Thursday, December 30, 2010

OXYGEN!!!

Sometimes when I'm feeling pensive or in need of a little oxygen, I take the green line out to the Garfield Park Conservatory.  This is one of my favorite places in Chicago, especially in the winter time.  It's a huge, old greenhouse with room after room of incredible plants.

I was hoping to skip town for the new year, but it didn't work out and I was feeling the need for a little warmth and fresh air.  Ironically, one of the only places to find fresh air in Chicago in the winter is indoors, here at the conservatory.  They usually close at 5pm, but on Wednesdays they stay open until 8pm.  It happened to be Wednesday yesterday and I decided to go and read amongst the plants.  When I arrived, I was surprised to find that, though the conservatory was open, most of the lights had been turned off (or perhaps not turned on, as it is a big, glass building with plenty of natural light during the day).  Reading in this situation proved a bit difficult, so I just walked around and enjoyed the smells and extra oxygen.  Here are some pictures I managed to take with my camera propped against something to keep it steady.  If you ever find yourself looking for a place to escape to in the city, I highly recommend going here, and calling me up.

Some HUGE palms in the main (palm) room.


They're Agave plant is flowering!  This, apparently, is a rare event and the whole ordeal lasts up to a year or so.  The flowers bloom on the tips of a stalk that shoots up from the middle of the leaves and grows up to thirty feet tall.  The stalk, though I couldn't see it well in the dim light, is said to be reminiscent of asparagus (as the agave is related to asparagus).


Cool, green lights on the desert at night.











Chihuly, the famous blown glass artist, had an exhibit here a few years back in which he displayed his artwork along with the plants.  I remember thinking it was very impressive, and I was surprised at how well Chihuly was able to integrate his man-made works into the natural beauty supplied by the plants.  These are a few of the pieces he left for permanent display at the conservatory.

Monday, December 20, 2010

Outdoor Adventure Club Weekend at Kettle Moraine, Wisconsin

The outdoor adventure club's latest escapade brought us to Kettle Moraine State Park, Wisconsin (Nov. 19-21).  Kettle Moraine is a beautiful place with a landscape carved by glaciers over thousands of years.  This was, aside from a very frigid ultimate tournament at UW Whitewater in college, my first attempt at cold weather camping.  The temperature on Friday night was supposed to get down to the mid 20s and we faced a high of only mid 30s on Saturday.  I figured that with all the money I've spent on camping gear, it was time to put up or shut up.  There were six brave souls in the group and we all managed pretty well for the most part (aside from some pretty vicious blisters and poor planning/bad map reading by myself).

 Cigars, Whiskey, and a fire with wet wood.

 Oh yeah, and Spotted Cow



 Farmer brought his HAM radio, but was unable to contact any extra-terrestrial life.

 Did I mention it was the first weekend of deer (and apparently road sign) season?


 Look, Matt's almost as tall as Sarah!

 This is what I looked like when I found out Farmer brought Ginger snaps.

 Matt Woodhead and I made chili for night two.  I thought we would have had enough for lunch the next day as well, but we ate it all.  I guess when you don't eat lunch and you hike 10 miles you get extra hungry.
 We were out of water and the well near our shelter was closed due to contamination so we had to resort to Dark Lord.  Thank you Matt!
 5 or so miles into our hike out on Sunday, we made it to water.  This tasted like liquid iron.  But it was some of the best water I've tasted (which I think was influenced by the fact that I hadn't had any since the day before).  We also met yet another extremely friendly Wisconsin resident at the water pump, which further proves our theory that everyone in Wisconsin is the nicest person ever.

 Victory beers at the cars.

 Did I mention it was 50 degrees and FOGGY all day on Sunday.  Visibility was probably down to about 30 yards.

 More victory beers and a pot luck at the Fifth Quarter.  Yes, this bar was having a pot luck for the Packer's game.  Sloppy Joes, string cheese dipped in cocktail sauce, taco-bean dip = Awesome.

Matt cheated on Sarah with some Packer fans and she got super jealous.