Lunchtime Cruise

My office is a pretty interesting dynamic and my group unparticular.  The majority of my group is engineers but with a few “technical designers” thrown in there as well.  In addition to having the variety of spectrum of “typical engineer” personalities, we also have people from Afghanistan, Mexico, Poland, Russia and Ukraine.  We’re not the kind of group to go out for happy hour, but we do enjoy spending non-work related time together; during the work day of course.  Thus, we go out for birthday lunches, etc.

For at least two years now, we’ve discussed bringing our lunches and eating them while riding the water taxi along Chicago River.  Boat tours, such as Wendella’s Architectural Tour or Shoreline Skyline Tour,  in Chicago are popular, among tourists and some residents even, but the water taxi is an easy (and cheaper way) to ride the river.  (If you’ve never been on a boat tour in Chicago, I recommend them.  They generally depart every 30 minutes from Navy Pier with walk up riding available. Plus, for your drinkers, there’s a cash bar on board).

To my knowledge there are two Chicago water taxi companies, Chicago Water Taxi and Shoreline.  They have different pick-up stations, although the follow the same general routes.

Thus, one bright and sunny July lunch, we set out for our taxi lunch.  With Shoreline, a one-way right from near Sears Tower, 233 S Wacker Drive is the pickup spot, to Navy Pier, the ride is $7 and takes approximately 20 minutes.  Thus, round trip is $14/person and takes about 45 minutes.  Perfect for a lunch time cruise.

Here's the documentation of our trip:

 

A portion of our office group

Boeing Building

Moi

Trump Tower

Trump and Wrigley Building

It was so hot we elected to get off at Navy Pier for
 italian ice before going back to the office. Yum!