Boats, Boats, And More Boats!

I woke up in Chicago this morning. Because of the 6 hour time difference, I am usually awake before dawn, but it’s rare that I’m out of my room early. Today, however, I wanted to watch the sunrise over Lake Michigan, and so I was out of the hotel by 645 and walking along the river down to the lake. The sunrise wasn’t as spectacular as I had hoped but was still beautiful. I wasn’t disappointed! I was surprised how many people were out enjoying the beautiful early morning on a Saturday. I finished my 2-hour outing by walking in a bit of Millennium Park and then returned to my room for a quick breakfast.

It was going to be a warm, sunny day so I decided to make the most of it and I joined a 10am Architectural Boat Tour for which Chicago is famous. I’d done one a few years ago and knew how interesting they were. Chicago is filled with amazing architecture, both old and new and much of it lines the riverfront and lake front. The 90 minute tour took us up and down the Chicago River as well as to the entrance to Lake Michigan.

In addition, today was one of the few days in the year when the bridges are lifted to allow sailboats and other tall recreational boats to travel along the river. This happens in the spring and fall to allow the boats to be taken back and forth between Lake Michigan and their winter storage locations. So besides learning about all sorts of interesting architecture and history during the tour, we were able to watch the draw bridges go up and down in sequence and saw lots of beautiful big boats go past!

The first Extra photo mostly shows views from the tour boat (actual boat in the top left). Also shown are two of the drawbridges in the up position. The bottom middle picture is a railway bridge that has also been raised to allow boats through.

After my tour I walked along the Riverwalk for awhile and found a place for lunch (middle of second Extra photo). It also shows a few of the boats that went by while I was eating my very interesting looking (and very tasty!) tacos. There’s a lot of river traffic along this working river. In addition to tour boats and sail boats, there were water taxis, Police boats, kayaks, a ‘cycling boat’ (bottom right) and many more that aren’t included. The red Fireboat in the top middle frame is the exact same boat in my main sunrise picture.

I would have liked to have stayed out all day, but sadly it was time to head back to the hotel and get ready to go back to the airport for my return to London. I felt like I’d had a mini-holiday! I hope I’ll enjoy a couple more of these before the Chicago winter sets in.