Sailing

Last week, I was invited along on a sailing trip in Lake Michigan. This is the view from the deck of the boat, which is anchored behind Soldier's Field.

The host was Ryan (at the wheel), and the other passenger was Brian (seen here playing with his iPhone),

The Chicago skyline soon grew smaller ...

... and the sun set as we sailed toward a destination in Indiana.

We spent the night at a marina owned by a casino, and as in most places, I slept soundly in my little cubbyhole below deck.

The winds were stronger the next day as we headed back for Chicago.

This time, the skyline grew bigger ...

... and we kept on sailing past the Navy Pier.

As we finished the last mile, I spent some bumpy moments on the bow.

Thanks, Ryan and Brian!

Milwaukee

After we left Chicago we headed further north to Milwaukee. Steve has been here a few times, but I never have. Somehow I managed to pick a hotel that was in a great location and was very nice. We took off to do a LOT of walking. Our first stop was a cheese shop.

Not only did they sell cheese, they had a wine and cheese bar.

This was pretty cute. Never seen giant ladybugs crawling down a building.

Milwaukee is like Chicago. It's on Lake Michigan and has a river. I also think it has more wind than Chicago. Steve grabbed a hold of me several times to anchor me to the ground!

We took a walk down to the lakefront and saw their art museum. It was beautiful.



Next we went to find a place to eat dinner. Steve's face says it all. Oh, Oh, Oh! German food! He glanced at the menu posted outside and into Maders we went.


A nice mug of tea. And then he actually looked at the menu and the prices posted on it.

And just like the penny pinching Jack Benny (who had a plaque at the restaurant) Steve said, this is a little pricey for my wallet (after all it was just sausage and sauerkraut!) Instead we ordered an appetizer and a salad and hit the road.

After we left that restaurant we went to another one and had dessert - apple strudel. And wouldn't you know it! When we got back to the hotel they had free food! So we helped ourselves. Steve also had a beer. After all we were in the
Beer Capital of the World!

And then we waddled up to our room.

Chicago

Steve and I took a long overdue vacation. It seems like we've traveled quite a bit over the last year, but that travel usually took us to the east or west coast to be with family. This trip was just the 2 of us. We headed to the windy city of Chicago where he dumped me in a hotel and he took off to spend the night on a friends sail boat. He will be posting about this later. I put on my walking shoes and headed out. Right around the corner was the Hancock Building.

Across the street was a beautiful Presbyterian church. This was 9/11 and there were police cars everywhere. They were even parked in the middle turn lane across from the Hancock Building.

I wandered into Water Tower Place. And found a wonderful food court unlike any I had ever seen. They seated me and gave me a charge card. There were 11 different areas you could walk around and place your order. Soup, sushi, stir fry, comfort food, wine, grill and desserts, just to name a few. I could easily overeat and overspend at this place. I settled on the chicken dumplings. Pretty good, but I prefer pork. Then I had a bowl of shrimp and crab bisque. Delicious! Time to get out of here!

I thought I would walk off my dinner. The Contemporary Art Museum was close by. I thought this sculpture was unique. See the giant coat hanger behind it?I continued on down to the lakefront. There were lots of partiers hanging out in their boats.

I saw this sign on the way to the water. Only in Chicago!