Camping and Family Fun in Yorkville, Illinois

Tuesday, August 20, 2013

Yesterday, we departed Blackhawk Valley Campground in Rockford and drove 1 1/2 hours to Yorkville, Illinois. The road leading to Hide-A-Way Lakes was closed due to construction, so we had to make a last minute adjustment to our course, but arrived here without any other issues.

I assure you, we wouldn't normally be staying at a campground like this, except it is close to our son Brad and his family, and saves a lot of driving for us.  Hide-A-Way Lakes was not rated very high and it has more than lived up to it's rating.  We are in the full hookup sites and they are average sites, mostly level, with plenty of shade, and the Fox River is just a stone throw away.  What hurts this place is the condition of their buildings, the old rusty no longer used equipment sitting around rusting, and the seasonal sites that have not been maintained for years!  Some have man eating weeds that engulf the RVs, and a visit by Mister Clean would go a long way to making some necessary improvements. Due to the lack of rain, the gravel roads kick up a ton of dust when someone drives by or a small breeze happens to blow. Other than that, this place is great! Cough, Cough!

But, we are tough folks and can tolerate such adverse conditions!  Besides, we are here to see Brad and his family, and help them pack up for their move, so we spend very little time at the campground.

Today is the last day the kids have before school starts on Wednesday.  We are going to spend today with the grand children, Brooke, Bradly, and Jacob.  After today, it will be pack and pack until we can't pack anymore, then load the truck, and clean up the house before the new owners take over.

Brooke spent Monday night with us and we really enjoyed the one on one time with her.  Bradly and Jacob have soccer camp every evening this week. So, they joined us in the morning.

Brooke likes to make bracelets, and, as you can see, she had plenty of help!  Even Kallie  helped!
That's Bradly in front.
L to R: Brooke, Kallie, and Jacob

After lunch, we took them to the nearby Family Fun Center where they raced go karts

played mini golf, and had a water war.

Here's Speedy Bradly!

This is Jacob The Jet!

Catch Me If You Can Brooke!

Drivers, start your engines!  The race is on!  Here they come around the curve!

Wow!  That was fun and no one hit the wall or each other!

Now it's on to mini golf.  As you can see, the kids are anxiously watching to see me hit a hole in one.  OOPS, missed again!

It was a real nail biter, but Jacob managed to pull off a victory on the last hole!

Now, it's time for water wars!  This is played by putting a water ball into giant sling shot and slinging it over to the person in the next booth.  The object being to get the opponent as wet as possible,  Here, Jacob and Brooke are about to drench Bradly, and they mean business!

But, Bradly is going to return the favor!

As you can see, they got a little wet, but had lots of fun doing it!  No mom, they didn't have their shoes on!

We really enjoyed our fun day with the grand children, and hope we can have more days just like this one.  But, now it's on to packing for the move and the kids head off to school the rest of the week.  Darn School, anyway!

Chicago Botanic Garden, Glencoe, Illinois

Monday, August 12, 2013

My brother Reid and his wife Margo invited Kitty and me to go with them to see  the Chicago Botanic Gardens in Glencoe, Illinois.  Glencoe is actually about 20 miles north of Chicago and close to the Lake Michigan's western shore line.  Since Kitty is a Master Gardener, and the Chicago Botanic Gardens has a model railroad train (Reid and I are railroad fans), we just had to see this place, and we were really glad we did!  It wasn't a good day, weather wise, for taking pictures.  But, as you will see, this place is really beautiful.

From our campground in Rockford, we drove east on I-90, then north on Illinois 53, then east again on Lake Cook Road where we hooked up with Reid and Margo.  Since they have an annual pass, we drove their car into the garden.

The Chicago Botanic Garden is absolutely beautiful.  It is clean, well manicured, and a delightful place to spend a day.  The plants and flowers are always in full bloom, and when they are not at their peak, they get replaced immediately.

I hope you will enjoy these pictures even though it was difficult to capture the true colors due to the cloud cover.

First, let me introduce the cast of characters.

L to R: Craig, Margo, Kitty, and Reid

That must be the fountain of youth behind us!  Ha!               

As soon as we arrived, we boarded a tram for a 2.3 mile trip around the gardens.  The narrator informed us the 385 acre park has 26 gardens and 4 natural habitats.  The Skokie River runs through the gardens forming nine islands, and there are over 2.5 million plants in the gardens.  This blog will only cover a small portion of the gardens.

 Then we went into the visitors center to get more information and maps.  As we left the visitors center and entered the gardens, I took these pictures.

The fountain in the rose garden is shaped like a rose with 5 petals.

We walked over to see the model railroad garden first, then to the Japanese Island (stunningly beautiful), and ended up at Evening Island to enjoy a Carillon concert.  The model railroad garden has 18 trains ("G" scale), 26 bridges, 1700 feet of tracks, and 45 national landmarks.  These landmarks are all carved out of wood or other natural materials.

This is what a garden train looks like. 

One of the 18 trains is a Thomas Train.  Watch out for The Thomas Train.  It's a killer!  It derailed when it ran over a toad that was sitting on the track and killed it!  For real!

These next several pictures show some of the 45 national land marks carved from wood.  This is Cap Cod.

Mesa Verde

 Old faithful spouts off every minute.

 The Statue of Liberty

 The Chicago Cubs play at Wrigley Field, complete with a vine covering the outfield wall!

Mt Rushmore

I have lots more pictures of the model railroad garden.  But, now it's on to the Japanese Island.  I think this is the prettiest place of all the gardens.

There are several water falls on the Japanese Island. 

 The river is teeming with fish.  I took this next picture of some large carp that came to the surface to greet us as we crossed the Zig Zag Bridge.  Check out the carp on the top of this picture, and read his lips.  He's saying "Hello"!  Ha!

Now it's time to head over to Evening Island so we can listen to the Carillon Concert.  The carillon tower was constructed in 1986 and consists of 48 cast bronze bells.  The smallest bell is 24 pounds and the largest is 5000 pounds.  They are played by musicians that come from all over the world.  They play the carillon on a key board similar to the key board on an organ.

This song took two people to play.

Now, here's a question I'll bet you can NOT answer.  What do they call the musicians that play a carillon? Text me, email me, or leave a comment on this blog with the correct answer and you will win a fabulous prize!  No, No, No, the answer is not old ladies, and it's not carillon players either!

I hope you enjoyed this little tour of the Chicago Botanic Gardens.  I have dozens more pictures and it was really hard narrowing the selection down for this blog.

Light Houses in Milwaukee, Wisconsin

Thursday, August 8, 2013

Today we crossed another item off our list of things we wanted to do while staying here in Rockford.  We made the one hour and forty minute trip to Milwaukee to view three light houses.  We have been wanting to do this since 2009 when we viewed all of the light houses north of Chicago along the western shore of Lake Michigan through Wisconsin except for the three in Milwaukee.

We intended to make this trip earlier.  But, Kallie has been very sick and we could not leave her at the camper unattended and we couldn't take her with us.  A trip to the vet on Monday and two shots and a bottle of pills has her back on the right track.  At least now her food is going in and coming out the right direction, if you know what I mean!

We headed to the first light station located at the Milwaukee water front area at the mouth of the Menomonee River.  We arrived at the water front area just after one o'clock.  Our stomachs were telling us it was time to eat, and, low and behold, we pulled up to a nice water front restaurant along the river.  Since it was a perfect day, we ate outside and enjoyed the food and the view.

This is the view of the river from the restaurant.  This area is full of factories and warehouses.  However, the block that the restaurant was on has been completely renovated and now has condos and several little shops.  The board walk goes all the way to the lake front and light station.  Each plank has historical events that shaped this area since 1845 engraved in them.

This shot is a two for one!  The Pierhead light is on the right, and the Breakwater light is in the background on the left.

The pierhead light was originally established in 1872, but was an open-framework.  In 1906 is was replaced with the current structure.  The tower is constructed with 3/8 inch thick steel plates and is eleven feet six inches in diameter at the base, and 42 feet high.  It was equipped with a Fourth Order Fresnel lens that was made in Paris in 1877.  The lens was later changed to a Fifth Order Fresnel lens which is still in operation today.  It flashes every four seconds and guides ships into the river mouth from a distance of 12 miles out in the lake.

The Milwaukee Breakwater Light was established in 1926 at the end of the outer breakwater.  It can only be accessed by boat, and is not open to the public.  It is a four story structure providing living quarters for the light keeper.  The keeper of this light also tended to the Pierhead light.  There are no keepers there now, but the light is still an active navigation aid.   

This shot was taken with a telephoto lens.

Driving a few mile north to Lake Park, we found North Point Lighthouse.  The original structure was built in 1855.  At that time, the tower was only 30-feet tall.  But, by the early 1900's, local trees were already encroaching the tower.  So, in 1912 the tower was raised an additional 35-feet.  The keepers quarters is now a museum, and the light is still active.

This view is from the lake side.

We realized it was now late afternoon and we scurried back to the car knowing we were in for a slow ride home in the Milwaukee rush hour traffic.  To make matters worse, road construction had  closed the on ramp we needed.  We finally got headed in the right direction, but all four lanes were at a stand still.  It was like being in a gigantic parking lot!  For the next five miles traffic was creeping along, then suddenly, we were zooming along on our way back home.  

Getting wrapped up in rush hour traffic did not dampen our spirits.   When we got home, we found our camping neighbor, Sue, was taking Kallie for a walk.  We really appreciated her thoughtfulness. It helped make a great day even better!  We really love seeing light houses.  Each one has a unique story to tell and has greatly improved navigation, savings lives, and helping our county to grow and prosper.

Touring Winnebago County Forest Preserves, Rockford, Illinois

Monday, July 29, 2013

Winnebago County has several nice forest preserves that are great places to kick back, relax, or enjoy a family picnic, or some scenic hiking trails.  Some of the forest preserves have camping facilities with electric hook ups and dump stations.  We've enjoyed camping at Sugar River and Honnenegah Forest Preserve, both just a few miles from our home when we lived in this area. There are three more forest preserves within just a couple of miles of our campground (Blackhawk Valley Campground).   We have been driving by these three forest preserves almost daily for the last four weeks, and each time we would look at each other and say, "We just gotta stop and check out these forest preserves."

Well, today we finally did just that.  Kitty, Kallie, and I made the short drive down Blackhawk Road to Kishwaukee River Forest Preserve.  It was established in 1927 and has a paved trail that connects to Blackhawk Springs and Espenschied Memorial Forest Preserve

This is a shelter house call Fort Vincennes.

I could not find any history on the internet regarding this shelter.  But, the stone work certainly looks like a structure that may have been built by the CCC 's back in the 1930's.  Since the park was established in 1927, it's possible the CCC built this shelter.

This is a view of the Kishwaukee River that flows a short distance from the shelter.

Our next stop was Blackhawk Springs Forest Preserve.  This park was established in 1978, and has a paved walking path that conncects to Espenschied and Kishwaukee Forest Preserves.  We choose to take the path leading back to Kishwaukee Forest Preserve because it was shorter than the other route, and it ran along the Kishwaukee River.

As we walked along the path, we came to this bridge with a small creek running under it that empties into the Kishwaukee River.

Peeking through the foliage, I snapped this picture of the Kishwaukee River.

The path was an easy walk and mostly shaded which provide a bit of cooling relief from the hot July sun.  But, despite a coating of bug spray, we almost got carried away by the giant mosquitoes. One of them landed in front of Kallie and stood there looking at her eye to eye! Ha!

Our last stop today was at Espenshied Memorial Forest Preserve established in 1979.  Since our blood supply was depleted from the previous walk, we just stopped here long enough to take a couple of photos and headed back to our campground.

Kallie wants to go for a swim!

Blooze Brothers Perform in Rockford, Illinois

Thursday, July 25, 2013

Our neighbor Sue came walking by and asked if we were going to the concert tonight.  "The Blooze Brothers are performing at Sinnissippi Park tonight and it's FREE."  I have to admit the word free got our attention!

During the summer months, the city of Rockford provides The Sounds of Summer at the music shell in Sinnissippi Park.  Tonight, The Blooze Brothers, a tribute band to the Blues Brothers, is on stage from 7:00 pm to 8:30 pm.  We weren't sure what to expect, but it sounded interesting.  So, we hopped into the car and headed to the park.  Well, maybe it's more accurate to say we plopped into the car and tried to find our way to the park!

Sinnissippi Park is located along the Rock River on highway 251.  Highway 251 runs north and south through Rockford and is only a short distance from our campground.  However, we encountered a detour along the way coupled with a wrong turn on my part, and we were suddenly in the wrong part of town as it's starting to get dark.  Not a good thing!

But, we got our bearings and arrived at the park and waited in line to park the car.  Before we could get parked and walk to the music shell, sirens started blowing.  No! It wasn't the police, it was the opening act!

This high energy 12 piece band will put a smile on your face and make you want to stomp your feet, clap your hands, and maybe even get up and dance!  I couldn't believe all the people that were here.  People of all ages and everyone was having a great time as the Blooze Brothers put on an upbeat performance that included music from the 40's to the top ten, swing, Motown, and Rock. Plus they threw in some of the crazy stuff the Blues Brothers were famous for.

I didn't take my camera, so these pictures were taken with my cell phone.  As it got darker, the picture quality suffered so I didn't upload the rest of the pictures.

We plan to attend more of these shows while we are here.  But, next time, we'll get there early enough to get a seat instead of sitting on the concrete steps.  This show gets a high rating on our value meter, not just because it was free, but also entertaining and fun!