While we spend a lot of time together here at the office, we also try to organize fairly frequent DMC outings. Since we tend to be fairly active people, our summer events seem to skew in that direction as well. In the past few months we’ve entered a few races here in Chicago (Shamrock Shuffle, Chase Corporate Challenge, and the Terrapin 5k), played in a sand volleyball league at North Beach, had a few boat nights on the lake, and last week, went kayaking on the Chicago River.
A Terrible Group Photo on the River
Thirteen DMC employees and significant others managed to coordinate schedules and go on Kayak Chicago’s Fireworks Paddle – braving 6 miles of paddling on the dark, polluted waters of the mighty Chicago river. Actually, the river wasn’t too bad. I had imagined it would be something in between the scene in Titanic where all the dead bodies are floating in the water, and the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. But I saw no bodies, so that was nice.
The plan was to leave Kayak Chicago’s River location (just across the river from DMC’s old offices on Kingsbury), paddle 3 miles through downtown to the locks, take a rest and enjoy the Wednesday night fireworks, and then return. However, things never quite work like you plan. Instead we paddled 3 miles up the river only to learn of a major storm bearing down on the city, so we immediately turned around and paddled 3 miles back. So our fireworks paddle was surprisingly deficient in the fireworks department, but it was a good time nonetheless. And since we missed the fireworks, Kayak Chicago was kind enough to offer us a rain-check. So I’m sure it won’t be long until we’re out on the water again.
This is what I imagine the fireworks would have looked like.