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.