Evanston, July 8

Today we are late. We don't get in the water until just before 10, time for a quick halfway swim before the guards are out, and if they are early we might get yelled at. They are not today, so we can do a little extra around the sanctioned swim area. The water is flat and warm, 69-70 with about 8 feet underwater visibility. I switched to a latex cap and Mike was capless so it was just about perfect. We were not in a great hurry so we enjoyed one of the great beach days of the summer. Before we left we went into the "open" water under the watchful eyes of the lifeguards. I found some sort of frisbee under the water and we tossed that around for about half an hour.

Added later: Apparently while we were having fun playing in the water only a short distance to the south the Chicago beaches were all closed due to E-Coli. We haven't had so many closures this summer, largely due to the fact that the amount of permissible E-Coli was increased by a factor of 4. But it seems that there was still too much. One action Chicago has taken is to hire dogs to chase away birds and water fowl who foul the water. Somehow this outbreak did not affect Evanston, at least not today.