Tim and I got a late start leaving the ship, I mean Andersonville, as we headed to our meeting point, whoops, umm, I mean, at Kayak Chicago (http://www.kayakchicago.com/--for God's sake, how do you embed links into a blog? Someone tell me please!)
We pulled up in the Sniffen Jeep (My preferred mode of transport whenever we go anywhere in the summer---the top's down, and Sniffen always has cool music playing), and walked into a ragtag bunch of folks, who were sawing and loading logs from a fallen tree into a pick-up truck. Behind them, in a patchy grassy lot were between 8 and 10 white carriages, minus the horses, with flowers painted on the side and velvet lining. To the right were long official "I go to Oxford, my mate goes to Cambridge, and we are big fans of rowing" kind of rowboats, all stacked up in what looked like a carrier. We continued on, with Sniffen commenting "I feel like we're about to negotiate with a Honduran, saying 'I can't pay $20, I only have $10' ". At the back of the lot was a picnic table with two bottles of unopened, and steamy water, 5 or 6 deluxe camp chairs a wood hut, with an ac unit stuck into the side of the wall, and inside, a counter, behind which a younger gal, with hair bleached from exposure to the sun, cheerfully greeted us. She gave us clipboards with waivers, and guided us to sit on the picnic table and fill them out. It was nice to be off the ship and on dry land again, I mean, it was nice to be on an adventure with Tim in the city I love.
(As a side note, I thought we were going kayaking on the lake this whole time, and up until Sniffen pulled up to Magnolia and North Avenue, just west of the hooker bridge on North, I imagined Kayaking, and then happily heading into the lake for a swim. I was happy to go down the river, but I really didn't need my swimsuit.)
We filled out the paperwork, stowed our backpacks in cubbies (mine had to be squashed, but Tim's fit in very neatly, I think he has a better sense of space then I do), and then after some basic instruction, we headed down to the dock.
Our gal tested our balance in the boat by having us get in, rocking it back and forth and declaring "you're good" and pointed out the way to downtown.
So, we were off!
We paddled towards a bridge, and passed our first observable creature (a big orange and white floating on the surface koi) and then came upon a small gaggle of geese diving for fish. As they dive their little black heads in, their big goose ass is revealed, and their butts had white tufts on them that looked almost like a second little white head popped out of the water--delightful!
Nearby floated one who, as Tim said, "Went diving but never came up" and that was our second dead animal!
We paddled into the city, stopping to chat, take pics, snack on pretzels and enjoy the views. At one point, we didn't know where the hell we were geographically, so that was exciting, too. Once we hit Chicago, and the Montgomery Ward complexxes, we primarily floated and pointed stuff out to each other. I pointed out to Tim, a large bronze statue on top of one of the buildings and said "That statue is important because, well, I can't remember why, but it is."
(Here's the entry from Wikipedia...22.5 foot bronze statue that originally topped the former Montgomery Ward Building on Michigan Avenue.[4] An adaption of an earlier sculpture by Augustus Saint-Gaudens that had topped both Madison Square Garden in New York and the Agriculture Building at the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago, the statue is called the Spirit of Progress, and depicts a woman dressed in flowing robes balancing on a globe and holding a torch in and a staff.)
A bit further down, just past the Merchandise Mart, we had to wait for all the passing traffic before we could turn and head towards the North/South crossing bridges. We waited a good 10 minutes, as a giant barge carrying dunes of dusty material (Salt? Grains? Dung?) passed by, a few private pleasure boats, the Fort Dearborn, the Innisfree, the lady of something and the Party Boat, the Seadog. We crossed that traffic swiftly and found ourselves in the more prominent part of the river---right downtown. People waved from the delightful dockside dining spots, two men stopped and watched us go by, another lady leaned over the railing and took my picture and even the workers in the middle of the water under one of the bridges stopped to wave. At one point, a Wendella boat was directly docked in our path and loading passengers, and we had to decide if it would see us or run into us when it was done loading. We paddled quickly around after I shouted "Follow the Sun Chaser" which was a small pleasure boat doing the same thing. I laughed and laughed and Tim just gave me his patented bemused but not understanding the joke Sniffen stare and that made me laugh even more. We should all listen to the command of "Follow the Sun Chaser".
I didn't have my cell phone, or I would have called my friends who work near the bridges to come wave and say hello, it was just a postcard-perfect pretty day.
We turned around just past the North Michigan Avenue bridge, navigated some "rapids" on the way back (what kind of water was pumping into the river at such a speed? But they were fun to "ride") and then headed back to North and Magnolia.
On the way home, we rode around the other side of Goose Island (much grittier and industrial) and wanted someone to tow us back to the dock in the last 20 minutes.
We finally hit land after 2 and a half hours, and were STARVING.
Tim took me to the Northside on Damen, with a promise of blue margaritas (they have those on the ship, too! I mean, oh never mind), but the waitress didn't know what Tim was talking about.
We got burgers and other fruity drinks, and chilled out watching the hipsters go by along with the moms with strollers and douchebags with hummers.
By the time we got back to port for all-aboard time (um, I mean, Andersonville for my writing date with Amy, is this device even working?) , we were satiated, blistered and utterly satisfied with our shore excursion.
It wasn't free and we didn't have to be an escort, but I highly highly highly encourage you to get out there---it's as though you get to see the buildings how they were meant to be seen---from the base up.
Happy Summer Chicago!
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