14 September 2014

We were off the McKinley dock at 7:30 AM CDT. Which is 8:30 EDT, not really early for us. Harbor was calm and I did the first hour. I turned it over to Susan so I could put stuff away that had been dug out in the last few days. My next drive shift, Susan started pulling to gether some of the stop motion videos. When my shift ended, I went back to writing. I got most of the Milwaukee story done and was able to post the Racine story. From here on, I’m doing a post a day, otherwise they take too long to write and get stacked up. I’m going to experiment with a “state tagging system” that will work for the US. I need to figure out how to tag Canada’s vast spaces.

Using the 5 hour cruise time helped, we both got lots done on the way here. The arrival in to Waukegan was pretty uneventful. Lots of sailboats out having fun, but we stayed to shore and were able to skirt most of the issues.

Waukegan is pretty cool, but the marina is far away from town (2 MI walk). Things that are local and close are not open on Sundays in September or are serving limited menus. For example we wanted to go to “The Terrace at Silvi Point” since it was within walking distance. But Sunday is brunch (eggs and stuff) not their normal taco selection or their amazing pizza offerings.

So Susan whipped up Sausages and grilled Brussels Sprouts and Cauliflower with baked garlic cloves. WOW. The sausage was great and the veggies had the garlic flavor all over them. One of the best that she’s done in awhile.

We watched GRAVITY on Netflix. A great movie, good acting and lots of cool space references. It was very nice to have a down day, not doing lots of rush here and rush there.

Chicago will be different. So much to see so much to do. Susan has booked a river tour down the middle of Chicago so we can see all the buildings. Lets hope that we get the four days in the forecast of sunny weather.

Did a quick visit with the crew from Sandpiper. They left Brewerton NY (we were there in May 2014) and are on their way south. We will see them again, since they are on the same river cycle we are.