Wednesday, July 15, 2009

Sailing, Takes me Away...

As a thank you for hosting some giveaways and blogging about Lands' End products (which I honestly love), Amanda from Lands' End invited me, Kim from Hormone Colored Days, and Lisa from My Thoughts, Ideas and Ramblings to take a little sail around Lake Michigan today. (Lands' End is a sponsor and participant in this year's Race to Mackinac.) I'd never even heard of The Race to Mackinac before this month and now I'm so excited about it, I'm thinking of heading downtown to see the boats off on Saturday! If anyone's interested, you can follow the race HERE.


(from left to right)
me, Randy, Lisa, Kim


Chicago


Chicago


Navy Pier





Anyway, we climbed aboard their boat, Guaranteed. Period. (named after Lands' End's guarantee; not some form of birth control) where Randy, one of six crew members who will be racing this weekend, taught us a little bit about sailing. Wow! How fun! I'd never been sailing before but I LOVE water and I love boats so naturally, I loved sailing! Randy even let me steer the boat for quite a while. I didn't do too badly either. Well, except for the time when he said, "You have to tell me if you're going to tack."

"Tack? Um, I'm not sure what that is, but I just had a brain malfunction and forgot for a minute that you have to move the steering thingy to the left if you want to go right. Oops." It was a beautiful, windy day so Randy just had the jib (little sail at the front) raised while we were out so thankfully I didn't knock anyone off the boat with my little, um, sudden, uh, mistake turn.

After a very enjoyable cruise out on the lake, we headed to shore where we had lunch outside at the yacht club. We just couldn't have asked for nicer weather. And after waking up to thunderstorms, it was a pleasant surprise.

From the lake, I started toward the train station, but realized there was no way I'd make the 2:30 train, so instead, I walked to Millennium Park. The new Millennium Park has been there for like 10 years and yet I still hadn't seen it. It was time.



the bean



Then I walked 5000 2 miles to the train station. The wrong train station. Yeah, because that's the kind of thing I do. Want to know why I walked? Because I was afraid to hail a cab Because I needed the exercise. And it would've been a mile and a quarter except I had to get lost take the scenic route.

I've put more than 50 other pictures up on Flickr. If you want to check them out, you can click
HERE.

14 comments:

  1. It really was a regatta gala!! how funny!

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  2. Looks like you had a great day. Just so you don't feel so bad about missing something, Millennium Park opened in 2004. So only 5 years and not 10. Your kids would probably love to splash around in the pool at the bottom of the "thingy" that changes faces and water comes out of its mouth. I don't know its' name.

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  3. My friend was there over the weekend and she was trying to describe the faces that squirt water. I just nodded and smiled like I knew what the heck she was talking bout. Thanks for putting a picture on here. And I was WAY off in my face picturing. :)

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  4. What a great afternoon. It was fun hanging out with you and I'll see you at BlogHer!

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  5. Sears Tower name has been changed - check out today's Chicago Tribune:
    "Sears Tower name change: Building today officially becomes Willis Tower"

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  6. On the plus side, the RIGHT train station is then only two blocks away :)

    I've sadly never been to Millenium Park either... I miss it the way it was and oh yeah, I moved out of the city :) Very cool cruise though!

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  7. Dawn, Dawn, Dawn... how can you get lost from Millennium Park to the train station - either one of them?! Granted, Union Station is slightly more of a straight shot than Ogilve, but still, hon... *shakes head* Love you, though!

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  8. Love those pictures. Looks and sounds like you had a great time!

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  9. I have to agree with Winona - not sure how you can get lost since its simply straight west. :-) I also wonder how you haven't heard about the Race to Mackinac since it makes the news every year and is a fairly big deal in Chicago. But I love reading your blog just the same and the pics are great. You might want to edit the name of the Sears Tower to Willis Tower so people don't get confused (yeah, right)

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  10. When you tack, you're changing direction and heading away from the wind. You pull the tiller (steering thingy) away from the main sail (or in this case, the jib). When you jibe, you're changing direction and heading into the wind. You pull the tiller towards the main sail/jib. They main sail and jib should be facing the same direction, unless you're headed downwind. This is a maneuver called "wing on wing" and they can go in opposite directions.

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  11. I would get lost too. Don't let meg get you down. Looks like a very fun experience.

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  12. That looks like a wonderful day (except the getting lost part, which is something I would so do too). Love the photos!

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  13. While I see that others have already told you that that Sears Tower is now the Willis Tower, did you know that the new owner wants people to call it "Big Willie"? Seriously.

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