Trip to Chicago!



Art?




Landmark



Very cool fountain!

Magnificant Marilyn!

Old time Blues venue





Da'Bears!

Traveling with the Chapmans can be rather entertaining. That may be the word that Bruce and Karen of Ookpik use. I'm not sure at this point! Let me fill you in on our little adventure.

First of all, we are still in St. Joseph at the West Basin Marina. We've been here a few days waiting out the weather, as usual. There are several Loopers here doing the same thing. On Friday, we decided that rather than spend the day sulking around, we would take the Amtrak to Chicago for the day. The train leaves St. Joseph at 9:20 in the morning and arrives back in the evening around 8:20. Ookpik decided they would go with us. One of the guys at the marina dropped us off at a coffee shop just down the street from the depot. We had no problem enjoying the muffins and drinks until time to go catch the train. We were able to buy our tickets at a kiosk and were ready to head out on the great adventure of Chicago sightseeing. The train was right on time - we loaded up and were quickly on our way. It was a really nice train. None of us had ever ridden on Amtrak before. None of had been to Chicago before except Mike when he was in the service (1960's). Things might have changed since then, ya' think!

Anyway, the Porter was a really nice guy and explained everything to us. There was even a cafe' car on the train. It was a two hour ride and we had a ball talking about our past adventures on the Loop among several other things. Bruce and Karen are from Canada and have been sailing over 30 years. They have recently purchased a Marine Trader trawler to do the Loop. They've been on this boat only a couple of months, so they are still learning about the boat. They also needed to get what is called a "Cruising Pass" form Customs. Now mind you, they have been jumping through hoops for months now dealing with US Customs. Every port they are told something different. The last thing they were told was they could get the "Pass" in Chicago.

The ride to Chicago was pleasant and seemed to go rather quickly. We got off at Union Station and made our plans. Bruce and Karen needed to ride the ELL to Midway Airport where they could meet up with US Customs. We would go on and sightsee and meet up with them when they were done. We decided that we would ride the double decker tour bus and check out all the downtown area. But first, we were starving so we went to a true blue Chicago Pizza place and had my first Chicago Pizza. When they say deep dish, they mean it! It was really good. Can't believe that we were sitting in Chicago have pizza and beer! Life is good! Then we caught the tour bus and began playing tourists. The bus had 14 stops and you could get on and off as often as you liked. We rode around admiring the architecture and loved hearing the stories of Chicago long ago. Finally we got to the Art Museum and decided we'd stop for a while. We walked around some and had a beer at Bennigans. We got a call from Ookpik and they met us there. We sat and visited and finally got back on the bus to finish the tour. Ookpik decided to ride too. The bus tour took us all over from the Navy Pier, Soldier Field to the Financial District. It was all great to see. Even the huge statue of Marilyn Monroe! That was a little creepy! Anyway, things were going great until we realized that the bus wasn't making such good time anymore –due to Friday rush hour! Yeah, on a tour bus during rush hour in Chicago on a Friday night. Not really a good thing! Especially when you need to catch your train back home at Union Station! Needless to say – when we got to the stop we hurried as fast as we could move – you've got to remember – we're not as young as we once were! We had 10 minutes to make it 2 blocks and find the train at the station. Oh, and did I mention, it was starting to rain!

We got to the station and unknowingly bypassed the check- in area and went running down the area where you catch the train. A guy sitting at one of the gates told us where the train was and to hurry. We went running down the corridor along side of the trains – all four of us - looking for our train – thinking we could just hop on! THEN! We heard - "HEY, STOP WHERE YOU ARE! WHERE ARE YOU GOING??". We turned around to see two of Chicago's finest running after us! That is rather frightening! They had guns and a dog! They asked us what we thought we were doing! We tried to explain but they just kept looking at us in disbelief! I think they were a little upset that they were winded and we weren't! LOL! Anyway, they turned out to be rather nice and "escorted" us back to where we needed to be. Also, they informed us that our train had left on time and we were up S**T creek! We later found out that the gates close 5 minutes before the train departs. BUT we were SOOOO close! Anyway we tried to figure out what to do.

Here we were with a Canadian couple – in downtown Chicago – without transportation – and our boat was about 2 hours away by train! That also was the last train for the evening and the next one didn't leave for St Joseph until tomorrow evening! The ticket clerk told us that there was a train leaving in about 10 minutes for Kalamazoo. We thought well, at least it was closer to St Joseph – only about an hour away. We exchanged our tickets to St Joseph for ones to Kalamazoo (had to pay extra). And down the corridor we ran because that train was about to leave also! However, we made it! Now we needed to figure out just what we were going to do when we got to Kalamazoo which would be in about 2 1/2 hours. Our arrival time would be about 9:30 p.m. Mike made several calls to car rentals but couldn't find any that would let us rent one – one way! Finally we found one at the Kalamazoo airport! When we finally made it to the train station in Kalamazoo, we found a cab that would take us to the airport. When we began telling him our situation – he said that he could take us on to St Joseph. After some major negotiations, we decided that was a great idea! It took over an hour to get there even though we believe he must have been going 80 mph most of the time….! When we got to town, he didn't have a clue to where the marina was. Thanks to my trusty Verizon Smart Phone with Navigation – we were able to guide the cab driver to our destination! Oh I forgot to tell you – the train stopped along the way at New Buffalo – this would have been just over a 20 minute drive to the marina but who knew! It was about 11:00 p.m. when we finally made it back to NautiNell safe and sound.

What a day! Maybe playing tourists isn't for us. I think we'll stick to following the navigational charts on the waterways!

Till next time!

Admiral "C"

p.s.  Ookpik was able to get their cruising pass, at least!!