for Ripley, eh? (Remember, we just returned from Canada, eh?) In any case, the strategy of the Lock, in order to level the Lake and River, is to simply open the gate at the Lake Michigan end of the Lock and allow the water to pour in. In our trip, a family of ducks swooshed in as well. Looked as if the babies were having fun! Within a moment or two, the level of the Chicago River was raised the eighteen inches necessary to make smooth transition. No mechaanical devices required, just build a box and open and close the ends of it on demand. Very clever. It was great to visit with family, even though it was brief. My brother and two of his (gorwn) children and their families are in Illinois, so we're hoping to catch up with more of them soon. Sunday was truly a 'lay-day'. We didn't do much of anything, except stay inside and keep warm. Today I grocery shopped, and Fred readied the boat for tomorrow's run to the Windy City. (By the way, did you know that it is not weather that the nickname refers to, but the seemingly endless talk of local politicians!). See you next week. Be well and keep smiling! Linda and Fred