Category: Place

Chicago’s west suburbs have the privilege of several good zoos, and one of them is Cosley! We went recently to see their coyote, Wiley, who’s in full winter poof. Consequently, photos! Not just of Wiley.

A lot of Cosley’s critters are native to right here in Illinois, which has characterized it for me as the most domestic of our local zoos. There’s something to be said for bigger zoos like Brookfield, certainly, with species from all over the world, and something to be said for ones like Cosley, which taught me a lot about the animals right here. I love that we have both! (Also Phillips Park, which falls somewhere between the two… but that’s a post for another time.)

For anyone in the west Chicago suburbs (or passing through), let me tell you about this awesome gem called Kuipers Family Farm. As I recall, we first found Kuipers as a way to go out with friends while social distancing — specifically in the orchard, so I’ll start with that.

There are somewhere around 40 different types of apples available, which you can pay to pick 1/4 peck paper bag of, per person. (The picture below is about 3 of those, for reference, including the full bag.) Each week has a different selection of apples to pick, depending on what’s in season, which means you can feasibly come back 3 or 4 times over autumn and get new flavors every time. Which are available is visible both on the board outside the orchard and on their website, which also offers a “Notify Me” option for when specific types are in harvest. Both of these have a 1-5 rating scale, giving each apple a score for its popularity raw, in baking, and for applesauce. There’s also a policy I’m rather fond of: you’re welcome to taste test the apples as you pick, so long as you finish the whole apple. This lets you go “wow, that one is really good!” and use your limited space accordingly.

I’d give you directions from the orchard to the sunflower area, but honestly between the train looping it and the seven acres of flowers… you can’t miss it. Now, seven acres might sound a little excessive, I admit, but according to the website there are over 20 different varieties of sunflower there. So if you’re up for a bit of a hike, wander through the various paths in the fields, stop for photo ops at the random tractors scattered throughout, and when a specific sunflower catches your eye, take note of where it is, because admission to the sunflower area comes with 1 bloom included — that is to say, you get to take home one flower of your choice, or more if you pay a little extra.

Kuipers also has a pumpkin farm. Unfortunately, I’ve never done that part of the experience, so I can’t tell you much more than the website says — they’ve got a ton of fall activities, from a corn maze to pig races and a petting zoo, to, of course, picking your own pumpkins. What I can tell you is that the Orchard Store, which is kind of in the middle of everything, is a magical little experience and you will leave with some sort of food. Like apple cider donuts. Or mint chocolate fudge. Mmm. *cough* Anyways, since I don’t have any pumpkin photos for you, have another sunflower pic!

We recently went on a trip to a neat little nature spot in the west Chicago suburbs called Red Oak Nature Center. Easy to miss, but well worth checking out. Anyhow, I thought I’d share some pictures from that excursion; I can only presume it’s even prettier in the summer and autumn!

I managed to photograph several geese, but not the hawk we saw while walking one of the trails. I did get pictures of the small cave near the riverbank, though! It’s called Devil’s Cave (or Cave of the Spirit), and there’s a really neat legend behind that. Unfortunately, I didn’t have the foresight to photograph the placard. Oh well. You’ll just have to check it out yourselves!

As a bonus, the nature center itself had some absolutely stunning flowers in a pot near the doors!

This weekend, we drove to a GeekCraft Expo in Madison. It was smaller than I expected, but it made up for it with cool stuff and friendly people. 

The cafeteria in the building had a sign plastered over the door that said “Mos Eisley Cantina,” which added to the geek vibe, but, unfortunately, the menu had not been geeked. There were no Star Wars foods, just burgers and brats.

The actual Expo was in a small room, with only a few rows of booths. There were geeky words, geeky images and a general air of geekiness. I saw booths with embroidered references, punny cards, and create-your-own superhero masks. There was a coloring book with assorted organs, handmade dice sets, and interesting soaps. For the full list of venders, go here.

Probably my favorite booth was one with crossover drawings. There was a Princess Leia water-bending, Sokka dressed as Han Solo, Zuko as a Sith, and Kaylee knocking on the door of the TARDIS (which I couldn’t find a link for, sorry!).

Yup, now I’m talking about the town. For those of you who have no clue why I started this week’s post like this, go back and read last week’s. For those of you who do know what I’m talking about, congratulations! What, you thought there was a prize or something? Give yourself a hearty pat on the back, then. Anyways, what was I talking about? Oh, right, Niagara Falls. Yeah, the Canadian town, not the American one. I already made that distinction in the title, didn’t I?

Right, so, while the town is named after the Falls, there’s so much more to do than stare and thousands of gallons of water falling over a cliff. That’s because the downtown seems to be one huge tourist trap, particularly Clifton Hills. What’s Clifton Hills, you ask? It’s the name of a street. A street with a slope. So it’s a hill. Thus, the name. Where did they get Clifton from, you ask? I don’t know, look it up.

Clifton Hills is home to the SkyWheel, both indoor (glow-in-the-dark) and outdoor (has-a-volcano-and-life-size-dino-statues) miniature golf, an arcade, and a whole bunch of rides (click here for one, two, and three), all of which are included on the Clifton Hills FunPass! In the area, but most of them not technically on Clifton Hills, there are also multiple wax museums (the one we went to), mazes, haunted houses, and three different Ripley’s Believe It Or Not museums (the one we went to), because that’s just the sort of stuff that tourists like. I mean, why not? When you can listen to an animated head talk at one of Ripley’s museums, or take a picture in front of an Avengers 1 poster–that strangely also has Batman and the Joker–while you give Iron Man a high-five, why wouldn’t you want to? If you drive out a little bit, you can go to Bird Kingdom, where the main room alone would be amazing, without all of the smaller rooms leading up to it! You can feed the birds in a little room, or hold your arm out and have a parrot sit on it in another, and, of course, for these experiences you can’t take your own pictures because they’ll take some and then try to sell them to you. Why? Because it’s another way of getting money out of tourists. But hey, it was fun!

And of course, the shops. Everywhere. You can buy merchandise with Niagara Falls branding, merchandise with Canada branding, and merchandise that are seemingly utterly irrelevant to where you’re buying them, but hey, that shirt looks comfy, so I’ll buy it anyways! Or, you know, real Kinder eggs are illegal to bring into the US because they have toys in food, so why not eat a few in Canada, where they’re practically everywhere? And there’s even a Hershey’s store! Yum!

There were nearly as many restaurants as stores, because where there are tourists, there are mouths to feed! And why not have imported chain restaurants like Hard Rock Café, Rainforest Café, and Margaritaville there, even though the American tourists should really be trying something new? In their defense, all three of those restaurants are decent quality. But Burger King? I mean, I could understand one, just to provide a quick and cheap option. But there are three Burger Kings in the immediate downtown area. That’s a tad overkill.

I was originally planning to go into heavy detail about all of this, but then I realized that that post would be far to long. So instead, you get heavy sarcasm interspersed with a quick description of an entire town! Enjoy!

Recently, my mother and I visited Niagara Falls, Canada. Yes, that is the name of the city. To make it incredibly confusing, the city on the American side is Niagara Falls, New York. But I intend to talk about the Canadian side. Next week, about the rest of the town, but today, I want to talk about the Falls themselves.

They are magnificent. I had only seen one waterfall in person before, Multnomah Falls near Portland, Oregon, and those had been alongside a green cliff face, so you naturally saw it from the top, and it didn’t seem to be all that powerful, just beautiful. Niagara Falls, on the other hand, are at ground level at the top and drop into a gorge, so you could see the sheer force of the water tumbling over the Falls at terrifying speeds. Can you believe somebody rode a barrel down that???

We also got to see it up close from the Hornblower boat, which is the Canadian version of the Maid of the Mist (the American side gets blue ponchos, the Canadian side gets red ponchos, and the people standing within mist zone but not on a boat on either side get yellow ponchos). We got to stand right in the mist of the large fall, known as Horseshoe Falls, while on the boat. The other two Falls are the Bridal Veil Falls and the American Falls, which are located next to each other and, between the two of them, dump out about 175,000 gallons of water a second.

All summer long, at night, the falls are lit with giant strobe lights, turning them all shades of the rainbow, and to accompany the lighting, there’s a small-ish* firework show that goes on. It gets pretty crowded, but it’s worth the view. As one could expect, they have light-up toys for sale during the show.

*I only really have my local 4th of July firework show as comparison, so to me, it was small, but that’s probably because they do it every night.

Alright, you are not actually eating robins. Red Robin is a family friendly, well-priced burger place with wonderfully attentive waiting staff. It has become a family favorite, from eating lunch on our way to a friend’s place to eating dinner before a movie at our local movie theater.

Food

As I said, you are not actually eating robins. While they are a burger place, they do serve other food, not just the standard American burger and chicken nuggets. For instance, most recently I got the Clamdigger’s Clam Chowder (cup, not bowl) for $2.99. It came in a small portion, but it was creamy with chunks of clam. They also have bottomless sides for most things. In other words, you will never run out of fries. This is good, since the fries are quite satisfying, as steak fries with extra seasoning. They also have bottomless lemonades, sodas, and more! Now, being a burger restaurant, they do (go figure!) have burgers. One of these burgers (the only one that I can presently remember the details for, thus the one I mention here) is the Burnin’ Love Burger for $9.59. This burger is a mouthful, with jalepeños, salsa, pepperjack cheese, lettuce, tomatoes, chipotle mayo, and a cayenne-seasoned burger patty.

Service

The service does not disappoint either. With a smile on their face, the waitstaff will make sure you are always supplied with your bottomless (and otherwise) sides and beverages. They are always friendly, well timed, and very informative. If your refill of fries is delayed because they are making a new batch, they will tell you such. You don’t even have to wait to pay! They have a little computer system at each table so you can pay and leave. It also has games like Plants vs. Zombies 2 on it to entertain kids that don’t have devices with them. (I personally don’t see the point, but hey, some people would pay to play those games. Me? I’d either bring in my own phone, or, more likely, a book).

Facility

The facilities are also quite nice. Some of them have a bar area for the adults. The tables are well spaced, so it doesn’t feel crowded, but it doesn’t feel eerily empty either. The lights are at just the right brightness, bright enough so you aren’t squinting to see the menu, but you aren’t taken aback by the bright, unnatural colors. They play rock music at a medium-low volume. The walls and ceiling are vastly decorated with an assortment of mismatched pictures and displays, which reminds me of my room. Another big thing is that it is always clean. I have yet to see a Red Robin facility that I am not satisfied with.

Other Stuff

While you can call and pick up, Red Robin does not deliver. It does not have a drive through since it is not officially fast food, but it also takes much less time than sit-down. They have approximately 540 locations across the country.

Overall

Overall, I like this restaurant. Clearly, they carry more than burgers. You can order ahead of time and pick up, or you can sit in. It is good for when you have time for more than fast food, but not enough time for a full-blown sit-down meal. The expansive menu, quality food, and cheerful service have never failed to brighten my mood.