Listing Through Life

Thing #15 — Walk the bog trail at Volo Bog State Natural Area.

I didn’t set out today to check off one of the things on my list of 30 Things Everyone Should Do In Greater Chicagoland — I was just looking for a nice place to take a walk on a nice day. The parking lot and visitor center were crawling with telescope-toting members of the Lake County Astronomy Club, but the trails were empty.

The bog is located in the center of a larger marsh. Before I walked the bog trail, I walked the long trail around the outside of the marsh. The tamarack bog can be seen across the marsh in the photo on the right.

This isn’t a place I’d want to take a field trip of second graders — or even junior highers for that matter. The bog trail is narrow and lined with “hazardous soils and poisonous plants.” It floated and tipped from side to side as I walked.

Here’s the start of the trail where it cuts across the marsh.

Tamarack is the only evergreen tree that loses its needles in the winter. They were just coming out as you can see in the photos. According to a sign, Volo Bog is the only quaking bog in Illinois with open water in the center. Sphagnum moss grows on the surface of the water, then trees and other vegetation grow on the moss. Bogs like this are all over the place in northern Wisconsin, and Volo Bog reminds me of the area around my parents’ old house — it even smells like northern Wisconsin.

The final section of the trail cuts through a thicket.

And there you have it. It’s an interesting place, although today there weren’t many birds around. Here’s what I saw:

1. Sandhill Crane
2. Tree Swallow
3. American Goldfinch
4. Turkey Vulture
5. Song Sparrow
6. Northern Flicker
7. Ruby-crowned Kinglet
8. Red-tailed Hawk
9. Red-bellied Woodpecker
10. Eastern Bluebird
11. Black-capped Chickadee
12. Wood Duck
13. Cooper’s Hawk
14. Northern Shoveler
15. Mallard
16. American Coot
17. Red-winged Blackbird
18. American Robin
19. Canada Goose

As we were driving back and forth around Park Ridge, Niles and Norwood Park looking for Superdawg, I spotted the Leaning Tower on Touhy Road. I’d driven past it once before, years ago, but had totally forgotten it was in this area. Of course, we had to stop.

But first we had to eat — we were hungry. We found Superdawg and had lunch, then drove back. The tower is on a plaza in front of a YMCA, for some reason. It was built in 1934 as a water tower, to honor Galileo Galilei. It’s about half the size of the real one.

We couldn’t go inside, so there really wasn’t much to do except walk around and take photos.

It’s hard to tell in the above picture, but the “booth” around the “telefono” is leaning too.

We didn’t stay long — It was cold and we had parakeets to see. And I couldn’t think of anything else to take pictures of.

Thing #3 (in part): Buy and eat a hot dog at Superdawg in Norwood Park.

It’s April, and time for another adventure on my list of 30 Things Everyone Should Do In Greater Chicagoland. We spent the morning accomplishing things around the house (priming the dining room walls, getting the oil changed in the car, going to the bank, cleaning the bathrooms), so we didn’t get away until 1:00. Superdawg is in Norwood Park, the most northwestern neighborhood of Chicago, and it took us an hour to get there … and another half hour to actually find and get to the place. After driving about five miles too far east, we turned around and finally found it. We were stopped at a red light with this view (below).

Traffic was too busy to turn directly into the parking lot, so we went left at the next side street and found ourselves in a narrow warren of one-way streets — ALL of which moved us further and further from our destination. We finally came out of it and found ourselves headed back east away from the place. I made six right turns to get around a huge block and finally managed to pull into the lot. I parked in the back corner because we were still undecided whether to eat inside or in the car.

We ordered (three Superdawgs, of course, with drinks — they came with fries), and I got out to take some photos.

I was back at the car when the food came. The hot dogs came in a box, and with the fries and a pickled tomato there was zero room left over.

And how was it? Fantastic. I can’t recall ever having a tastier hot dog. As with all Chicago-style dogs, it was so loaded with stuff that it was very difficult to eat without making a mess of the front of my shirt, but I managed.

We couldn’t stop there, so I walked to the window at the front of the building and bought us each a milk shake. They were very thick, fairly tasty (but not great) and very expensive. I also bought a couple small souvenirs. (Our total expense for the day was $35.)

It was only 32 degrees out, with a stiff wind blowing. A steady drip from the canopy caused icicles to hang down in front of our menu board. While I was getting the shakes, the wind blew our tray off the car. My daughter got out to pick it up, but couldn’t find the salt shaker. We told the carhop about it when she came to get the tray, and she waited until we pulled out and found it under the car.

We had a lot of fun, and would like to go again, but seeing as it’s an 80-mile round trip, I doubt we’ll do it very often.