Marking the End of Summer

I know it's not technically Fall yet, but Labor Day weekend always feels like things are officially winding down. So, the last few years, we've tried to do something to mark the end of summer.

This year, we went with some friends to explore a forest preserve not too far from us. We recently got a bike trailer for the boys and the draw of this preserve was that it has a bike trail loop. It's nearly 8 miles around, which was a lot to bite off for us, but we made it! I took the first half, and Hubby finished. It's amazing how different the ride was with and without the trailer!

The trail was paved, which was lovely. It went past a range of scenery; woods, ponds, a river, prairie flowers, and highways and there were a few bridges, which the kids enjoyed.

In this park, there's an area for elk; a small herd lives there. From the map, it looked like a good sized grove for them to roam around in and I expected that we'd probably not see any. So it was cool when, at the bottom of one of the bridges, there were some elk sitting near the fence; this inspired us to take a welcome break to appreciate the lovely creatures.

After our trip around the loop, we had a picnic lunch. Then, we brought out some kites and a ball to kick around. We didn't stay for too much longer; nap time loomed as well as a storm, so we called it a day.

Still, such a good time! It's always exciting to find a new place to explore and I'm glad to have another place to take out the bikes; riding around the neighborhood streets isn't nearly so fun or picturesque. We'll definitely be going back again.

A Last Summer Adventure

Chicago has two sets of trains that run through it: the El, and the Metra. The El is noisy and clunky, but it runs pretty reliably; plus, it's generally only a 10 or 15 min wait between trains during off-peak hours and much less during rush periods. The Metra (the suburban commuter train) is slick, quiet and fast. However, their schedule is very rigid, and during off-peak hours often only comes once and hour; even less often on holidays.

The El is something we use fairly frequently, but the Metra is a novelty. So, for our last summer hurrah this year, we decided to introduce Townshend and Moon to the Metra. Our plan was to take the train a few stops over, picnic at a park and then ride it home. This seemed like a nice, chill use of a holiday Monday and an easy win 'cuz Townshend loves all things with wheels!

it still counts as a first ride, even if he sleeps the whole way, right?

So the day dawned, bright and lovely, and we made it to the train on time. There was a little excitement when, about 5 mins before our train arrived, they announced that we had to switch sides of the platform but that was a quick, easy adjustment. The train arrived on time and away we went. A few stops later we hopped off and found our park, just across the street from the station (so there was no getting lost - another win!).

Though, as it happened, what was called a park online turned out to be more of a garden in real-life (read: no playground). Still, we enjoyed walking the paths and looking around before settling in for our picnic lunch.

After lunch, we played with some balls we'd brought and walked around a little more to kill time before the train was scheduled to come take us home again.

Despite it being September, Chicago has been enjoying a late-summer heatwave. By this point in the afternoon, the sun was high and it was getting pretty hot. Still, we found a bit of shade and settled in to wait for the 15 mins before the train was supposed to be there.

waiting for the train that would never come

And waited. And waited. Finally, they announced the train was stopped a couple stations over and would let us know when they had updates.

Almost a half hour after the train was supposed to have arrived (and we were supposed to have been back to our car already), they announced that the train had suffered complete mechanical failure and would have to be pushed by the next scheduled train - which would arrive in about an hour.

Nope. Nope. Nope.

No way we were waiting with our two littles *another* hour. We bailed and called a taxi.

Let's not talk about how unsafe and illegal that trip back to our car was. Instead, let's focus on how Townshend and Moon got to enjoy their first commuter train ride and a taxi ride, all on one lovely summer day.

Townshend was really bummed that we didn't get to ride the train home. Sure, the taxi was interesting and all, but he'd been promised a return trip on a train. So, we likely have another Metra trip in our future; we'll just try to avoid their holiday schedule and hope the trains cooperate a little better next time around.