All aboard! The Pearl Mist ports Milwaukee for the first time this season

MILWAUKEE (CBS 58) -- All aboard! The Pearl Mist is back in the city of Milwaukee.

To see the welcome sign along Port Milwaukee is a lifelong dream for some. Larry Harrell is just one of hundreds of passengers on the Pearl Mist.

“Just absolutely amazing and continuing on through all the Great Lakes. All my life I’ve just wondered about what the Great Lakes are,” said Harrell. “We don’t have any of the big rivers or anything, lakes. Nothing up in the mountains of North Carolina.”

The cruise ship is back in Milwaukee for one of five port calls this season as part of its 10-year agreement with the City of Milwaukee.

“They have seen all over the world, but now is the time when they have started to realize that there is so much beauty in our own country, especially the Midwest, like the Great Lakes,” said Kristen Lambert with the Pearl Mist.

Around 180 people will board the cruise ship to travel the Great Lakes. Lambert says Milwaukee's museums, public market, and atmosphere helped make the Cream City a permanent port on this route.

“Once we visited Milwaukee, we couldn’t go back to Chicago,” said Lambert.

For Harrell, the open water and the Midwest beauty are things he says he can’t get back at home.

“I was here in the late 70s. And this has improved so much. It is absolutely beautiful,” said Harrell.