Great Lakes history
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Shipwreck lover Valerie Van Heest
- By treasures
- On 24/11/2008
- In People or Company of Interest
By John Hogan
Imagine standing on the deck of a boat in the middle of a choppy Lake Michigan, with wind-blown rain buffeting your face like rice at a wedding.
Not exactly the ideal way to spend your 48th birthday.
Yet Valerie van Heest prefers this sort of mid-September activity to strolling Chicago's Magnificent Mile with friends and a charge card.The conversion came 20 years ago, when van Heest met a group of people who shared her long-dormant love of Great Lakes history.
"In 1988, my life changed," she said."All my friends were people from work, and my time was spent either shopping for clothes or working. I forgot how much I missed the water."