The Algonquin Princess had barely pulled away from the dock when a man standing on a pier across from the boat put a trumpet to his lips and started playing “Summertime,” the bluesy classic with spiritual overtones from George Gershwin’s opera “Porgy and Bess.”
As the first few strains of the song carried over the Fox River and softly echoed back, the 18 passengers on board the Princess couldn’t help but applaud the unexpected and delightful performance.
“What a perfect start to the trip!” someone on deck said, and so it was.
“Summertime, and the living is easy” is the first lyric of Gershwin’s famous song, and life was indeed easy, at least for the next two hours and 15 minutes for those aboard the Algonquin Princess, a faux paddle boat operated by Capt. Bob Schweihs for Port Edward restaurant in Algonquin.
It was Father’s Day, and this was the dinner cruise, departing from the restaurant’s dock immediately north of the Illinois Highway 62 bridge and heading north five miles to the U.S. Highway 14 bridge between Cary and Fox River Grove and back. The evening was pleasantly warm, the air still and the river’s surface reflecting-pool smooth. Cruising speed aboard the 54-ton double-decker boat was about 5 miles per hour, just fast enough to create a gently rolling wake.
This is the sixth season that the Algonquin Princess has been taking people for sightseeing and fine dining along the Fox River. It is also the sixth season for the Flossiebelle and Anna Marie, dinner cruise boats owned by Dobyns House restaurant in McHenry, near the southern entrance to the Chain O’ Lakes.
At the mention of dinner boat cruises, most people in the northwest suburbs probably think of Chicago’s lakeshore or Lake Geneva, Wis. But thousands of others know that the Fox River from Algonquin north to the Chain O’ Lakes offers similar dining charms, courtesy of the Algonquin Princess, Flossiebelle and Anna Marie.
“I’m enjoying this immensely!” said Erwin Von Bergen of Elmhurst, after finishing his dinner of steak and shrimp brochettes aboard the Algonquin Princess. The dinner cruise was a Father’s Day gift from his son and dining companion, Bob Von Bergen, also of Elmhurst.
“The food was excellent. It’s so relaxing,” the elder Von Bergen said. And, he added, as the umpteenth speed boat zoomed by with smiles and waves from its riders, “everyone is so friendly.”
It’s hard not to smile at the Princess, certainly one of the most distinctive boats on the river. The boat measures 78 feet long by 17 feet wide and features a paddle wheel at the stern (purely for effect, as twin 110-horsepower Volvo diesel engines and four propellers power the boat) and a canopied upper deck 15 feet above the water. The upper deck has nearly 50 patio chairs and several small coffee tables for people to sit and talk and sip cocktails before and after dinner. Dinner is served in the wood-paneled, enclosed and climate-controlled first deck.
Capt. Schweihs, 60, of Algonquin said he bought the boat specifically for dinner cruises after retiring from Algonquin Imports, a Subaru dealership he owned. Schweihs hails from Hamburg, Germany, and still has the accent to prove it. As a young man, he sailed in the German merchant marine. But one day in 1962, while his ship was docked in Chicago, Schweihs realized he had fallen in love with a young lady and could not leave her. So he jumped ship and married the girl (they recently divorced).
“I started out on the water and I am ending up on the water,” he said with a laugh.
Schweihs’ longtime friend and former Algonquin Imports auto mechanic Jim Boettcher of Algonquin handled the boat as Schweihs made the rounds among the dinner guests and entertained them with stories of the sights they were seeing. For most of the guests, the favorite sights were the shoreline houses, including one featuring what Schweihs jokingly referred to as “McHenry County’s only one-hole par two golf course.” The yard, on the river’s west bank between Algonquin and Cary, slopes from the house down to the river and has a putting green complete with cup and flagstick at the water’s edge. Schweihs said the homeowner sometimes shoots from his back porch, over the yard and to the green.
For Lori Moretti of Schaumburg, life aboard the Princess was great entertainment, even though the dinner cruise with her husband, Mario, sister-in-law Lina Moretti of Naperville and father Gerald Schaade of Naperville started with a misunderstanding. Lori had asked her father where he would like to have dinner for Father’s Day, and he answered Port Edward.
“He meant the restaurant. I thought he meant the Port Edward boat,” Lori said with a laugh. “But it’s worked out great. We’ve had lots of fun. There’s a lot of entertainment . . . the trumpet player at the beginning of the trip and people doing tricks on their jet skis.”
The trumpet solo and jet ski acrobatics were impromptu performances, a part of life along that stretch of the river. The trumpet player was retired plumber and part-time musician Frankie Trnka of Algonquin, who happens to have a boat docked across the river and a few hundred feet north of Port Edward.
“He just started coming out with his trumpet and serenading us as we leave the dock,” Boettcher said. “This boat may be the Princess, but she’s the queen of the river.”
The folks at Dobyns House feel the same about their boats. The Flossiebelle and Anna Marie are identical; they measure 52 feet long and 16 feet wide and resemble European canal boats. They are fully enclosed, except for a small area at the bow where passengers may stand and take in the scenery as the boats cruise the northern stretch of the Fox River and Pistakee Lake and Pistakee Bay at the southern end of the Chain O’ Lakes. The Chain is actually a series of wide spots in the Fox River that begins near the Illinois-Wisconsin border.
The boats’ interiors sparkle from polished brass ceilings, walls and chair rails. Large windows afford passengers who stay inside a good view.
For Doug and Lori Campbell, the lunch cruise aboard the Flossiebelle was a great way to celebrate their sixth wedding anniversary–and to look from the Chain O’ Lakes to shore instead of the other way round. The couple lives on Red Head Lake, one of the lakes of the Chain.
“We’ve been on the boats at Lake Geneva and so thought it would be fun to try this cruise,” Doug said. “It’s a nice ride . . . very smooth, even with the speed boats. And the food was good.”
Shirley McFaul of Naperville was taking the Flossiebelle lunch cruise courtesy of her sister Jan and brother-in-law John Park of McHenry. The Parks decided to treat Shirley to the cruise to help her celebrate her 53rd birthday.
“This has been a fun afternoon,” McFaul said. “We’re enjoying the house watching. The houses are all so different. You can tell that a lot of them started as summer cottages. It’s fun to see the people out on their boats or swimming, too. I was on a Lake Michigan cruise once. There you see skyscrapers. Here you see people.”
And what about the food? “Excellent,” she said. The Dobyns House lunch and dinner cruises feature a choice of two entrees, which vary according to the day of the week. McFaul, her sister and brother-in-law chose chateau chicken, a boneless sauteed breast of chicken served with a mushroom and white wine sauce, a blend of white and wild rice, a salad and strawberry shortcake for dessert.
During the trip, Capt. Ken Bruce used an intercom to relate the history of tour boats along the river (such boats began plying the waters more than 100 years ago, he said) as well as to point out small islands and resorts dating to the 1920s that dot Pistakee Bay. He also described some of the magnificent homes that overlook the water, including a stately mansion with arched windows, a swimming pool and a beautifully landscaped lawn that slopes down to the water and which just was put on the market for a mere $815,000.
That home and dozens of others along the Chain and the river provided plenty to look at and discuss for five women, all graduates of Chicago’s Amundsen High School Class of 1949, who decided to get together on the Flossiebelle.
“The scenery is great, and the fresh air is wonderful,” said Roberta Nesse of Chicago, who was enjoying the trip with her friends Betty Shipan of Chicago, Barbara Nueske and Betty Ohm of McHenry and Gloria Mohr of Hoffman Estates. Nueske and Ohm suggested the lunch cruise.
“A lot of us were out here as kids,” Nesse said. “It’s amazing to see all these big homes. When we were kids they were just little summer cottages, most of them. It’s fun to see how they’ve been fixed up and added to.”
Food for all three boats is prepared at the restaurants on shore and then loaded into containers like those used by airlines.
People at both restaurants said senior citizen groups often take the lunch cruises, especially on weekdays. Dinner crowds are usually younger, often couples who are dating or married couples who want a relaxing night out.
“We get a lot of couples who are celebrating wedding anniversaries or birthdays,” said Lynn Bruce, cruise office manager at Dobyns House (and wife of Capt. Ken Bruce). “The special charter groups are usually great to work with, too. A boatload of people for a wedding or reception is lots of fun.”
If actions speak louder than words, then the actions of Diane Schaefer of McHenry indicate just how much fun a Fox River dinner cruise can be. Schaefer waits tables as a member of the Dobyns House cruise crew.
“I came on a cruise for my wedding anniversary,” she said. “I liked it so much that I applied for a job on the crew and got it. It’s great fun.”
ALL ABOARD!
Algonquin Princess
Port of call: Port Edward restaurant, Algonquin
Captain: Bob Schweihs
Boat specs: 54-ton, double-deck “paddle” boat
Destination: Fox River; cruises go from restaurant dock, just north of Illinois Highway 62 bridge, 5 miles north to U.S. Highway 14 bridge and back
Seats: 48
Cruise specs: Lunch and dinner cruises every day except Monday, May through October. Lunch cruises ($23.95) board at 11:30 a.m.; dinner ($34.95) at 6 p.m.
Others: Sightseeing cruises Saturdays and Sundays, and moonlight cruises Fridays and Saturdays.
Phone: 708-658-3660.
Flossiebelle and Anna Marie
Port of call: Dobyns House restaurant, McHenry
Captains: Ken Bruce and Kip Elliott
Boat specs: 20-ton, fully enclosed boats
Destination: Chain O’ Lakes via the Fox River
Seats: 49 each
Cruise specs: Lunch and dinner cruises every day except Monday, May through October. Lunch cruises ($25.59) board at 11:30 a.m. (1:30 p.m. Sundays); dinner cruises ($35.21 Tuesdays through Thursdays; $36.77 Fridays through Sundays) at 6:30 p.m. Tuesdays through Fridays, 6 p.m. Saturdays and 5 p.m. Sundays.
Others: Sunday breakfast cruises
Phone: 815-385-3535.
