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Da Bears

If you live by the water, you know those wonderful times when the lake is "glass" and you can hear the boat (or wakeboard or skis) slicing through it. The reflections of the clouds overhead are a beautiful impressionist painting ; All is calm and the silence is so peaceful. That was NOT the case with our lake Michigan crossing this morning.  Thank goodness for children's dramamine, no one puked.  Since I couldn't find the adult dramamine, I helped myself to a good dose of the kiddos'. 

This was after the waters calmed and the dramamine had fully kicked in.

We arrived in Chicago a little earlier than anticipated since Todd pushed it pretty hard.  We choose a Marina within walking distance of the museums - also within walking distance of Soldier Field! The Bears were home and playing New Orleans Saints! What a tailgate extravaganza!! There were quite a few boats left in the marina and every one of them seemed to be having a party. We thought we might crash one of the spreads for dinner, but the kids might have given us away. 🤪. The friendly, happy scene cleared out and all was quiet at game time.

You can't come to Chicago without getting pizza, so we decided to see if we could get delivery as getting back to the boat so near to the stadium later on might prove impossible as fans headed home. Giordano's came highly recommended by the guy at the fuel dock (who very nicely informed us that he couldn't pump fuel for us, and that it was $4.16/gallon 🤯) and Google. About 45 minutes of trying to load web pages, a couple of calls where we were informed that saying "Burnham harbor" was not good enough that a street address was needed, that delivery from a location less than a mile away was not available and after throwing around some choice words, we had Mac and cheese and salad for dinner and decided to call it a night. 

We started Monday with a nice breakfast and some homeschooling down below as it was raining a little. We were pretty excited to be going to the Field Museum where we would see dinosaurs and meet up with Wesley, a 5 year-old boy full of energy that we met this summer while staying on Mackinac Island, and his Momma. As we were wrapping up our school, the boat really started to rock and the nausea set in again!! The wicked, wicked winds that were causing 20+ foot waves in Lake Superior were coming straight across Lake Michigan and straight into the harbor.  Todd was busy suring up our lines but I had to take the kids to the pavilion for some respite from the rocking.  As Todd was walking to come join us, the dock started to separate from the waves!! He pulled some crazy feat of engineering and tied it back together, but there was no way we could leave the boat unattended. All over the marina, boats were snapping lines and pieces of dock and miscellaneous debris were floating in what seemed like a straight line to us. Eek!!

It was about then that I lost my wallet. Thank goodness Todd had pressed some cash in my hand as the kids and I bent into the wind for our walk to the museum. Those frantic moments. Did I leave it on the boat? Is it lost to the inland seas? I called credit card companies and texted my dear friend who works at the bank of my debit card, and an hour or so later I got a call from a Chicago number!!! What? The only person I know here is with me, Those spammers can't be THAT good could they? It was the man out fishing who found my wallet!! HUMANITY for the win!!!  I assumed it was in the water, probably as you did, but he found it on the dock. Thankfully I could understand enough of his English and the winds had subsided enough that Todd could rush off in an Uber (with minutes to spare, the guy had to get to work) and the wallet was back in our possession. Whew! 

We all hit the hot dog stand on the corner for dinner, and I drank about a gallon of....water. seriously - water. My head hurt so much from all the stress!!  We all looked a little shell shocked - the kids were completely over-stimulated from a full day at the museum with a great friend.  Goodbye Monday. Tuesday can't come soon enough.

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