And more Chicago.....................

Downtown reminded me of Park Ave or Fifth Ave in New York or downtown San Francisco
with the beautiful floral planters and boulevards. There is building everywhere.
Chicago has a mix of exquisite old architecture and modern designs. Our cruise on Crazy Eights through downtown on the Chicago River was really neat, as we started our trip south.

The last photo is the ferris wheel at Navy Pier. The City skyline at night is spectacular and was a background each night in the Harbor.

More Chicago............

Location, location, location - we moored in Monroe Harbor near Lake Shore Drive in the heart of downtown. Many attractions were within walking distance. Highlights included Millenium Park, Michigan Avenue with all of the shops, the Architectural Tour on the River boat from Navy Pier and the Library.

The "Bean" is shown in a couple of the photos, which was awesome. It's a huge stainless steel ball that is so highly polished that it looks like a mirror. The people walking nearby and the Chicago skyline are reflected. As you walk around it, the scenery changes - simply fabulous. The gardens were beautifully manicured.
There were different art sculptures throughout the park - I include only one of them.

Hundreds of people enjoyed the parks, the harbor area, and downtown. Joggers and bicyclists were a constant parade past our boat. There were a number of museums that we simply did not have time to take in. This leaves much for us to see the next visit.

Days 95 - 99, Sep 5th - Sep 9th, Port Washington - Chicago

The new blog photo was taken by Looper friends who were visiting Navy Pier when we were entering Chicago Harbor.

We left Port Washington bound for Racine, WI, but when the weather and water were favorable on Wed the 5th, we decided to continue the 104 miles straight into Chicago. It turned out to be be a good decision as the next several days were high winds and some rain. Had we stopped in Racine, the it would've been UGLY on Lake Michigan starting the next day and we would've been late for our weekend plans in Chicago.

Traveling on the water, like flying airplanes, one pays close attention to weather and if prudent, plans to travel only in good weather. It's much more pleasant and it makes for a happier crew!

Days 94 - 95, Sep 3rd and 4th, Sheboygan & Port Washington, WI, Lake Michigan

Brother Dennis and wife Mari decided to run the 28 miles with us to Sheboygan. They launched their boat in Manitowoc and we headed south with sunny skies and water calm enough that one could've skied all the way! Having them along was great fun. We had lunch and they motored back to Manitowoc.

Any ideas what the 2nd photo is??? Rich and I toured the Kohler Design Center and Showroom in the afternoon. This is a 2 story wall of toilets, accented by tubs on either end - in every color and style the company offers! Another wall was shower pans - quite the decor, eh? The building was 4 floors - a museum, showrooms of kitchen and baths decorated by designers and a complete product line.

The founder, Herbert Kohler, was an immigrant who had a vision and through much work and a little luck became extremely successful. He brought other immigrants here, trained them to work in his company, offered them loans to build homes in his planned community and created a quality of life for his people. The concept lives on today of work, home, schools, shopping and community in the Village of Kohler. Several of the Kohler family are active in running the worldwide corporation.

After 9/11 some of his employees designed a mobile shower unit in a semi-truck trailer in two days. Four days later and many hours of Kohler employees' time, 9 showers in the trailer were complete and the the tractor trailer was driven to Ground Zero. It is documented that it provided 95,000 showers for workers, firefighters and policemen. The idea of providing a mobile shower unit for disaster sites had been discussed among employees but 9/11 brought the idea to life.