We arrived in Chicago in the small hours of the morning and tied up on an end dock. The next day after the staff arrived, I walked to the dock house to pay for several nights.
There was one girl in the dock house talking on the phone when I arrived. Two other marina staff members sat outside chatting. Perhaps it was their morning break time. I stood waiting, reading a posting of marina rules. Several more people walked in Two of them walked up to the counter like I wasn’t there. I figured they were “city folk” and didn’t let it bother me, but I stepped up and made it clear the next guy wasn’t going to walk past me.
The girl finally got off the phone and helped the other two customers. When it came to be my turn, I said: “I arrived early this morning and need to reserve a slip.”
“Do you have a reservation?” She asked.
I said “no.”
She told me “you have to make a reservation using the Dockwa App.”
I didn’t really want to download a freaking app just to pay for a dock, so I asked “there is no way to just do it here?”
“No.”
“Is it okay if I leave me boat where it is while I make the reservation?” I didn’t want to steer the boat on a busy holiday weekend while downloading an app and then using it to make a reservation.
“I don’t know, where are you?” she asked.
“The end of G dock.”
“What slip?”
“I don’t know, the only one out of the two available.”
“Which one is that?”
I looked around for a map, she stood with an empty look in her eyes, like a robot waiting for some external input to trigger her next algorithmic response. Finally spotted and 8x10 map on the other side of the dock house. Exasperated, I walked over to it, found G dock, ran my finger down along it to the end, found the empty slip and said G-24 (or whatever it was).
She said “That’s someone’s slip. You can’t stay there.”
I’m not a violent person, but at this point I wanted to choke her.
“okay” I said as I left.
The boys were in the stroller, hitting, kicking, fighting with each other. LeeAnn was anxious about the city, and how impossible it would be with the boys. I suggested we take a walk, find a park away from the water where the boys could run around a bit.
I wasn’t concerned about making a hasty exit from the slip. The dock girl did nothing to help me, and I wasn’t going to feel bad if I inconvenienced her by being in someones slip when they returned. I was prepared to take my time.
We found a park and unbuckled the boys. Hobie refused to get out of the stroller. Charlie found a stick and starting whacking it against the stroller which to his delight caused Hobie to scream and throw a fit.
I searched for “Chicago” at Dockwa.com. Although I was reluctant to use it, I must admit, Dockwa.com was pretty sweet. It made it fairly easy to see the various places to stay and how much each one cost. I saw that staying in the Monroe mooring field was a fraction of the cost of Burnam. $38 per night verses $100 per night. I made a reservation for two nights and we left Burnam Harbor.
Muhaha! I win dock girl! Screw your stupid fancy marina!
Not that she cared. I imagined she sat behind her desk with a line of code repeating in her robot brain:
“waiting for external input….”
“waiting for external input….”
“no external input…entering sleep mode….”
We traveled a mile north, closer to downtown and picked up a mooring ball. Way better in my opinion. Our boat would face into the wind so we would catch the breeze, and rather than paying the $10/night electricity fee at the dock, we could run our generator guilt free.
My one worry was having to dinghy to shore, but then I learned that Monroe Harbor runs a sweet tender service. They shuttle boaters back and forth using these awesome taxi boats. We loved using the tender service. It was part of the fun of going to shore.
We spent the next few days exploring the tourist sights right near Monroe harbor. There was PLENTY to do.
- We went to Shed Aquarium
- The super awesome kids playground across the street from the marina. Hands down the coolest playground we have ever been to. I mean, they had towers and slides that were at least two stories tall. Not to mention the “enchanted forrest”, the interactive fountains, boats, swings, and who knows what else. We definitely didn’t explore the whole playground.
- The famous “bean” and face fountain.
- Navy Pier, where we rode the ferris wheel, carousel, then got deep dish pizza (which took a regrettable 45 minutes to cook but ended up being worth the wait).
We didn’t go to the Field Museum which had dinosaur bones that Hobie wanted to see, or the planetarium, which sounded cool. Both of these educational field trips were within visibility and walking distance from the harbor. We also never went to the incredibly cool looking fountain on the edge of the harbor. Who knows what else we missed within easy walking distance.
After a few days of playing tourist, we made the 10 mile jaunt down to Calument River to drop the mast at Crowly’s. Those guys were awesome. Expensive, but awesome.
We traveled back up to Chicago the same day, but passed Monroe harbor to anchor in the free “playpen”. This anchorage was a little exposed to the north, which wouldn’t have been a problem except for the northerly cross swell entering the harbor. This is also where the yocal boaters come to… be idiots. Although it was a cold, cloudy, rainy day, there were some college kids swimming from a power boat. This was an attractive sight that didn’t bother me at all 😃
But the dudes doing the wake surfing, I could do with out them.
Soon the sun set and the anchorage was all ours. The city light up, and we had a beautiful, peaceful night.
We arrived in Chicago in the small hours of the morning and tied up on an end dock. The next day after the staff arrived, I walked to the dock house to pay for several nights.
There was one girl in the dock house talking on the phone when I arrived. Two other marina staff members sat outside chatting. Perhaps it was their morning break time. I stood waiting, reading a posting of marina rules. Several more people walked in Two of them walked up to the counter like I wasn’t there. I figured they were “city folk” and didn’t let it bother me, but I stepped up and made it clear the next guy wasn’t going to walk past me.
The girl finally got off the phone and helped the other two customers. When it came to be my turn, I said: “I arrived early this morning and need to reserve a slip.”
“Do you have a reservation?” She asked.
I said “no.”
She told me “you have to make a reservation using the Dockwa App.”
I didn’t really want to download a freaking app just to pay for a dock, so I asked “there is no way to just do it here?”
“No.”
“Is it okay if I leave me boat where it is while I make the reservation?” I didn’t want to steer the boat on a busy holiday weekend while downloading an app and then using it to make a reservation.
“I don’t know, where are you?” she asked.
“The end of G dock.”
“What slip?”
“I don’t know, the only one out of the two available.”
“Which one is that?”
I looked around for a map, she stood with an empty look in her eyes, like a robot waiting for some external input to trigger her next algorithmic response. Finally spotted and 8x10 map on the other side of the dock house. Exasperated, I walked over to it, found G dock, ran my finger down along it to the end, found the empty slip and said G-24 (or whatever it was).
She said “That’s someone’s slip. You can’t stay there.”
I’m not a violent person, but at this point I wanted to choke her.
“okay” I said as I left.
The boys were in the stroller, hitting, kicking, fighting with each other. LeeAnn was anxious about the city, and how impossible it would be with the boys. I suggested we take a walk, find a park away from the water where the boys could run around a bit.
I wasn’t concerned about making a hasty exit from the slip. The dock girl did nothing to help me, and I wasn’t going to feel bad if I inconvenienced her by being in someones slip when they returned. I was prepared to take my time.
We found a park and unbuckled the boys. Hobie refused to get out of the stroller. Charlie found a stick and starting whacking it against the stroller which to his delight caused Hobie to scream and throw a fit.
I searched for “Chicago” at Dockwa.com. Although I was reluctant to use it, I must admit, Dockwa.com was pretty sweet. It made it fairly easy to see the various places to stay and how much each one cost. I saw that staying in the Monroe mooring field was a fraction of the cost of Burnam. $38 per night verses $100 per night. I made a reservation for two nights and we left Burnam Harbor.
Muhaha! I win dock girl! Screw your stupid fancy marina!
Not that she cared. I imagined she sat behind her desk with a line of code repeating in her robot brain:
“waiting for external input….”
“waiting for external input….”
“no external input…entering sleep mode….”
We traveled a mile north, closer to downtown and picked up a mooring ball. Way better in my opinion. Our boat would face into the wind so we would catch the breeze, and rather than paying the $10/night electricity fee at the dock, we could run our generator guilt free.
My one worry was having to dinghy to shore, but then I learned that Monroe Harbor runs a sweet tender service. They shuttle boaters back and forth using these awesome taxi boats. We loved using the tender service. It was part of the fun of going to shore.
We spent the next few days exploring the tourist sights right near Monroe harbor. There was PLENTY to do.
- We went to Shed Aquarium
- The super awesome kids playground across the street from the marina. Hands down the coolest playground we have ever been to. I mean, they had towers and slides that were at least two stories tall. Not to mention the “enchanted forrest”, the interactive fountains, boats, swings, and who knows what else. We definitely didn’t explore the whole playground.
- The famous “bean” and face fountain.
- Navy Pier, where we rode the ferris wheel, carousel, then got deep dish pizza (which took a regrettable 45 minutes to cook but ended up being worth the wait).
We didn’t go to the Field Museum which had dinosaur bones that Hobie wanted to see, or the planetarium, which sounded cool. Both of these educational field trips were within visibility and walking distance from the harbor. We also never went to the incredibly cool looking fountain on the edge of the harbor. Who knows what else we missed within easy walking distance.
After a few days of playing tourist, we made the 10 mile jaunt down to Calument River to drop the mast at Crowly’s. Those guys were awesome. Expensive, but awesome.
We traveled back up to Chicago the same day, but passed Monroe harbor to anchor in the free “playpen”. This anchorage was a little exposed to the north, which wouldn’t have been a problem except for the northerly cross swell entering the harbor. This is also where the yocal boaters come to… be idiots. Although it was a cold, cloudy, rainy day, there were some college kids swimming from a power boat. This was an attractive sight that didn’t bother me at all 😃
But the dudes doing the wake surfing, I could do with out them.
Soon the sunset and the anchorage was all ours. The city light up, and we had a beautiful, peaceful night.
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