Category: Animals

Staycation Day 9 – Saturday

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All we did today is attend a BBQ thrown by my SIL at the place she moved to a few months ago down in boo-foo Illinois which is over an hour drive from our place. The guy she’s living with is the father of her Arizona next door neighbor and is a very good cook. He smoked a handful of meats – bologna, brisket, ribs, and hot dogs, which all came out great.

His neighbor, who has a huge stable on his property with horses, has a dog named Ghost. The dog spends all his time over on this guy’s property, however, than at his own home, and he was at the party being his adorable sweet self.

Ghost

That’s all she wrote. I’m too tired to get into specifics of the day other than to say it was nice to see family even though my stomach hurt which sucked. Also, I’m so tired of going places and having to be social. My introverted self has hit capacity. Tomorrow we’re going to Target for food and I’m not speaking to anyone but Joe.

Zoos

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Last Saturday, the 12th, was a beautiful day in Chicagoland. Joe’s son was playing in a band competition so we started off the morning trying a new restaurant called Stacked near his high school. After much deliberation, I decided to order the banana bread french toast which was amazing. Seriously, it was so rich and filling that I couldn’t finish it and took a whole slice (the dish comes with three) home. It came topped with fresh bananas and a side of some seriously mouthwatering honey cream cheese. It was the perfect fuel to get through sitting in the high school for two hours.

Lamb

Later that afternoon we stopped at Cosley Zoo to check out the new lamb(s) and renew our membership. We don’t necessarily visit the zoo enough in one year to recoup the membership cost but that’s where their reciprocal agreement comes in. This year we plan to visit Des Moines’ Blank Park Zoo where we’ll get free admission (a $22 savings) and Omaha’s Henry Doorly Zoo (a $15 savings) so after paying $59 we’ve already recouped $37. We only have to visit Cosley Zoo three times in a year (@ $3 per person) to fully recoup the cost of membership and that’s if we don’t end up visiting one of the zoos in Wisconsin at all since one trip to Milwaukee County Zoo would save us $28.50 and one trip to Racine Zoo would save us $8.00 (it’s a very small zoo). Honestly, if you live in the Chicago burbs and like visiting zoos you should really buy a membership from Cosley instead of the one from Brookfield Zoo (unless, of course, you prefer visting Brookfield but I’ve been going there since I was a toddler so it’s not that exciting anymore).


Hooded Merganser

Bobcats

Zoo

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Giraffes

Saturday we took E to Brookfield Zoo after scoring free admission passes, including tickets to the dolphin show, from a friend I made through the cat rescue I work with. I took a lot of pictures of the giraffes because Brookfield has the largest collection I’ve ever seen. Plus they were really cute and inquisitive about the tortoises that share their habitat.

Giraffe investigating tortoise

The dolphin show sucked. It wasn’t anything like I remember when I was a kid, not to mention it was only 20 minutes long. They used to jump out of the water much higher and often than they do now. Had we wasted $4 per person for tickets I would have been pissed. I also wasn’t too happy about the fact that the only way to see the zoo’s lemurs is to pay extra to enter their children’s zoo, although we opted not to as it’s $3.50 per person and lemurs aren’t that exciting.

Look, I understand the zoo needs to make money to update their exhibits and care for the animals, but at some point it just feels like they are nickel and dime-ing the public. Next thing you know there will be a fee to enter Tropic World Asia, and that will be the last time I ever see the gorillas. They look bored out of their minds which is painful to witness as it is.

Joe’s sister came over for dinner that evening and Bella had a great time running around with Winston and licking him. He wasn’t phased by her at all and she wasn’t scared of him like she was with the cats or our hamster, Nougat. It was really cute how excited she got being able to play with him. Winston is very friendly with everyone he meets and I’m glad we adopted him.

Wildlife Photo Extravaganza

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A couple of weeks ago Brother #2 spent the week at our place since he’s currently off work thanks to a broken wrist. The weather was overcast and rainy the majority of the week but we did get to visit Willowbrook Wildlife Center where I got a fantastic photo of their resident bald eagle (although you can kinda still see the cage bars in the photo) as well as a few photos of the peregrine falcon outside his cage. We just happened upon a volunteer bringing him back to his cage and had a nice chat with her. Prior to that I was also happy to snag a photo of the eastern bluebird that is housed indoors.

Bald Eagle

Peregrine Falcon

Last weekend Joe and I visited the grand opening of a new nature center at a forest preserve we had never visited before (LeRoy Oakes). Afterwards we saw the butterflies at Peck Farm Park, ate some yummy Pad Thai and lemon bundt cake at the Taste of Wheaton, and finished our afternoon at Cosley Zoo where I finally got a decent photo of their bluejay. I never see them in the wild and the ones at Willowbrook hop around too much and are not in bright lighting making all my pictures turn out blurry.

Bluebird

We contemplated visiting the zoo in Milwaukee on Sunday but the weather wasn’t looking too good so we went down to our old stomping grounds instead and visited the Little Red Schoolhouse and Lake Katherine*, stopping for some unremarkable hot dogs before heading home in a drizzle.

* Interestingly enough, you’ll find my name listed in their website credits as having contributed photographs. I do recall someone emailing me years ago when they were redesigning the website asking for permission to use them, which I granted, but when I visit the site I am hard-pressed to identify any of the photos as mine.

Everyone Loves Dogs

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The Saturday before last we went to the Taste of Glen Ellyn which was ok, but nothing big. Tastes always disappoint me because they tend to have the same old boring food from the same old boring vendors every year. After walking around for less than an hour we were ready to leave, so we decided to check out a place I’ve been wanting to try for awhile called Penn Station. They are known for having one of the best Philly Cheese Steak sandwiches in the western burbs, and while I did enjoy mine, nothing compares to the one I had when in Mesa, Arizona in 2009. Sad, isn’t it, that it’s so far away?!?

After lunch we decided to go to Herrick Lake since we hadn’t been there since sometime last year, but first we scoped out a new-to-us forest preserve called Blackwell. It’s huge! Even more surprising was that it has its own campground area which is open on Friday and Saturday nights from May-September. It’s probably a great way to get that camping feeling without having to go all out.

On the way to do some errands later that day we passed a festival in Carol Stream called Just Play. After learning more about it online we decided to check it out on Sunday morning when it opened. They had a zipline which would have been fun to ride but the line was over an hour long. We shared a yummy orange strawberry mango smoothie and checked out the BMX bikers instead. They make their tricks look so easy but I’m sure it takes a lot of time and practice. I debated trying to take some photos and a video of their tricks but decided to sit back and enjoy the show instead so you’ll just have to trust me when I say it was very cool.

After getting a little sunburn I was no longer in the mood for any further outdoor activities so we hung out watching tv the rest of the day.

This past weekend we had E over and even though it was unseasonably cool, we went to a nearby park for awhile to get some fresh air. Turns out this park has a zipline so I finally got to ride one. It’s much closer to the ground than the one at the festival but it was still a little thrill to ride. The park has a large pond too so I got to use my trusty little binoculars to watch a beautiful egret near the shoreline on the opposite side of the pond. I was also hissed at by a Canada goose protecting some babies hidden under its partner’s wing so that was interesting.

Bella

We had Bella with us at the park as we are dog-sitting this weekend and I met a couple and their hound dogs and another couple with their toddler who wanted to pet the doggy. It’s funny how much friendlier people are to you when you have a dog in tow.