September 4-6, 2015 - Hammond, Chicago

We left Benton Harbor at 7am for a 7 hour trip across Lake Michigan.  We docked at the Hammond Marina (in the same compound as Harrah’s Casino) at 2:00 EDT but it was really 1:00 (back in the central time zone).  The trip across was nice – a few rolling swells just to make it a little tricky walking around the boat.   We went up to the casino for a pretty good buffet dinner.  By the time we finished eating, we were all too tired to go gambling so we headed back to the boat.  Maybe tomorrow.  We woke up Saturday to the threat of rain which cancelled our plans to go to a Cubs game.  We just hung around the boat all day and then went to the casino again for dinner.  Sunday we got up and headed into Chicago.  We took a taxi to the train station and then took the train into downtown.  We boarded a boat for an architectural trip through downtown Chicago along the Chicago River.  The tour guide pointed out the various architectural types of the many buildings.  After that we walked along the Magnificent Mile and then into Millennium Park where we spent some time looking at a unique sculpture known as Cloud Gate (or the Bean).  Wayne and Donadee (Always Home) had come into the marina during the day so we stopped by to see them on our way back to the boat.  We had not seen them in some time, so we had a nice visit.

You can barely see the skyline of Chicago

Looking out from the casino - Spirit with the blue hull,

Nearly Perfect to the right, and Aunt Aggie to the right on the other

side of the dock

Sunset over the marina

View of downtown Chicago -

the Chicago Tribune in the middle

NBC building

Navy Pier

View of downtown and the Chicago River

Trump Tower

Wrigley Building

Merchandise Mart

Sears building in the background on the left

Reflections of buildings along the river

Another view of downtown along the river

A fountain that sprays across the river every hour for five minutes

Cloud Gate (or the Bean) shows reflections of the

surrounding buildings

Reflection of me taking a picture of me

Another view of the reflection of surrounding buildings