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September 8, 2012  Day 120      Chicago, IL       Total miles to date:  2413.6

Day three in Chicago greeted with us sunshine and much cooler temperatures – a great day to be outside.  We had to say good bye to Chuck and Becky this morning as they took a taxi to the train station. We had such a good time having them on board for two weeks and look forward to their next visit. We will miss them!

5-K Cookie Classic

Walking on the BP Bridge

 

Millennium Park

We walked back to the boat and organized a few things and then took off again. We passed a large group of people of all ages on a 5K Cookie Classic run to support the Girl Scouts (actually they passed us). We walked through part of Millennium Park to get back to Michigan Avenue. This time we found the BP Bridge, a beautiful architectural structure with wide sweeping curves that make it fun to walk! We wished we had found this cut-through yesterday! We followed the path to the Cloud Gate, (aka “the Bean”) and had fun taking pictures of it – it provides wonderful reflections of the Chicago skyline and is a natural place for everyone to gather!

The Cloud Gate in Millennium Park

Then we walked over to the Cultural Arts Center which also houses the Visitors’ Center and we picked up literature, maps, etc.  We made the long walk up Michigan Avenue, across the Chicago River to the Magnificent Mile past many high end shops. Our destination however, was the Apple Store. We had an appointment to have our IPad analyzed. Fortunately the Apple Genius that we saw fixed the problem by changing some settings and we were good to go in a short time!

Segways are popular here!

The view from our boat

More walking – we headed east toward the water. We found a deli, bought sandwiches, walked until we found Jane Addams Park and had our lunch there, watching many bikers and joggers. We continued back down Lake Shore Drive to our marina!  We really needed to get some things done (chart plotting, laundry, cleaning, etc.) We hope to leave Chicago tomorrow, but will need to hear the latest forecast in the morning. Right now there are 4 to 6 ft. waves predicted and that is not inviting.