Had a great time on the tour yesterday. While is was a HOT STEAMY summer day, the lake tempered the heat and humidity. Beer hits the spot on days like this and I can verify that it did. There were plenty of munchies, salads, sandwiches, etc. I noticed no hungry or thirsty souls on board.

Our FC crew was a bit, but not too late, thank goodness. I heard traffic from everywhere was slow. Triathlon and triple-header high school football games at Soldier Field likely added to the congestion.

We got underway and steamed south to the Calumet River. What was once a booming steel industrial area is now gone. Plans to create anew (non-industrial) at the South Shore Works are in the works. Coincidently, the Trib ran an article last week on that area just south of Rainbow beach. We had 3 bridges raised for our tall ship. The bridges had interesting stories attached to them. One of the vertical lift bridges was like a kid's Erector set dream with winches, cables and pulleys galore. The Skyway was indeed way up there. Also seen along the river were mountains of coal and salt rather than the iron ore and steel of yesteryear ready to be loaded/unloaded onto ships. One very large ship was being loaded with coal as we passed. Saw tug boats and barges. Lots of old and shall I say rust belt structures with many no longer there. As we headed back out in the lake, I wondered what the future holds for this once vibrant area.

There was a Polish TV crew on board !! They interviewed several people during the trip, including the FC crew, my daughter and I and others. I understand details of the (award winning no doubt) filming will appear on the web site. Stay tuned.

Our 4 hour scheduled tour actually turned into 5. Headwinds? We docked around 7:30.

In closing, the ForgottenChicago "crew" did an excellent job. Kudos to all.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 08/30/2010 11:10PM by daveg.