- Exhibit inside Welcome Center. Photo by Laurie Borman
Deerfield, IL–Just had to slip in a few more photos of yesterday’s maple sugar hike at Ryerson Woods. Tap 35 trees for 5 gallons of syrup. That’s the pioneer spirit.
|
||||||
 Big Mama sugar maple holds two buckets of sap. Photo by Laurie Borman Deerfield, IL– It’s a sure sign of spring when maple sugar hikes begin at Ryerson Woods. Jen Berlinghof, an environmental educator at the 552-acre conservation area owned by the Lake County Forest Preserve District, leads the hikes. She’s also the manpower behind tapping 35 trees each year, boiling the sap, and making the syrup. Hikes begin in the green architecture Welcome Center, where families sample sap and syrup, and learn the age-old process. Then it’s off to the woods. “We put our arms around the trees, and if our hands don’t reach, it’s big enough to tap,” says Berlinghof of the 15-in. diameter minimum tree size for tapping. There seem to be plenty of big sugar maple trees, however, and she points out “Big Mama”, a giant tree with two buckets. Hikers see the taps up close, practice hand-drilling into a log, learn how to identify sugar maples by their branches, and even taste test some maple sugar candy. Two more weekends remain for the hour-long maple syrup hikes, but reservations are suggested.     Bikers ride past cows in St. Moritz. Photo by Laurie Borman Switzerland–The English had their bulldogs baiting bulls (outlawed in the 1800s) and the Spanish have their bullfights. In spring, it’s time for cow fighting in Switzerland. A special small, black breed, Heréns, found in Central Valis, and Valle d’Aosta in Northern Italy as well) like to fight for the chance to lead the herd up the Alpines in the spring. Sort of a cow beauty queen contest, with locked horns and a lot of head butting involved. According to Swiss tourism, “The fights do not take place in organised fashion; each cow simply chooses her opponent on the spur of the moment. She suddenly stops grazing, lowers her head, snorts, and paws the ground with her hooves. If a cow of similar strength accepts the challenge, she wastes no time in informing her opponent in the same manner.” Then they start takin’ names and kickin’ butt. Or rather, butt heads. They wrangle for a few minutes, and eventually one gives up and turns tail. The winner will follow aggressively, getting in a last few licks before the contest ends. The Swiss also organize a few contests and declare a regional and cantonial queen. But does she get a tiara? The cows I encountered on my visit to Switzerland a few years ago were quite docile and not inclined to head butting at all. The hockey game was Olympian, with a late score by the U.S. team. And though Canada scored in overtime (3-2), when you realize that three Canadian players were Chicago Blackhawks and one Chicago Blackhawk was playing for the U.S., I say Chicago won the 2010 Olympics Hockey final. Look for some serious celebrations in Chicago this week, including a great welcome at the next Chicago Blackhawks game on Wednesday.
If you’re actually in Vancouver and want some of those fries right now, the Quebec House is at the Concord Pacific site between Sochi House (Science World) and BC Place. It’s open from noon to midnight daily, but the entertainment doesn’t start until afte 5:30 p.m. Bon chance, mon amis!  Flavio@Flickr Chicago, IL–One of the great things about living in a city with serious winter weather is that entertainment kicks into high gear when the weather gets bad. That’s why February is Chicago Flamenco Festival. Last night at the Instituto Cervantes at 31 W. Ohio, Concha Jareño entertained a sold-out crowd with a series of dances, ending in a difficult palo style. Watch a bit of her style on YouTube or MySpace. Even if you don’t know much about flamenco (and I don’t) you will be amazed at her moves. She’s doing another concert tomorrow and Wednesday night at the Instituto Cervantes. Tickets are $20, $15 for students. Guitarist Flavio Rodrigues–a Brazilian living in Madrid-and singer Pedro Obregón accompanied her, and their music alone could have made the evening. Combined with Concha Jareño’s dancing, it was a flamenco afficiando’s dream. The February Flamenco Festival wraps up on Friday with a free performance at the Instituto Cervantes that features Chicago flamenco trio Idilio, and a lecture/demonstration by Catalina Maria Johnson. The events were acollaboration of the Instituto Cervantes and the City of Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs, the Old Town School of Folk Music, the Flamenco Arts Center in Chicago, and Arte y Vida Chicago.
 Aquabus will take you in and around Vancouver. Photo by Laurie Borman Vancouver, British Columbia–Everybody’s watching Vancouver, with the Olympics in full swing. It’s cool, it’s sophisticated, it’s laid-back, and one of the best cities to visit. Here are my top five favorite things about Vancouver:  Artful Caffe Artigiano latte. Photo by Laurie Borman Custom-made lattes. Get a latte, cafe au lait, cappuchino, double-shot espresso. Whatever your prefernce in coffee, Vancouver barristas serve it with style. At Caffé Artigiano, (I like the one at 574 Granville) they’ll pour a leaf design, maybe make Olympics rings. Ask and you shall enjoy. Water taxis. Hop aboard a water taxi for a shortcut to the city’s sites. They’re so much fun you might want to take a taxi to nowhere. The most colorful: Aquabus. Boutique bonanza. You don’t have to buy, but you’ll definitely be tempted by the many shops here. There’s a veritable bevy of fashion designers. Check out Smokin’ Lily on Main St. Breakfast, Lunch, Pie. Coffee’s great, but if you really want some good grub, I’d head over to Sophie’s Cosmic Café in the Kitsilano neighborhood, 2095 4th Avenue West. She serves a mile-high pie to die for, tasty breakfast burritos. Oh, I’m drooling. Excuse me.  Sophie of Sophie's Cosmic Cafe, shows off her mile-high pie. Photo by Laurie Borman Stanley Park. It may be cliche, but Stanley Park really makes my stay. Walk amongst the trees, watch crew teams out on the water. It’s 1000 acres of park within a walking distance of major hotels downtown. An outdoor lovers’ dream.  Stanley Park. Photo courtesy Tourism Vancouver / Tom Ryan
Near the bridge that spans the Des Plaines River, the water level has risen and fallen as much as the temperatures, creating amazing ice “tables” around trees. Bushwacking among these natural ice sculptures ranks right up there with a stroll through an art museum, I think. At the end of the sculpture trail, a bevy of robins chatter in a tree covered with berries. Nearby, a couple of woodpeckers are determinedly pounding into a tree. Makes you think spring is almost here. More snow is predicted today. I think I know where I’m going to be later.  Ice sculptures hug the trees. Photo by Laurie Borman    Naperville Riverwalk. Photo by Laurie Borman  Naper Settlement Museum. Photo by Laurie Borman Naperville, IL–West of Chicago, Naperville once was the boom town of Illinois. That’s back when you needed to cross a wooden plank toll bridge to get to Chicago. Unfortunately, Napervillians didn’t think the railroad would amount to much, and passed on the opportunity to serve as a stop. The world passed Naperville by. Now you can take a train from downtown Chicago to Naperville. (Yes, they relented on the train stop idea.) I strolled the snowy banks of Riverwalk in downtown Naperville, listened to the carillon, then headed up to see the Naper Settlementthis week. It’s all walkable. Naper Settlement has a wonderful interactive history museum that’s open now, and while you can see the outside of the many historic buildings that make up the Naper Settlement, the buildings aren’t open for visitors. Check back on March 13 and 14, when trees are tapped for Maple Sugaring Days, and docents will be on site. Mmmmm….maple sugar.  Naper Haight House. Photo by Laurie Borman We may not have the Snowmaggedon of the East Coast today, but Chicago is hunkering down for a foot or more of snow today and tomorrow. No biggie–this city’s been prepared for heavy weather since the late 70s when a certain mayoral candidate lost the race because he couldn’t get the streets cleared. Chicagoland has had trucks out since 2 a.m. this morning, and a 45-minute drive took me all of an hour and 15 minutes, even with the snow falling heavily. |
||||||
|
Copyright © 2010 TheRoadScholar - All Rights Reserved |
||||||
Mettawa, IL–Miles of hiking and cross-country ski trails converge at