Having made it across Lake Michigan and down to Green Bay, Tuesday we decided to check out the city. We took the scooters down to Lambeau Field, home of the Packers. Got a very interesting tour of the stadium.

Never thought about it before but the team got it’s name because the first sponsor/owner also owned a meat packing plant. Makes total sense. We got to go up to the roof, which is the highest point in Green Bay.

And we walked out through the home team tunnel onto the field. We had definitely gone further than we have before on the scooters and on the way back they died. Lyft to the rescue. We made it back to the boat and decided to go up to Sturgeon Bay, the entrance of the canal that takes you back out to the Lake. Where we tied up along the wall for the night.

Wednesday we simply fueled up and traveled down to Sheboygan. Another free city wall tie up there. But this one at least had an old fashioned ice cream parlor right there 🍦😋.

Thursday we went down to Milwaukee. We had planned on anchoring in the city harbor but the waves had picked up and it was a small area with another boat already there getting tossed around. So we called the Marina and were able to get slip. It worked out well as it put us right down the dock from Eric’s Inheritance, Tug Bussle and another Looper boat we hadn’t met before. We had a round of docktails and then we went with Eric’s Inheritance to a “Sports Bar” to watch the Bills game.

The place did in fact have a lot of TV’s airing sports games and was set up like a bar…but was playing very loud and obnoxious club music. Not quite what we were in the mood for that evening. The food was good, but we only made it till half time. Luckily we get fairly decent reception on the boat and were able to see the Bills stomp all over the Rams!

Friday looked decent to travel in the morning, so we made our way down to Racine. We had actually bought our other boat from here so we were hooked up with a free place to stay which put us closer to Chicago. It was only 20 miles down so we got there early. Don took the opportunity to change the oil and I took Skia down to the beach.

Saturday we set off for Chicago. The water conditions were pretty good right up until we got into the Chicago area.

The inner harbor was even worse. Huge tour boats coming and going churning it up. We had booked a mooring ball for two nights and ours was located on the end basically facing the opening in the break wall right out to the lake. With the tour boats going right past us 🫤. It was very wavy! We managed to get tied onto the ball and called the water taxi to take us to shore.

We walked down to Shed Aquarium. It was HUGE!

Three levels set up cylindrically and separated into water regions around the world. The last one brought us to the big kahunas. Beluga whales and Pacific White Sided Dolphins. Both were very cool! The Beluga’s had two “babies” which were very playful. Then the dolphins put on a training show.

Leaving the aquarium we stopped at a most delicious burger bar for dinner and then past the Buckingham Fountain.

When we got on the water taxi back to our boat the waves were worse than when we left! Once on the boat we knew we’d never make it through the night like that. We were a rubber duck in a bathtub. We called the dock master office and they told us we could switch to another mooring ball that didn’t have a tether on it which meant it was taken already. So as the sun is setting we navigated our way through the 400 mooring ball field filled with boats. Not ideal. But as we moved inward the waves lessened. We found a free ball and hooked back up. It was better but still by no means calm seas. We were rocking back and forth all night.

Sunday morning we knew we did not want to spend another day and night like that. We called the marina we had reservations at for Monday but they didn’t have an open spot for Sunday. We had been planning on meeting up with Shandie, who were at another marina further out of the city. They said there were plenty of open slips by them so we went down there for the day. It was much better than getting tossed around some more!

They are from North Carolina and Panthers fans. Brandie had found and actual sports bar that was an old warehouse. You could make reservations with certain teams playing that day. There were different areas of the building designated for each team. We went with them and hung out in the Carolina Panthers section.

They graciously put the Dolphins game on one of the tv’s for Don. It was pouring rain on the way there and still pouring rain when we left. So the rest of the day was spent just chillin on the boat.

Monday was another misty morning. After getting laundry done we moved over to the Marina where we had reservations, which was more centrally located along the city. It is actually right outside the Bears stadium.

We got set up and then went to the Field Museum. It was much bigger than I was anticipating. Also three levels with so many incredible things from all over the world. My favorites were the Ancient Egyptian artifacts and dinosaur fossils. Including Sue, the most complete T-Rex ever found.

That evening we met for dinner at Victoria Tap Italian restaurant, with Looper boats Rival, La Vida and Call me Curly. They had this amazing wine and lasagna the size of your face!

Today we packed it in. First went to the free Lincoln Park Zoo. It was a very nice zoo with well set up habitats. There was even a lion cub 😍. I only took a million pictures.

From there it was over to Navy Pier. It was a cool place to walk around. Lots of good restaurants, including a delicious taco bar with a very yummy pork belly taco. I’d put in second place to Smoke on the Water. Still chasing that lost gem 😭. We rented some bikes and went to see the famous bean.

We ran into Chuck and Kerrie from the boat Rival while there and set up plans for tomorrow. Made it back to the boat on time for docktails and leftovers lasagna. (Which I probably have enough for 2 more nights!)

We extended our stay till Thursday, so more Chicago adventures to come!