Due to our vacation and the cold rainy weather lately we haven’t done as many of our usual Fall activities this year. We missed attending the Scarecrow Festival in St. Charles or going to the pumpkin patch. We also decided to skip the Haunted Hayride this year so we don’t get sick of it.
We did, however, visit Morton Arboretum this past weekend since we’re members. I even caught a pic of a hawk in flight, albeit a crappy one as it took off when I was trying to get it sitting on a post.
The true reason for our trip, in addition to just wanting to see the trees before all the leaves fell off, and the scarecrows they always put up around the lake, is that I wanted to check out their Glass Pumpkin Patch which was really cool. We didn’t purchase any pumpkins, however, but we were in the minority – we saw lots of people purchasing multiple pieces. The smallest pumpkins were $35 and went well over $100 the larger they got so it just floors me what these people were thinking. I guess it must be nice to drop hundreds of dollars so easily. As much as I liked them, I couldn’t imagine what I’d do with one if I was up to spending the money. I’d be afraid to put it in storage and risk breaking it which means I’d have to put it somewhere I wouldn’t mind seeing it all the time and our house isn’t that large so it would just annoy me after awhile. In fact I didn’t even decorate for Halloween as much as I usually do because I hate clutter. Ah well, enjoy the pics below and read on…
Sunday we visited a new park we recently came across in nearby Wheaton. It has a big pond and a large path that is perfect for biking (especially since it wasn’t very crowded like the park closest to us). Afterwards we had lunch and then visited Willowbrook Wildlife Center.
After the Wildlife Center we visited Cosley Zoo to check out their new bobcat exhibit and renew our membership. It’s not cheap at $59/year (we’d have to visit at least 10 times just to break even) but it has more than paid for itself with the reciprocal deals we get across the country when we vacation in addition to the free admission to Milwaukee Zoo which we tend to visit frequently.
The weekend weather was very nice compared to last weekend and thus it went by far too quickly, as always. *sigh* I really wish I could either work in a library or a nature preserve. Maybe then I wouldn’t have to live for the weekends so much.
Flickr photo sets:
» Morton Arboretum
» Willowbrook Wildlife Center
» Cosley Zoo