The next morning Mike returned the rental car and came home with donuts. It was a perfect start to our 2nd day on the rivers. We left the Joliet wall (shortly after we inhaled the donuts) along with several other boats that were on the wall that night. A lot of the “deciding when to leave” depended on if you could get a spot in a marina 45 miles or so downriver. Again, due to the backup at the lock further downstream, many loopers were at a standstill. If the boats aren’t moving out, there might not be room for more to move in. We were lucky, though, and had secured a spot at Heritage Harbor Marina for the night so adios Joliet!! (Hayley pronounces it Juliet, by the way.)
Passing barges–our new favorite past time!
Our trip was *fairly* uneventful and scenic along the way. We had 2 locks to get through and we did have to raft up with another boat in one of them. It gave us a chance to meet Deb and Rhett on the sailboat Twin and get to know them a bit. We also traveled with the sailboat from the lock incident the night before another pleasure craft that was local to the area.
Look at these cute little “houseboats” we passed. More house than boat, but they were all floating!!Cows right by the 2nd lock.Our view of the loopers ahead of us and a lifted railroad bridge. The book says if they are down that means a train is coming. You cannot call to have it lifted, it just automatically lifts when there are no trains in the vicinity. Interesting…Captain checking out the view.I loved the Army Corps’ lock building and changing leaves on the tree. Beautiful view from inside the lock.
We were anxious to get to Heritage Harbor where we heard there was a great pool, playground, and other looper amenities. By the time we tied up on the dock, we were hot and sweaty and looking forward to jumping in the pool. The pool, however, was a tad bit freezing and only one brave soul from our boat went it. Of course, it was the pirate who doesn’t actually know how to swim yet. After a short time at the pool, the kids were, unfortunately, equally unimpressed with the playground. That left Hayley and I to inquire about borrowing the courtesy car so we could run some errands. Lots of marinas along the loop have courtesy cars where you can actually use a car, free of charge, for a few hours. This is an amazing thing for people who need to go to laundromats and grocery stores, like us. So, the girls were off taking care of errands while the boys took showers and checked out the cable TV connection.
We loved these cute signs by the pool area.Brrrr…
The next day, we weren’t exactly sure what we were going to do. The boats that left Heritage Harbor the day before got through the lock that was previously closed, but they had to wait for hours and hours to let the commercial traffic through, and then the lock broke down again. Supposedly it would be up and running soon, but we weren’t sure what that meant. The marina told us about a great website where the corps actually lists all the vessels waiting to pass through locks, identifies how large they are and if they are going up or downstream, and tells you how long they have been waiting. It is a very useful website at times like these. Also, the lockmasters were *generally* very nice (to us) and helpful when deciding when to take off in the morning.
Mike ended up finding some chores to get done on the boat and Hayley and I went for a run around the facility at Heritage Harbor. It is a growing community with homes, cottages, a restaurant, and who knows what else in the complex. It was a great place to explore on my first run on the loop. (That’s right–I’ve been lazy!!).
Mike needed to go to the access area under our bed to figure out why the air conditioning in our room wasn’t draining properly. Several hours, lots of water, and quite a bit of trouble shooting later, it is mostly fixed (good enough for now). Seems like they could have made that hatch a bit bigger!?Next up, he checked the strainers that collect junk from the river so that it doesn’t get sent through our engines (or something like that…)
My little runner chick (though this run was full of complaining about her ankle, sock, tummy, leg, etc…you name it!!)
We heard from our sailboat buddy from the day before, Twin, that they were at the town docks, just 3 miles downriver, and had power and dockage for free. They said there was room for us and a cute little town you could walk to, so we decided to untie the lines and head on down for some free dockage.
Thank you for reading about our stay at Heritage Harbor!! We love your comments and questions, so feel free to leave them at the end of the posts!! Thank you!!
We had a fun day at Heritage Harbor! See INNTW on the far right in this picture.
Cruising the Chicago River and 2 nights in Joliet (Part 2)
So after that looooong exciting travel day we were planning on heading out of Joliet the next morning. However, you’ll remember that we heard that there was a lock a few days down river that was closed for repairs. When that happens the tow traffic gets quite backed up, and since they have the priority when locking, we knew that we wouldn’t be able to get through that lock anytime soon. We had a perfectly sunny Sunday in front of us, and we were all set up at a free dock with power, so we decided to start thinking about what kind of adventures we could get into.
We had a few ideas in mind right away. The Tigers were playing their last match-up of the season in Milwaukee, which was about a 2 1/2 hour drive. Six Flags was about an hour and a half drive. Between those 2 ideas, Mike stopped looking for things to do and started looking for rental cars. Before we knew what was happening, we had an uber ride on the way to take us to our rental car. Thinking we were probably heading to Six Flags I quickly threw together sweatshirts, snacks, toys for the car, water bottles, phone chargers, and at the last minute, I grabbed swim suits in case there were any water rides open. We grabbed the booster seats from their hiding place waaaay in the front of the boat in a tricky closet and locked the boat up tight just before we jumped in our uber. It was a blur, but we didn’t want to waste good amusement park time thinking through all the details.
Boat kids having fun on a car ride. I’m not sure if Tobin was asleep yet or just being a booger, but he eventually fell asleep about 20 minutes before we got there.
After waiting a long time at the rental car place and getting a hot and ready pizza, we headed towards Six Flags. We quickly realized we needed change for all of the toll roads, so I scrambled to look through my purse for any loose change I could find. Luckily, I found just enough, and Hayley brought her purse which is always loaded with quarters (just in case she sees any quarter machines!), so that was a help, too. We were halfway into our drive when the sky started clouding up and we realized it wasn’t looking like such a nice day anymore. I looked at the weather and sure enough, it was supposed to rain for the rest of the afternoon. Hmmmm….not such a great day for Six Flags after all. We remembered that the waterpark we went to last year with Kelly’s brother was around here somewhere, so we threw that in the running as well.
As we got closer to Six Flags we decided to head to the waterpark instead. Hanging outside for the rest of a rainy-ish 65* day when we weren’t really sure if the littles would like roller coasters vs. inside waterpark when we all brought swim suits and could relax at a nice cushy hotel room. Decision made. And the kids were thrilled!!
Great Wolf Lodge has all kind of fun activities for kids. On this day, they got to decorate wolf ears to help them get into the Halloween spirit.Colin even made an arc of electricity between his ears.
Racing down the water slides.
Wave pools, lazy rivers, and water slides for hours. The kids loved that place just like they did when we were here before. However, Mike and I started to wonder/worry about our boat, tied up on the wall in Joliet. We started to think that driving 2 hours away in haste was maybe not the best idea. Maybe we should have tightened the lines. Or added another line. Or told a neighbor we were leaving. Mike worried someone could get on the boat and find all of our gold and jewels to steal. I worried someone would untie the boat and it would float downstream in the current until it crashed into a bridge. They both sound crazy, but that is the stuff that runs through your head when you leave in a rush and end up hours away, just floating down the lazy river on a TUBE and not your BOAT. Eventually, I tracked down one of the boats we saw slam into the lock wall the night before and we got in touch with them. It turns out they left their boat, as well, to run some errands, but would be returning to the wall soon and would check on the boat for us. Sure enough, an hour or so later, the call came in that all was well and they would keep an eye on everything for us until we returned back.
We had sooo much fun, it was hard to leave!!
We were relieved to hear all was well, and that helped us enjoy our last few hours at the waterpark. However, it didn’t ease our nerves enough to convince us to stay the night. We actually relaxed on those cushy beds, watched “The Lion King” on that big TV, and took hot showers (with lots of water) in that hotel room, but we did not stay the night. We were too nervous to leave the boat overnight, and we figured we would need to get an early start the next day, anyway. Let me tell you, it was hard to leave that hotel room with 2 beds unslept in. We checked out around 10 pm and walking away from those soft beds and unlimited water was very hard to do. But in the end, it was good to get back to the boat, too. We were anxious to get underway and get further down the rivers.
Almost home!! Sometimes it’s exhausting having so much fun!!
Thank you for reading and following along on our INNTW adventures!!
Cruising through Chicago and 2 nights in Joliet (Part 1)
We woke up on Saturday with nervous anticipation knowing this trip straight through downtown Chicago is one of the highlights of many looper trips. Not only would it start off right away with Lock #1 EVER for this INNTW crew, but we would also be passing under some pretty low bridges, dodging lots of tour boat traffic, and starting a part of our trip we have very little experience with. Plus, we were going to attempt a do-it-yourself pump out. Woah baby, what a day!!
At DuSable Harbor there is a pump out machine that boaters can use on their own to pump out their waste tanks. This is usually something that a gas station attendant does for you while you watch and feel thankful you don’t have to do that dirty work. However, today was Mike and Hayley’s day to learn something new. We have 2 heads (boat word for bathrooms) that each have about 20-25 gallon holding tanks. The only thing that goes in these tanks is whatever goes in the toilets. In our experience, if we are pretty much exclusively using the toilets on our boat, we can go about a week before the tank levels get dangerously close to the “full” level and we need to pump out. They weren’t near that full today, but we wanted to be as fresh and clean and ready for new adventures as possible, so why not pump out?! For free!! (Usually it costs us $10-$20 to pump out both tanks. Free is good!) From my perspective, the task looked pretty easy (my perspective was far away from the actual pumping out, for the record). Mike opened the tank, attached the vaccuum pump, Hayley pushed the green button, and then after a while Hayley pushed the red button. There was some fresh water rinsing and then more pumping. In the end, our tanks were clean and empty and we were ready for the next challenge of the day. No biggie.
Hayley was a huge help and she added great style points!!
We took lots of pictures leaving DuSable and got our life jackets on right away. Everyone helping a boat lock through is supposed to wear life jackets. This is not exciting for the kids because they wear life jackets all the time. Mike and I haven’t worn our life jackets since we bought them back in May. We also got out some work gloves and a few pocket knives. These are apparently other necessary items to have on hand when you lock through. Colin was excited to help with this new task and he knew about as much as we did about what was going to happen. He was ready!
We’re coming for you, Chicago!
We called the lockmaster and were instructed to pull in and hold lines on the starboard side, so that’s just what we did. Colin grabbed a line to hold onto from the cockpit. I grabbed a line to hold onto from the bow. Mike checked on us and made sure everything was going according to “plan.” The other kids sat “quiet and still” as instructed in any new or potentially tense situation. Then, it happened. We slowly dropped down about 1 foot over the course of 3 whole minutes before the lockmaster opened the gates and blew his horn signaling we were good to go. That was it. Easy peasy lemon squeezy.
My view from the lock.Colin was so excited to help in the lock!
And there before us was the fabulous skyline of Chicago!
All the kids were up top ready to watch us head through the big city. I had my Skipper Bob’s Guide and pencil ready and waiting to check off each bridge we passed by. The captain was ready to travel the busy waterway with a smile. We celebrated with more picture taking, starting a movie we hope to time-lapse down to a quick recap, and ducking down at each low bridge we passed under. (I’m sure that sounds silly, but it was really necessary a few times–those bridges are awfully low!!) The ride through the city was absolutely amazing. It was pretty cool being that close to so many boats and people right through downtown.
We locked through with this boat, Tanquilo, and after the day’s crazy experiences, they are now following our adventure!Look at how close we are to that bridge?! Every boat that travels this portion of the loop has to be able to fit under a fixed bridge height of 17’6″. We were 15’11”. Or something like that…Ever wonder what the bottom side of a bridge looks like?!
The kids loved passing by their fav playground–shown here on the left.
I took this one moments before crouching down so we wouldn’t hit the bridge. 😉
The city raises the bridges on a schedule few days in the fall and spring to allow sailboats to leave and enter winter storage areas down the river. Unbeknownst to us we ended up in one of those groups, so coming up to a big group of sailboats was a bit puzzling. It required some jockying of boats, but we were able to pass them by and head under the bridge before it opened. On down the river.
Not very comforting to come cruising down and see ALL THESE BOATS in the way! But the water taxi passed right by them all, so we did too.
These kids went crazy with pictures!! Notice Mike’s phone set up to do a time lapse video right in the middle of all the chaos there. We knew we might have to buy yet another new phone if it got bumped by all the tourists on our boat. Luckily, it did not.Hayley sets the Loop fashion bar pretty high!
After the city skyscrapers started to fade, we went through a more industrial area which was equally entertaining.
Looking back toward the city.We had to wait a bit for this railroad bridge to open. There was also a tow and barge creeping up behind us waiting for it to open, which was brand new for us and slightly unnerving.Passing right by empty barges docked on the side of the river.
Just when the big city buildings were ending and the train tracks were losing their appeal, we encountered some new excitement. There were some markers floating in the river along with lots of rowers. Apparently we had come across a rowing regatta. We had no idea how to proceed with so many boats in the water ahead of us and no one from the regatta came out to give us any direction. So, Mike attempted to hold the boat in place for a while against the current, just waiting for an opening to appear. Finally, after 5 minutes or so, someone came up to us in a little boat with a megaphone telling us that the river was closed and we needed to wait 3 hours to pass through. Mike and I were in complete disbelief that they could just close the river with no warning, but they assured us it was an official coast guard closure and was being broadcast on the Coast Guard’s daily updates. Of course, while we were having so much fun around Chicago, we didn’t happen to be tuning in to the Coast Guard updates, so apparently we had missed that info. Another boat traveling with us was equally surprised by the closure and turned back up river to head for some lunch. We weren’t quite up for that much excitement, so we headed back up river just a bit and tied up to an empty barge to wait for the closure to expire. It was a complete surprise to us and didn’t give us a good feeling about what other surprises the rivers would have in store. But, we had little choice, and we made the most of our couple hours by having lunch and playing ninjas.
Of course they were doing construction on this bridge and it was so loud there, we couldn’t hear ourselves think. And that is very difficult when you are trying to think through a problem…We got quite close to the rowers, but eventually turned around and headed back upstream.We weren’t hoping to get this close to a barge for a while, but we were given permission to tie up to this empty one while we waited for the closure to expire. It was both creepy and interesting being that close to a barge.This is me feeling disappointed about our slow down but trying to roll with the punches the best I could. I felt better when Tanquilo (the boat that was traveling right by us) contacted me and said this was not normal and completely unexpected for them, as well. What can you do?!Mike decided to check out the barge a little more.The kids decided to become ninjas.
2 hours later, the lady in the little boat with the megaphone came back to tell us we could proceed, and we were anxious to get underway. Just another 30 miles or so on the schedule for the day before we would arrive at our destination. We had plenty of barges to dodge along the river, but Mike did a great job calling them ahead of time and figuring out which side they wanted him to pass on. While their size and weight was intimidating, the barges were very friendly and we had no problems moving in and out of the busy staging areas where barges are tied up along the banks of the river waiting to move to their next destination.
Full barges tied up along the wall of the river.Passing this tow on the 2.Look at all that congestion!! Most of the barges on the right are tied up and not moving. The tow on the left is pushing barges toward us. Lots of communication needed to get through this area.
One major difference we noticed right away between the river and the lake is that the river is SO BUSY and there is always a tow to call or a bridge to pass under. It isn’t quite “set your autopilot and just hang out” like so much of our lake travel was. This type of travel required much more attention from the captain. We were very thankful we installed AIS (Automatic Identification System) on the boat before leaving home. It allows us to read the names of commercial vessels around us, see which direction they are traveling, at what speed, and even identifies how close our 2 boats will get. All the other boats with AIS can also see all of that information about us, so the big tows and freighters know we are out there and can watch out for us. It was great peace of mind in these busy areas.
Industry is alive and well along the waterways. It was so interesting to see some of this action up close. This behind-the-scenes look at water industry isn’t something we know much about.
There is an electronic fish barrier along the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal, meant to keep Asian Carp from entering the Great Lakes. We have read about this area of electrification and knew that there wasn’t much we had to do as we drove through it. We all put life jackets on. We brought the kids up to the flybridge so they were as far away from the water as possible. We turned our chartplotter and other navigation electronics off as an extra safety precaution. You don’t necessarily have to do this, but we had read some reports that people had malfunctioning equipment after driving through this area, so we figured better safe than sorry.
And that was about it. We hoped we’d see some jumping fish or maybe even have fish jump into our boat, as we’ve heard can happen. But nothing. No luck. Probably for the better because I hear they are bloody and slimy and gross and I really don’t like cleaning that much.
I tried to hang out on the flybridge as much as possible and be a second set of eyes for Mike, but he did a great job navigating and negotiating around the tows. I also followed other boaters’ travels on the Nebo app which is used by a lot of loopers as a tracking/messaging tool. (If you are a boater, check it out!!) It was nice to see some other boats were traveling the rivers, as well, and were most likely headed to the Joliet wall that night. Sure enough, when we pulled up to our 2nd lock (of the day AND ever) we were directed by the lockmaster to tie up along the wall and wait with 2 other boats that were already there. The half hour wait or so gave us a chance to chat with some new looper friends, and we also receive word that a lock down the river (probably 2 travel days away) was closed until further notice for repairs. We didn’t really know what that meant yet, but we took note to check into it more later.
When it was our turn to head into the lock, we realized it was freezing and also getting close to dusk. We locked through with the 2 other boats we had been waiting with and also a tow that was pushing barges downriver. In this part of the river system, the tows sometimes push so many barges that the whole vessel cannot fit into the lock at one time. So this particular tow had pushed 6 barges into the lock while the tow stayed behind. The barges locked down, and then I can only presume that the crew pulled the barges out of the lock and tied them up just downriver. The lock then has to fill back up with water (possibly with other boats traveling up river or possibly empty), and then the tow moves into the lock to go down at which point it reattaches to the barges and moves along down the river. The whole process can be quite a lengthy ordeal. We were lucky enough that this tow captain didn’t mind pleasure craft locking down with him.
The locking method here was a little different, and we wrapped our lines around a floating bollard that moves up and down with the water level. We only tied on in the middle, but Colin was happy to hold the line. He has since gotten to be quite fussy about locking and only wants to help if he can do it all by himself. That doesn’t seem very responsible to us, since there are 2 willing and healthy adults onboard to help, so lately he is boycotting this kind of manual labor.This was our view from the back of the lock. 3 pleasure craft on the port side and 1 tow on the starboard.I had to take a picture of Mike because I thought he looked hilarious. In his defense, it was freezing. Hayley is winning in the style category, for sure!Look at all that water pouring in through the lock wall. What a feat of engineering that that wall doesn’t just bust open and sweep us all downriver.
After we were done locking down, the tow captain was nice enough to let the 3 pleasure craft boats out of the chamber before him. On the rivers, commercial vessels have priority over pleasure craft which quite often means that looper boats wait and wait and wait at locks while tows and barges get to go first. It doesn’t seem fair to this elementary school teacher, but that is the way the system is set up based on the revenue that the tows and barges bring in. But I digress. So, ahead of us, the 2 other Loop boats both had big time trouble trying to get out of the lock and it was slightly terrifying to watch, this being our 2nd lock and all. The first boat was a sailboat that got turned all around and ended up slamming into the lock wall, knocking his dinghy off the davits on one side so that the dinghy was getting dragged behind by just one end. We couldn’t figure out how that had happened and we felt stunned and sorry for their damage, but we thought maybe they just didn’t know what they were doing (I mean…who did?!). Then, as the trawler ahead of us went to pull out, he suddenly spun sideways with black smoke billowing out the back, and also hit the lock wall. At that point I was still standing on the bow and so perplexed by what I was seeing. I yelled up to Mike that the tow in the front of the lock must be pushing water out of the back and sending some kind of weird current towards that lock wall. We were already in motion and the trawler was still pinned against the lock wall, struggling, so we didn’t really have much time to troubleshoot. I sat down quickly and held on, not sure what to expect. Mike made the decision to throttle up and put some power behind us to get out of there safely and not get pushed around by the tow’s wake. We felt bad, thinking that we could have waked (rocked) the trawler that was struggling against the wall, but we didn’t want to end up getting pushed over in the same direction and slamming into him, either. In the end, Mike made a good choice to just get out of there. We only had 3 miles or so to get to our destination for the night and we talked about what in the world happened getting out of the lock the whole entire way to the Joliet wall. And we ducked down 3 good times to make it under 3 bridges in a row at 17’1″.
We tied up easily in Joliet and were thankful to have that long day over with. It was much anticipated, it was exciting, it was nerve wrecking, it was longer than we’d hoped, it was a little unsettling at times, it was exhausting. In the end, we were glad to have a day of river experiences behind us. We felt confidant in our abilities in most respects, but our experience with the river closure and the lock gave us a bad feeling about traveling in the rivers. We weren’t planning on particularly liking traveling on the rivers and day #1 left us wondering what would come in the days ahead.
That being said, this is such a looooong post, I’m going to split it into 2 parts. More to come about our time in Joliet soon. Thanks for reading about this exciting day and supporting our adventure.
Enjoy this awesome video of our trip down the river!
**My apologies for the delay in posting. We are having so much fun and doing so much work that blogging has been taking a back seat to the here and now. Plus, once you see how busy we were in Chicago, you’ll see why this post took forever to finish. It’s a doozy! Thank you for your patience! :)**
Stats for Tuesday, September 25, 2018
Origin: New Buffalo, Michigan
Destination: DuSable Harbor, Chicago, Illinois
Distance: 55.6 miles
Speed: 9 mph
Time on the Move: 6 hours and 12 minutes
After a great couple of days, choosing to leave New Buffalo was like picking the lesser of 2 evils. Tuesday was supposed to be calm and flat until mid afternoon, when it was supposed to get crazy wavy. Wednesday and Thursday were for sure no-gos, and Friday and beyond were just too far away to know. We went to bed Monday night not quite sure what we were doing, but Tuesday we woke up and decided to go. It was drizzling and overcast. There was also fog along the horizon so the day actually looked pretty ominous, but the water was flat and there was little wind.
The kids did some reading along the way.And apparently they had morning PEZ….what?! Not sure how I missed this…Hayley got her first lesson in cat’s cradle. My 80’s girlhood heart was overflowing!
We headed straight for Hammond, Indiana to fill up on fuel. Hammond is known for having the cheapest fuel around Chicago, and it’s right next door. After a quick fill up and pump out, the skies were clearing and we started our 10 mile trip toward Chicago.
Seeing that skyline along the lake was quite a sight after weeks and weeks of sand dunes. Pulling in to DuSable Harbor and passing all the mooring balls with sailboats floating peacefully was absolutely beautiful. We also saw lots of airplanes overhead and the kids wondered if Uncle Brad or Aunt Nancy were up there in any of those planes. Apparently the excitement of heading into the city was enough to bring the kids up on deck for a while, and Mike and I appreciated having them up there.
After we got all tied up we met another Looper who was parked right behind us. Then we set off to explore the city. We walked the river front and stopped at the playground (of course)! We headed toward Maggie Daley park and saw the bean, stopped in a Nutella store, and played at a HUGE playground! The kids loved it! And Mike and I were happy to let them run around and burn off some energy, though keeping an eye on them was a bit of a challenge with such a large area and so many kids.
The view from our slip. Amazing!The kids loved the bean!!Toby was firing up his jets to run out of the picture about half a second after I took it–can you tell!? He has started finding creative ways to let his exciting personality show through in pictures.
This was part of a huge multi-level play structure in just one section of the playground. So much fun. So many places to lose your kids.T insisted on sitting in this boat for quite some time. Maybe he is a sailor at heart?!
We talked about going out to dinner but there were some storms forecasted and we realized that heavy winds (up to 70 mph) were predicted to come along with the storm. While we tied the boat up pretty good, we sure didn’t plan on huge winds like that, so we figured it would be smart to head back before the storm. We made it back just in time to see dark clouds come over the skyline of the city. The actual winds weren’t nearly as strong as forecasted, and the storm didn’t turn out to be much, but it was beautiful and cozy to watch from the boat.
Storm rolling in.Amazing night view from the boat slip.
The next day was bright and sunny and we biked over to Shedd Aquarium. Right away the kids loved the Coral Reef creatures swimming around and laughed at the turtle that swims with his “rump up” (the turtle was injured and for some reason he swims quite wonky as a result!). We took a couple hours watching a live animal show with jumping dolphins, being creeped out by spiders, snakes, and other creatures that live near the Amazon, checking out the Great Lakes exhibits, watching Beluga whales swim in circles, and on and on. There was so much to see, and we all really enjoyed it, though after a couple of hours fish are fish and we were ready to move on… Mike caught us a ride to a pizza joint, and we totally indulged on some delicious Chicago Style pizza and salad. The kids were amazed by how big the pizza was and that the sauce was on top!
The kids thought this turtle was so hilarious. What is it with kids and potty humor?!
Hoping we don’t see one of these up close and personal in the Bahamas. Can you believe creatures like this actually exist?! I’m still wrapping my mind around it…
More downtown exploring…
Hard to believe we’ll be going down this river IN OUR BOAT in a few days!!
Later that evening we explored Navy Pier. Lots of amazing picture taking opportunities (and apparently $40 must be spent sending kids through some blacklight maze which is made to terrorize 4 year olds).
The next morning we went back to the giant playground for more fun and exploring. I NEVER thought the place would be crawling with field trips or we wouldn’t have gone. Who takes their class field trips to a playground?! Maybe that’s what it’s like in the big city. Here, I thought it would be easy to keep an eye on my kids mid-morning on a weekday, but I was wrong…
What a fun playground for kids!!Toby jumped down off this climbing structure about 100 times asking me to take pictures and video of every.single.jump….
We went to Medieval Times while we were in Chicago because it was getting close to Colin’s birthday and we thought it would be a fun and different thing to do with the kids. Mike had never been, but I went my senior year in high school and remember it being a great show of sword fights, horse riding, and battles. Sure enough, it was just that!
Their personalities really shine through in this one… Lord help us!
Before the show, we explored the castle, watched some people get knighted, and went to the museum of torture. There were really some creepy torture devices back in the day–who in the world would think of that stuff?! Hayley and Toby were interested, but Colin was totally freaked out, so he got out of there ASAP and doesn’t want anyone to mention it to him ever again. On our way to the castle (like 2 hours in Chicago traffic…) the kids asked all kinds of questions about the Middle Ages and got the Wikipedia version of this era of history. Once we were at the castle, they seemed intrigued with the whole “this is what it used to be like long long ago” concept.
Everyone got to hold a sword. Of course Mike and I had to explain at least 3 times why we could not bring a sword back to the boat.If you wonder where he learns it from….I think I might have an idea.
After the show started, the kids were totally engaged and loved every second of it. Horses, long-haired knights, crazy weapons, hand-to-hand combat, a queen, and a big competition, all while being served giant chicken legs to eat with your hands–what’s not to love??
In the end, our knight, the red and yellow knight, won the whole contest and he got to choose one lucky lady to be his “Queen of Love and Beauty” and sure enough, he chose Hayley. She was quite surprised to have him walk right up with the big spotlight shining on her, but she jumped up and played along perfectly. She is beaming in the pictures. Ironically, she was more like the “Queen of crabby and yelling” for most of the car ride there, so we hoped her new title would help on the way home, but it did not. Long days on the go, being bombarded with all kinds of new experiences, can be overwhelming and exhausting (for all of us!). But sure enough, after a good night sleep, she had that crown on again with a much better attitude.
We got to meet up with Mike’s long time friend, Jim McAnally and his wife, Jen, while we were in Chicago. They came to check out our boat one day and also lent us their car to take to Medieval Times (thank you so much, guys!!). Then another evening, Jimmy came to hang out and swap stories for a while. It was great to see them and so nice of Jimmy to make the effort to come back and hang out for a second time.
There was so much to do in Chicago, we didn’t feel like we were able to “relax” much, but I guess that’s what it’s like when you’re always exploring a new place. Moving on regularly, we find we are always planning the next step, which can be overwhelming because it is a never-ending task until we work our way back home. Part of the reason we stayed the extra day is because we had so much fun the first couple of days in Chicago, we still needed to focus on a few small changes to prepare the boat for the rivers. Mike took the grill off the port side of the boat so that it wouldn’t get bumped going through any locks. Moving it also made it easier to walk around the port side of the boat, and we know we need to easily access both sides of the boat in locks. Mike also re-measured our air draft and took our anchor light down so we were a little shorter overall. There are several low bridges you need to pass under to get through Chicago, so we needed to be sure we knew how tall our boat was. By lowering the anchor light, we were able to take our air draft down to 15’11”, giving us plenty of (aka “barely any”) wiggle room to go under those 17′ bridges. Mike and I also did some research on passing through locks (thank you Wikipedia, Army Corps of Engineers, and YouTube!). We were anticipating this new part of the journey because we hear so much about going through locks. Lots of people say it’s easy, but then they go ahead and give you about 20 things to remember to make sure you’re set to lock through safely. It was an unknown to us as boaters, so just a part of river travel we wanted to gain more knowledge about to help prepare ourselves Another thing we did to prepare for the rivers was read through the next sections of our Waterway Guide and Skipper Bob’s Guide. We needed to refresh ourselves on traveling in areas with currents, passing and overtaking tow boats pushing barges, anchoring in rivers, and on and on. While we were just fine leaving the crazy weather of Lake Michigan behind, we knew the next portion of our journey had lots of new learning experiences in store, and we needed to be as prepared as possible.
Working on fixing a stove that won’t always heat up.Tobin did some writing practice copying his name and the pre-writing shapes.
After we took care of these chores, we decided to make the most of our last afternoon in town. We had heard from friends that the kids would love going to the Museum of Science and Industry, and Mike and I had never been there, so we put that on our list for another day. Sure enough, the kids all wanted to go explore different areas, so we made sure to visit all of them. Weather, the body, eye spy, the circus, robotics and the future, melting glaciers, the whisper room, the mirror maze….that place was full of fun! It was interesting to hear the kids get excited about an exhibit, walk through it and process it (each at different levels), and then turn their excitement on to another area. We stayed right up until closing time and probably could have spent another few hours exploring.
Toby got all spiffed up for the occasion with some blue hair gel. He even celebrated by taking his first selfie!Hayley playing with light!Tobin and Colin making a tornado.Hayley was chosen to stand in a giant swirl of water vapor during one presentation.I love their curiosity!Toby loved turning the crank to send the balls up the conveyor.Mike had just as much fun as the kids figuring out how to operate heavy machinery.Finally Hayley had her turn!And Colin!Mirror Maze!!We had to go back through again to find the “hidden room” that we’d missed in the beginning.
After 4 days in Chicago, including lots of fun, lots of money, and lots of preparing for the rivers (mentally and physically), we were ready to head out of the Great Lakes and enter the river systems on Saturday, September 29.
Thanks so much for reading and following along. We are having a great time on our journey and we appreciate your interest and support!!
Leaving South Haven behindWe were treated to a great view of the “pirate ship” on our way out of the channel.
Today was another case of “leave now because of good weather.” It was also another “where in the world are we headed?” Along Lake Michigan we learned to travel when weather would allow, and that also changed how we chose our destinations. Knowing we had a string of good travel days coming up meant we could travel short hops almost daily. Knowing there was nasty weather expected on the lake in a few days meant we needed to get where we wanted to be to hide until it passed. As a result, we made longer jumps on the west side of Michigan, but we stayed in each spot longer. We skipped quite a few places we would like to see, but it just didn’t work out.
The kids played a new game Bob and Judy gave them for about an hour after we left. Dos is kind of like uno, but you have to play 2 cards that add (or subtract) to equal the number on the top of the pile. Teacher approved!! Thanks for the great gift, Bob & Judy!Now a round of Uno.
Today the winner of the “where are we going” game was New Buffalo. It set us up for a shorter hop to Chicago later in the week, and also the Steins so graciously offered us a slip we could use for free. So, New Buffalo it was. We had beautiful weather to start our trip, but about halfway through we noticed white caps building. They were mostly behind us, so we couldn’t feel the waves, but they definitely got bigger as we went along. We almost quit at St. Joe, but decided to press on. The current conditions were tolerable, but if they kept getting worse or the waves changed conditions, we would not have been happy. Then, getting in to the channel in New Buffalo was a tad dicey. Plus we had to tie up on our port side, and we weren’t really prepared with fenders on that side. We also have a grill that overhangs on that side that we were worried would be in the way of the pilings. In the end, we landed just fine. Our slip was super protected and we barely felt a ripple. Whew!
We explored the town a bit and were impressed by how many cute shops and restaurants there were!!
I saw these (on a Sunday, no less!) and couldn’t agree more!!
The next day we went exploring on the beach and back to some of the places we found the night before. The kids were desperate to go back to a toy store we found and Mike and I wanted to check out the Beer Church. And we went grocery shopping, of course!!
It was a great day for skipping rocks!We had a great geometry lessons about equilateral triangles and right triangles. Also, check out the geography we snuck in with that lower peninsula of Michigan! New Buffalo has the best rocks!
The Beer Church is a brewery in an old church. The Pontius Pilate was delish!
After a day of exploring we had an amazing spaghetti dinner and Mike cleaned the outside of the boat. We went to bed uncertain if we were leaving the next day or not…surprise, surprise!!
Thanks for following along! If not now then when?!
* This is not totally accurate because we stopped and played in Lake Michigan for a while, but somehow our “time on the move” kept adding up. We probably stopped for a good hour, so that would also increase our speed. We’re obviously super fast…
Leaving Grand Haven. Beautiful and flat!!
We hoped to stop in Holland and Saugatuck, but the weather for the week was looking kind of iffy as far as waves go. We were trying to coordinate with Kelly’s mom, Kathy to have her aboard for a few days, and also make it to South Haven by the weekend for friends who were coming to visit. We went most of the way to Holland not yet knowing where we were stopping, and we talked ourselves in and out of several scenarios. In the end, we headed straight for South Haven, knowing it would give us some more time in one of our favorite places and ensure we were there for the weekend. We’re getting used to living day to day, sometimes hour by hour!! Weather controls all this time of year on Lake Michigan.
First mate headed out to tie up the lines.Calm day on the water!
On our way to South Haven we wanted to stop and put the dinghy on the swim platform, so we took advantage of the calm water to swim and fish for a bit out in the lake. Interesting enough, the 58* water in Grand Haven yesterday was now 68* just outside of South Haven. Everyone swam except for Colin–he read, because that’s what Colin does…
The water had these smooth, glassy paths across the surface. So peaceful!
I could not stop thinking about those creepy fish I saw at the fishing tournament in Grand Haven!!
Since Mike and I both went to Western, we spent many summer days at South Haven. We were excited to come back to the old stomping grounds and have some more fun!
Shortly after getting all settled in the north basin of the marina we scoped out a playground to check out not too far away and started getting ready to leave. Mike noticed that there was a dinghy running loose in the channel, turning in circles at full speed. There was another boat headed out to stop it, but Mike thought he could help or maybe take a funny video of a runaway dinghy, so he went out to help. As he got closer he realized there was a man trapped under the dinghy, getting pulled under the water and drug behind it. Luckily, lots of people rushed to help and amazingly, the man was okay. It was a good reminder to all of us to be vigilant at all times because accidents can happen in a second. It also showed us that you really should attach your kill switch to your life jacket in case you fall out of the dinghy.
After we settled down from that excitement, we headed to the playground for a beautiful sunset view.
The next day, Kelly’s mom, Kathy came to hang out on the boat. We went to 2 playgrounds (because apparently that’s what you do when you loop with kids!) and out to lunch. Toby couldn’t quite ride all the way to the playground the night before, so we left his bike at the public beach thinking we’d grab it on the way home, and Mike took him the rest of the way in the bike trailer. We ended up going a different way home and left the bike overnight which was apparently a big mistake. Someone stole Toby’s bike, training wheels and all, at some point between 7 pm and 10 am. So now Toby is relegated to the bike trailer and there is more room on the bow of the boat. We’re trying to look on the bright side for now, but I’m sure we’ll pick him up another bike along the way soon.
Solving the world’s problems while the kids play on the playground.Sidewalk art that we came across.Captain Cuts was at it again on the dock.Tobin loves birds, so he requested one in his haircut.
Brad and Barb Addis came to see the boat and check on the INNTW crew. They have been besties with Kelly’s parents since the early 1970’s and were like second parents to Kelly growing up. Barb brought delicious apple crisp, so that was amazing. They had lots of questions about our journey so far and what is to come. It was nice to relax with them for a bit, eat their apple crisp, and then we headed to the Maritime Museum.
Hayley and Tobin at the helm of the “ship in a storm” simulator. Something we hope not to see in real life.
We’ve been to quite a few maritime museums by now and the “breeches bouy” always amazes me. In a storm or grounding, the crew would shoot a rope either from ship to ship or from shore to ship (depending on the situation), and then mariners would go, one by one, in the breeches bouy from the ship in peril to safety in this contraption, along the rope. Most of the accompanying pictures show people crossing extremely stormy waters just dangling by a rope. It is hard for me to imagine having the courage to leave a boat and hang over raging storm waters in that thing, but it has saved many lives. Fascinating.
We got to see the drawbridge open.
After that fun adventure, Barb, Brad, and Kathy helped the INNTW crew all get back to Kelly’s mom’s house in Kalamazoo. We were excited to see our doggy, Madison, who has been living at my mom’s and to hang out in a REAL HOUSE for a few days. Kathy lives on a lake and unfortunately her front yard has been flooded all spring and summer. It is disappointing because we usually like to have so much fun playing out there, but instead there is just muck and algae everywhere. Gross. She is lucky, though, because many of her neighbors have flooded basements, homes and garages. I think I’m just feeling selfish that we didn’t get to enjoy the outdoors there like we usually can.
Taking all the laundry home!So THIS is what it’s like to be on a car ride?!The boys were amazed by the number of frogs jumping into the pond. They were also told not to go anywhere near that gross mess.Colin made this contraption from all of our Amazon packages. When we know we’re going to be somewhere for a few days, we buy all the stuff we need and send it ahead. Opening all the boxes is like Christmas!He calls this a “frog catching machine” but then said it turned into a “frog party boat.” Either way, the frogs were happy and I was creeped out by the goo.The boys were sooooo helpful with Grandma’s chores!The kids loved going through all Grandma’s toys and dress up clothes; hence Hayley’s amazing sea turtle hat.Madie was excited to see us!!We saw our dear friends Adam, Katie, and Ryan. Somehow Adam and Katie escaped without posing for a selfie, but Ryan wasn’t so lucky! Come see us in the Bahamas, guys!Pancake breakfast at Grandma’s is one thing you can always count on.We scootered down to the neighborhood playground.
We had a great few days of pampering by Grandma. It was nice to have a cozy bed, lots of water, a huge fridge full of food and drink, and LAUNDRY. I mean we have most of this on the boat, but who doesn’t love going home?! Diane Lang and Gayle Witt came to visit us and hear about our trip. Diane is a long time teacher friend of Kelly’s parents and super supportive of the INNTW adventure. We are also hoping to meet up with them during our time in the Bahamas, so we look forward to seeing them again down the line!
The boys created scooter boards by taking their handlebars off. Oh boy…Saying goodbye to Madison was hard, but she enjoyed the love.See you in Nashville, Mad Dog!Saying goodbye to Grandma was hard, too, but she enjoyed the love. See you in Florida, Grandma!We loaded that car to the roof with clean laundry (8 loads!) and all kinds of groceries from Grandma.
When we got back to South Haven on Friday we were anxious to check on our boat because there were 6-9 foot waves in the lake since the night before. The marina was packed with boats compared to when we left and they were all rockin! Mike scampered around re-tying lines, adding lines, moving lines for about an hour. I attempted to put all the groceries and laundry away, but I felt sick just being on the boat. Plus there were several new looper boats in the marina that I wanted to say hi to.
These swells were coming right down the channel.
Finally we decided it was going to be rockin like crazy no matter how many lines we had on it, so we headed out to meet up with our friends Adam and Melissa Lipski that came to visit us for the weekend all the way from Harrison Township. Adam and Melissa and their kids Mason and Ava were staying at a cute beach condo about 5 minutes from the marina. They had great beach space for the kids to play, a beautiful view from a little beach deck, and just enough condo space for the adults and kids to play. The adults played cards and the kids jumped on the beds and whatever else kids do when they get to see their besties after 2 months away. (We saw the Lipskis on our last morning at home before we left–Adam brought us pizza lunch and Melissa and the kids video taped us pulling away from the dock on day #1–seems like forever ago and yesterday all at once!) After we played in the sand for a bit, we went to Captain Lou’s, a South Haven favorite, for dinner. Bring 5 kids into a place and you instantly liven it up, that’s for sure!
We had a great view of the waves on the lake from the Lipski’s condo. This explains all that rocking in the marina.Welcome to Captain Lou’s!The kids loved having their own table and the adults loved it, too!
Rose all day!
We had a super fun couple of days playing in the sand, watching the sunset, wine tasting, playing at the playground, watching the kids jump on the beds, pulling slivers out, eating out, and hanging with friends. Lots of laughs, good times, and slow processing during card games. And the Rose was apparently delicious! Thanks so much for the visit, guys!! Hope to see you again along the way soon!
That is what 5 kids look like when they are up waaaay after bedtime! Anarchy.
After brunch on Sunday, my mom came back to the boat with Bob and Judy Shrimplin, other life-long family friends. Bob and Judy got the official INNTW tour and said they were much more at ease with our adventure after seeing the boat.
Thanks for visiting, Bob and Judy!!
Thank you so much for visiting, everyone, and thanks for following and supporting us on our adventure!! Our visit was cut short because we decided we needed to move on by early afternoon on Sunday–the weather was just TOO PERFECT not to go. The rest of the week looked a little dicey and we needed to head towards Chicago, as we are near the back of the pack of looper boats at this point. (Honestly, we don’t care that we’re towards the end of the looper boats; our plan all along was to take our time and enjoy the Great Lakes. However, the changing weather brings about changes on the lakes and rivers, and marinas and other services start shutting down for the season so it is best to keep moving south.) So INNTW was on to it’s next adventure. Thanks for reading and following along!
