We finally made it out of St. Joseph MI, pulling out of the slip just after 9. We immediately heard a radio call that a large barge was leaving the harbor. We headed into the river channel -and there it was. Just beyond that we were at the mouth of the river and passing the St. Joseph lighthouse.

The marine forecast for the open waters of Lake Michigan called for waves of 1 ft or less and it was correct. It was 60 miles across the lake and it looked like this the entire way.

We were able to spot the Chicago skyline when we were about 10 miles offshore. It was very hazy at that point, but began to clear up as we got closer.

  Sears Tower is on the left, Hancock on the right

We stopped at Burnham Park Harbor marina for fuel and pumpout and right next to the marina is Soldier Field – how cool is that!

We then continued to the DuSable Harbor marina to tie up for two nights. The marina is on the south side of the entrance to the Chicago River.

The view from the back deck of our boat in the day and at night.

On the other side of the river is Navy Pier, just a ten minute walk away. It had been many years since we had been to Navy Pier and it was a beautiful day so off we went, along with thousands of other people. We walked almost to the end, looking at all the different types of tour boats, as well as several larger mega yachts that could be chartered for private parties. We decided to have an early dinner at one of the restaurants there, but the dinner menu wasn’t available yet, so we sat and people watched for half an hour. (That makes us sound like stereotypical little old people who eat dinner at 4:30 – at least we didn’t ask about early bird specials.) We had a table with a terrific view of the water – even though we’re living on the water, I never tire of looking at it. By the time we were done with dinner we had decided our feet were too tired to walk back so we grabbed a taxi to take us back to the marina.

Navy Pier as seen at night from our back deck

The evening ended with me doing two loads of laundry at the marina laundry facility – pretty boring.