Saturday (10/12) started with an emissions test for the Crosstrek and stopping at Menards to buy $46 worth of bird seed.
Then we headed out to Kane County for a guided bird walk at Kenyon Farms Forest Preserve. The walk was pretty uneventful, so afterwards we decided to check out Muirhead Springs in Hampshire, as I noticed some people I follow on Instagram get photos of some unique waterfowl there.
When we arrived at Muirhead we studied the map and were surprised to discover what a long walk to the water area would be, but decided to forge ahead. We took the path (which is a very large loop) toward the left and then proceeded to walk about 2.5 miles over forty minutes before finally reaching the water.
We saw some cool birds there, though, including nine new species which I added to my life list:
American Bittern – American Coot – Black-bellied Whistling Duck – Greater Yellowlegs – Long-billed Dowitcher – Northern Harrier – Northern Pintail – Pied-billed Grebe – Savannah Sparrow
The majority of birds were too far away to get any decent photos, other than the sparrow, howver.
Savannah Sparrow
It made me wish I had brought my tripod, and also owned a longer zoom lens.
When we were ready to leave, we noticed a dirt path that cut right through all the vegetation and directly back to the parking lot. So you’re telling me we didn’t have to walk miles to get to the water? And that the people I saw walking from the right when we first got there were using that path and had we walked that way we would have saved our poor feet? Ugh, well lesson learned I suppose. It made sense, too, since I even remarked to Joe I couldn’t believe how frequently some of the same people were coming there if they had to endure that walk. Turns out, they didn’t. Too bad the forest preserve district doesn’t include that unofficial path on their map! Overall, though, we felt relieved to learn of the shortcut, otherwise we probably wouldn’t want to go back. That initial trek was brutal! The walk back to the car was a breeze.
We decided to stop at Beef Shack for lunch and enjoyed our food outside on their patio. They truly have the best beef sandwich I’ve ever had. I don’t know why anyone still eats at Portillo’s. There’s just no comparison between the two. Portillo’s beef is flavorless, fatty, and chewy, whereas Beef Shack’s is full of flavor and tender. Their hand cut fries are delicious as well.
Sunday (10/13) we stopped at Home Depot to return the patio umbrella and stand I had ordered online because they are too big and the umbrella didn’t sit snug in the stand anyway and therefore wouldn’t stand up straight. Our current umbrella is the one my parents bought when we are kids and that my mom gave me a few years ago, and is now finally falling apart. Part of that is because when we tilt it, it rubs against the overhang by the patio door which has torn the fabric. I can’t seem to find an umbrella that is short enough to clear that area but can still tilt, which is necessary given the position of the sun in the afternoons. The hunt continues!
We decided to try a place called Blackberry Market in Glen Ellyn for breakfast since they have outdoor seating. Was it a bit cool outside? Yes, but it wasn’t horrible, and it was fun feeding some biscuit crumbs to the little sparrows that were brave enough to get very close to us. We split their Farmhouse Breakfast with scrambled eggs, a cinnamon roll, and Joe got a coffee.
The food was ok. I didn’t realize they used sweet potatoes in addition to the regular potatoes in the breakfast platter. I don’t mind sweet potatoes, but I don’t care for them for breakfast. If we went back I’d request they use all regular potatoes instead. Unfortunately I had just made an apple cake with a cinnamon buttercream frosting at home that week, and the cinnamon roll tasted almost exactly the same, minus the apple, so I didn’t enjoy it as much as I would have because I was burnt out on that flavor. But let me assure you, it was delicious, and it was pretty big too!
After breakfast we headed to the arboretum for a few hours and swung by Hidden Lake afterwards to look for the Sage Thrasher but could not find it. I was hopeful it had found it’s way back home in the west, but later saw more photos of it being posted, so it was just hiding I guess.
Our final stop was the Danada Equestrian Center for their fall fest.
We got there right at the start at 11 am and were surprised by how many people just kept driving in. We hung out for maybe an hour to watch some of the horse demonstrations.
Arabian Horse
We decided not to eat lunch there as the offerings (2 food trucks) were rather paltry. Our parking lot was full when we left and they were directing cars to a huge field nearby. I probably wouldn’t bother attending that fest again because there wasn’t a bunch to do for adults. Plenty to do if you have kids, though.