One if by Land, Two if by Lake Michigan

By Soyoung Kwak in Miscellaneous on Oct 10, 2010 4:00PM

Although Waukegan is a hop, skip and a jump away from Chicago, the Waukegan Port District has been thinking outside the box in figuring out ways to boost tourism within and around the area. If you've been itching to find a more swank way to travel to the idyllic city of Waukegan other than by car, bus or rail, the further research into a dinner and an overnight cruise line to Kenosha and Milwaukee through Waukegan might strike your travel fancy:

Port District Chairman Hank Bogdala, a lifelong Waukegan resident and supporter of the idea, said a nautical connection between those points seems natural. "We've got the highway, we've got the railroad. Why not the water? he said. The port district board, which oversees Waukegan Harbor and the Waukegan Regional Airport, recently approved further research of the idea. Bogdala said there already are many tourists, families and students in the area visiting destinations such as Six Flags Great America or Gurnee Mills. A pleasure passenger cruise line would draw people to Waukegan Harbor and Chicago's downtown, and vice versa.

This isn't the first time the thought of having some sort of aquatic transportation line between via Lake Michigan has been brought up. Similar talks of a high-speed ferry line between Michigan and Illinois with a stop in Waukegan took place in 2003 but did not yield any results. The last "pleasure ferry" that operated between Chicago and Milwaukee was the Pere Marquette, which made stops in Waukegan from 1906 to 1910. Even though the proposed ferry line isn't set in stone quite yet, it would be a useful link to Wisconsin from Illinois.