Excursions – Page 25 – Not Content to Crawl

Festival Saturday

Posted onJune 13, 2015

We woke up to overcast skies this morning and checked the forecast which was calling for rain. This was a real bummer because we had plans to go to the Pride of the Fox Riverfest in St. Charles. We decided to hedge our bets anyway and drove down. We wanted to try a new restaurant for breakfast called Abby’s Breakfast & Lunch. We very rarely eat out for breakfast but I’m glad we tried this place because our waiter was great and the food was delicious. I had their Hawaiian Eggs Benedict which is the best eggs benedict I’ve ever eaten. Everything about them was perfect.

The accompanying hash browns were lightly seasoned which really made them taste better than pretty much any other hashbrowns I’ve had. Needless to say, I enjoyed the meal immensely and wasn’t too upset about the resulting $38 bill (in addition to our entrees, that included Joe’s $8 bloody mary and $2.50 for coffee, plus tax and tip).

After filling our bellies we walked around the festival grounds and quickly got sweaty. The forecast was for the mid 60’s but it felt more like the 80’s! And it wasn’t overcast anymore which made the heat and humidity even more intense. I bought a little $5 necklace to show my Blackhawks love since I don’t own any t-shirts.

One company was giving out waterguns so we had some fun shooting each other.

It felt good too since it was so hot!

After the fest we headed over to Kohls (a different one than we shopped at last weekend). I wanted to see if they had the black river sandals I had ordered. When mine were delivered I noticed a spot on the sandals that wasn’t as smooth as the rest of the shoe. It doesn’t affect their fit, but I’m rather picky and while it’s not a deal breaker, I’d prefer to have a better-made pair. Unfortunately, there weren’t any in my size so I’ll just deal with the ones I have. It’s not like anyone is going to notice (except me).

I couldn’t resist trying on some clothes and shoes, though, and ended up getting a strapless bra ($8) which will be great now that I’ve been looking at summer dresses. I also got these super cute fuscia sandals for under $20 (regularly $60) with my 15% off coupon. They are so comfy!

I guess I lied before about not spending any more money. I’m trying not to go overboard, though. I did end up ordering a bunch of bras from Hanes last weekend but I haven’t gotten them yet. I hope they all fit nicely because my total was $57 for 6 bras (3 regular, 2 sports, and 1 strapless). That’s a great deal if they end up fitting. If not, I will need to take them back to the Hanes outlet to avoid paying shipping.

Fermilab & Pratt’s Wayne Woods

Posted onMay 25, 2015May 25, 2015

Saturday we decided to take advantage of the only dry-weather day the weekend was planning to offer. Our original plan was to visit the Chicago Botanic Garden since their butterfly tent was opening, but when I visited their site to check the times it said due to the cold weather the number of butterflies would be limited. So we decided to postpone that visit. We ended up driving over to Fermilab instead since I see one woman who I follow on Flickr posting photos of birds taken there.

Our visit did not disappoint – I got shots of a duck with her ducklings, a red-winged blackbird, and a killdeer.

It was perplexing to me why as I approached the killdeer she wasn’t moving and started squawking at me until I got home and took a close look at the photo. She was protecting her eggs!

After that encounter we located the bison that I had read about and I got to see a couple of the babies.

After that we were a bit bored so we drove over to Pratt’s Wayne Woods forest preserve to see what we could spot there. Not too many birds, but there were a ton of very large tadpoles about the size of golf balls.

We enjoyed a picnic lunch we had packed and just relaxed for a bit taking in the beautiful day.

Right before leaving we stopped to use the restroom where we spotted this robins nest.

It was another fantastic day with my hubby!

Saturday Birding

Posted onMay 16, 2015

Despite the threat of rain this morning, we headed out to Fabyan Forest Preserve in Geneva anyway, but not before stopping at Jamba Juice to try their new coladas first (they were ok, but not worth the normal price of $4.25 (I had a coupon so they were only $2 each)).

Apparently there was some type of run/walk for cancer at the preserve, so it was a little crowded, but it didn’t stop us from seeing some real cool birds. We even saw an owl! Make that two! We’ve been lamenting for over a year how we never see any owls in the wild so when I spotted a Great Horned Owl way up in a tree we were thrilled. My biggest zoom lens was no match to the distance, and the fact that the sun was behind him, so this was the best I could capture.

As we were scanning the tree-tops for more owls, an Asian man with the biggest zoom lens I’ve ever seen (seriously, it had to be over 1000mm), approached us and pointed out another owl nearby. This one was smaller and brown, which based on my research was likely an Eastern Screech-Owl. He was too far away to photograph, but I used my binoculars to get a look at him.

We also saw several birds we haven’t seen before, including a Barn Swallow, what might have been a Baltimore Oriole (but it moved too much to tell for sure), and a cute Yellow Warbler. Unfortunately I was only able to capture photos of the first one.

After our birding adventure we scoped out some garage sales but didn’t buy anything. Going to garage sales always sounds good in theory but I end up getting burnt out on them super quick. They almost never have anything I’m interested in.

For lunch we stopped at Red Robin because we were both craving a burger. I can’t get enough of the Banzai burger and their spicy ketchup is awesome. Honestly, I think it’s just Frank’s RedHot Sweet Chili sauce mixed with regular ketchup. I hope so, because then I can whip it up at home!

We stopped at the library to grab a couple of movies and then the tailor to pick up my jean shorts. When I was going through all my jeans awhile back I put aside two pairs that fit fine in the waist but were just too short. I dropped them off at the tailor on Monday and asked if she could make them into shorts for me. I’ve wanted jean shorts for awhile but it’s so hard to find any that fit me and I do not like the short cut-offs where it feels like my butt cheeks are on display. I’m happy to say the shorts came out perfectly. They fall just below my knee so I can either wear them that way or cuff them twice so they are right above my knee. Having these shorts will make it much easier to choose outfits in the summer since everything goes with jeans but not everything goes with black shorts (my summer staple for several years).

All in all it was a fantastic day!

Photo Weekend w/ New Lens

Posted onMay 11, 2015May 25, 2015

It was a rather wet weekend here, but Saturday morning it was just overcast so we headed to Lilacia Park to see the tulips and lilacs. It was actually a more comfortable visit than last year because it was only in the 60’s. On top of that, the previous day’s storms left pretty water drops all over the tulips and the lack of harsh sunlight made the photos more evenly lit.

Afterward we visited Cosley Zoo so I could test out my new Canon EF-S 55-250mm F4-5.6 IS STM lens I had ordered earlier in the week. I really wanted the 70-300mm lens but the price has been holding steady at $650 for nearly a year now, so I decided to compromise with 50mm less range for half the price. The lens I got sells for $300 pretty much everywhere, but I ordered it from Buydig.com because they threw in some accessories, including a protective filter for the lens, for free.

I like the reach this lens affords me now. The bobcats are always in the back of their enclosure so I could never get a decent shot of them until buying this lens.

On top of that, the auto-focus on the lens is very quick and the image stabilization works even better than I was anticipating. All my shots came out very sharp even with the added zoom. I’m very excited to use it at other zoos!

Sunday Funday With Birds

Posted onMay 4, 2015

We always have the best weekends and this one was no exception. The weather was beautiful until Sunday late afternoon and we definitely took advantage of that. We had breakfast at the arboretum and then drove around and stopped to take photos. I brought my binoculars to help spot birds. We lucked upon these pretty blue Tree Swallows which I’ve never seen before. Joe actually spotted them first and I was lucky enough to be able to get close enough to them to get a decent shot.

I’m so glad I had my zoom lens with me even though it’s only 135mm. Today’s experience pushed me to just buy a new zoom lens. While ideally I’d like the 70-300mm I just can’t justify spending $650 so I’m going to get the 55-250mm instead which will be either $200 or $300 (depending on which model I choose). That I can stomach. Maybe when I win the lotto I’ll buy the crazy expensive lenses.

I also got some shots of the arboretum’s daffodils. They bloom and then die so quickly that if you blink you’ll miss them.

After the arboretum we went to Herrick Lake to walk around, then ran some errands which included a trip to Home Depot to get flowers for the new planter Joe built last weekend.

I love it!

We also moved our creeping phlox into a new planter which looks way better than the crappy one it was in (we inherited it when we moved in and were too lazy to do anything with it until the plastic started cracking and breaking off).

It was a fantastic spring day; I wish we were wealthy so we could just hit up nature areas every morning and then relax in the afternoons.