Tall Ships

Every three years, a fleet of Tall Ships--replicas of famous ships--sails into Chicago for a few days. They dock at Navy Pier or along the Chicago River, and if you buy a pass, you can board them and look around. Unfortunately, the last time they came, they also brought a downpour with them. We went anyway, but even with ponchos, it was miserable--at least for me. Well, the ships are back, and Eugene wanted to go. I felt I ought to indulge him this week for some odd reason that will be revealed soon. (evil laugh) So we drove down to Chicago today and saw the ships along the Chicago River. Although it did rain, it was very light, hardly a drizzle. There were lines to board each ship, but they weren't terrible. We brought Oscar the Orca along for some photos, and the ships' crews got a kick out it. Most of the pictures I took were with Oscar. There were about six to eight ships docked along the river; more were at Navy Pier, but we decided not to go there. The oldest ship we saw had been built over eighty years ago; the others were more recent. They were mostly wooden ships, replicas of schooners and trading vessels, although a couple had cannons.

After we'd seen the ships, we walked over to Marshall's Fields to have lunch in the Walnut Room. Since we hadn't been able to have brunch there during the Christmas season, I thought it would be nice to go there before the much-dreaded name change to Macy's. (I personally don't care, but I know of people who do.) Then we headed over to Millenium Park and visited our favorite sculpture, the Bean. We took more photos there. We strolled through the garden for a bit and watched part of a wedding being held at the park before driving home.

Here are the photos:


I can't remember which ship this is.

















Oscar pilots a ship from Wisconsin.














Sigh. I'm experiencing techincal difficulties posting additional pictures, so I'll have to try again later.