Chicago far Northside, August 27

Today I went for a mid day bike ride to check out lake conditions. The upside of last weeks north wind is that now the entire south end of the lake is warm. I was hoping our Evanston beach would be "closed" at least during the week by now, as has happened in past years, but the guards were all set up to take money and make sure we did not get deeper than our nipples. In spite of a strong southwest wind the lake was mostly flat with very small swells and some minor chop. It looked nice. I headed south into Chicago. The Chicago guards were not yet officially out but on their way to their beaches, which means no swimming, even in shallow water. I crashed a private beach where others were wading and playing with dogs, then waded in up to my nipples to get the temperature. No fewer than 3 Chicago police cars drove by and looked at me in the 10 minutes it took to get a good reading, but all stayed in their cars and drove on. There was a guard at a beach near us and he stared at me but did nothing. It was 74.6 degrees and felt nice. But I did not attempt a swim as that would really attract attention. It looks like this weather pattern will be with us through the weekend, so good swimming ahead.