When Jenn and Teddy were here, we spent a day at the Navy Pier. One of the things I wanted to make sure we saw was The Crystal Gardens.

I couldn’t figure out how we missed seeing them when we were in Chicago for BlogHer ‘07, since they are right across from the entrance to the Children’s Museum where we spent a considerable amount of time.

But we did miss them and that’s too bad… I wonder what it looks like in there at night… is it open at night? I should find out and we should go back.

The gardens themselves are interesting enough. The spitting fountains were amusing. The glass ceiling with the huge fans was pretty interesting. The views were as awesome as you’d expect.

I’ve never met a Botanical Garden I really loved. I’ve visited quite a few and while they were nice to visit, I never felt compelled to go back. That all changed with a visit to the Chicago Botanic Garden and boy was that a shock.

Who would have guessed the arctic north would have such a wonderul place. Just a few miles from my house? And, as our fabulous tour guide said (over and over again) it’s all FREE! And we definitely intend to take advantage of the FREE! Pst, she really was fabulous. Great fun. The right type of attitude and personality for a tour guide. (More Videos of Chicago Botanic Garden, including a bunch of train shots.)

OK it’s only free if you don’t need to park a car. If you do need to park a car, it’s $20 a shot. Or if you don’t want to take one of the trams that carries you around the gardens. But, with a membership, the parking is FREE! And the trams come at a discounted price.

We did in fact buy a membership and we’re looking forward to many more visits this year - maybe even in the winter, when it’s snowy and icy.

The day we took my mom, we were there for hours and hours and we didn’t even make a dent in seeing everything - and we were exhausted. I think TW and I are going to make a spreadsheet and pick one piece of the garden to visit on each trip. That’s the only way to see everything. There’s just so much and it’s such a lovely place to visit.

The cafeteria isn’t great (but it has Wifi.) The library looks interesting but by the time we got there, we just wanted to sit in the air conditioning and rest for a bit. We were there during an orchid show and that was pretty interesting too.

We went back today, just me and TW, for the Farmer’s Market and that was nice. Small, only about 8-10 booths, including the Youth Garden kids who work at the Botanic Garden and sell the stuff they grow. I think we’ll probably sign up for a CSA box this fall… now that will be interesting.

(More photos from the Chicago Botanic Garden.)

We ended up at Oz Park for a pre-BlogHer meet up and I was kind of excited to check it out. I am a Wizard of Oz fan. (Nobody else really is - well Jenn is but she wasn’t in town during our meet up.)

I loved the Dorothy & Toto statue and the Tin Man statue. Those were the only two I saw. And was there supposed to be a yellow brick road somewhere because if so, I missed it. (Not hard to do since we were there for a meet up and didn’t take much time to explore the park itself.

It was pretty crowded, lots of kids in the play area. And we did walk past the Emerald Garden which did look quite appealing. I’d go back to hang out (and grab an Orange Julius from across the street.)

I have a good dozen Chicagoland places to blog about, but no time to blog about them.

So, here’s a quick video, taken on the iPhone 3gs, when I was in Chicago with Jenn & Teddy last week.

This is the Centennial Fountain

It shoots a water arc out into the river, though it didn’t when we were there and I have no idea how or when it does so. I just know that it does and we saw it in action a couple of days earlier when we were in a Water Taxi.

Shortly after we got here, we were hungry. It was dinner time. There wasn’t really any food in the house. So, we got in the car - looked at each other - and had no idea where to go for dinner. We’d seen a lot of places we thought we’d like to try but we didn’t really remember where any of those restaurants WERE. Some strip mall… somewhere. Some corner by some hot dog stand… somewhere. Maybe in Niles? Or was that Northbrook?

I just decided to drive - toward Milwaukee, there were a lot of restaurants on Milwaukee… or maybe there weren’t?

Before we knew it, we had driven for ages and had landed in Wheeling, IL without seeing any restaurant we really wanted to eat at.

We did, however, discover Dam #1 Woods. It was late and we didn’t stop but we knew we’d have to take the kids out to the Damn Woods for a hike… and we did, way back in August… and it was great fun.

It was fun because there’s not a whole lot of hiking to be done. This means the 15 year old who doesn’t really like to be outside, “walking for fun & pleasure”, didn’t have time to complain or harass his siblings. And since they all three enjoyed saying “Damn Woods” over and over again, there were absolutely no complaints about the trip. We just plain had fun.

We’re also looking forward to warm weather so we can go to Dam Woods #2 and Dam Woods #3.

I have always wanted to go to a Renegade Craft Fair. Moving to Chicago made that possible. Except, when the fair was scheduled in September, a hurricane hit and the entire area was flooded (including our basement) and so we did not go. The Renegade Craft Fair is cool but not cool enough to attend outside during that kind of weather.

When TW told me that there was a Renegade Craft Fair HOLIDAY Sale at Pulaski Park ie INDOORS, I was totally up for it.

Unfortunately, it’s freezing and there’s no parking around Pulaski Park. Bah. This is what I really hate about living here. I don’t mind walking 10 blocks but 10 blocks in freezing wind just plain stinks.

The field house itself is pretty interesting and I think a good location for such a craft fair. Rooms that aren’t too big or too small and are spread out enough that there aren’t a lot of bottle necks as people move from one room to another.

We stopped just inside the door and looked at the “official” tshirts and then talked to the woman at the Yelp table and got a free Yelp back, which was nice since we forgot to bring a bag.

And then we entered the first room. Oh my. So many cool things. It’s been a very long while since I’ve found so many things that I wanted to buy (or try to make) at a craft fair. TW and I collected a lot of cards so that we can explore the artist’s websites (and actually buy stuff once we have money again.) Liz also collected some cards and spent a lot of time trying to decide which vendor she liked the best. She’s quite the discriminating shopper, who knew?

Here are some links from the cards I collected at the fair.

The Renegade Craft Fair rocks.