Monroe Harbor, Chicago

Good ol' Lake Michigan had to show us one more time who's the boss around here with 2-3 foot waves when only one foot were predicted. Oh well, it was our last day on the big water and it was a memorable one.

The Chicago skyline can be seen at about 20 miles out ... here's what we saw about 5 miles out.

We came into Monroe Harbor on a Sunday, the final day of the Chicago Air and Water Show. Our assigned mooring ball was right on the edge of the wide entrance that splits the North and South Harbors. After securing the boat to the mooring ball, we were hopeful that the wave action would smooth out. It seemed like every boat in the harbor was out for the day and as they all came back in the wakes continued to rock us almost as if we were still out on the Lake. We've been in several mooring fields on this trip and this is the first one that was NOT a "no wake" zone.

We had a great view of Buckingham Fountain right from the boat.

By dark, both the wind and the boat wakes settled down as we enjoyed the lights of the spectacular Chicago skyline. The next morning, we launched the dinghy and took some pictures of Shingebiss on her mooring ball.

To go ashore, however, we opted to use the Monroe Tender service and be picked up at our boat. These nimble little double ended tenders run around the harbor from 7 am 'til 3 am bringing boaters out and back to their moored boats. We found the service to be efficient and friendly.

Our first stop ashore was Millenium Park, built in 2004. The beautiful amphitheater has concerts all summer and seats over 11,000 people.

The "Bean" is the most popular feature of the park. This unique mirrored sculpture delights young and old as they walk around and under it, checking out the reflections.

Here's our reflection in the Bean as I take the picture.

We walked over one of the many, many Chicago River bridges that we will pass under when we transit this river tomorrow.

Down on the Riverwalk, we passed by this fountain.

For the first ten minutes of every hour, the "water arc" is turned on ... not knowing what it was, we had to wait around to find out. Here it is.

We walked out to the end of Navy Pier, with it's dozens for restaurants and tour boats. Our final stop was back to Buckingham Fountain. One of the largest fountains in the world, it was designed in France and donated to Chicago by the Buckingham family in 1928. It's so huge, you can't get it all in one picture.

Our all day walk had taken us to our favorite highlights on the Chicago lakefront. It's a great city and we're very excited to cruise through the Chicago River tomorrow.