31st Street Harbor Chicago-Best Playground Ever!

The Roller Slide. Weeeeeee!

While on a recent trip to Chicago we had a few hours to kill before heading to the airport. Once upon a time, my husband and I would have just gone to a bar, but now we have a child. We had already been to two zoos during this trip, including the beautiful and free Lincoln Park Zoo,  in an effort to entertain both our child and ourselves and now we needed to find another family friendly activity that would wear out our highly active two year old.  Not really knowing what to do we decided to just start driving south along Lakeshore Drive as this was the general direction we needed to go to get to Midway Airport.  We saw a playground so we decided to stop.

How do you work this thing?

As soon as my daughter saw the playground she was off and running.  What immediately struck me was the quality of the playground, the unique play equipment and the beautiful setting right on Lake Michigan with views of the skyline.  We simply don't have it this good at home!  I know I should consider myself lucky that we have a large backyard where my child can play anytime, but Chicago has really done right by their residents by providing so many wonderful parks.  The 31st Street Harbor Marina and Park is no exception.  By far the most popular piece of equipment was a slide that instead of being your typical piece of molded plastic was instead a set of rollers.  My daughter loved hearing her voice vibrate as she slid down. What was also different is that the slide was wide enough to accommodate two kids at once.  Double the fun!  There were several other other unique slides as well.  One was your typical plastic slide, except it was very long and formed into a hill so you need not worry about your child falling over the side and cracking open their head.  The other slide was simply two rails in parallel.  Kids drape a leg over each rail and slide down.  This kind of equipment allows a child to experience things in a different way and makes them think about how it should be used as opposed to just going through the usual motions.  I'll be honest, had there not been a ton of kids and adults there I would have been trying out all of this equipment myself.  In addition to the slides there were swings, a rock climbing wall, an area of stacked rocks for climbing (that looked a bit dangerous, but I appreciate this kind of design), and lots of equipment to climb on. Plenty to do for kids of all ages and abilities.  

Can anyone spot the trees that don't quite fit?

While I have only good things to say about the playground itself there was one thing that struck me as odd.  The brightly painted trees.  I know that some designer thought this was a great idea, something different, perhaps a landmark of sorts, but I found that they added little to the area other than making you wonder why they are there. The other thing I really liked about this park is that it is part of a trail system along Lake Michigan. For those of us who like to walk or run it is always nice to have a place to stop or something new to look at as you jog. Apparently, when Chicago failed in their bid for the summer 2016 Olympics they still decided to build this park which would have been where the sailing events would have been held.  The marina contains 1,000 boat slips which I'm sure were needed and provided a significant economic reason for going ahead with the construction of this $130M marina and park.  

Falling asleep in the swing=time to go

After about an hour we decided it was time to leave and of course our child was in tears as she still had more to explore. I agree, there is so much more to explore and I hope to be able to return to Chicago to revisit not only the 31st Street Harbor Park, but perhaps check out some of the Chicago's other parks.  I have yet to be disappointed   

Take that Mosquitoes!

I am popular.  Very popular.  With mosquitoes.  It has been this way since I was a little girl and to this day if you don't want to get bitten then just stand next to me and you will be fine.  When I came across this article on the Garden Design website I thought I needed to share it with all the other popular people out there.  Here's the link:  Mosquito Repellent Plants

Most of these plants are easy to find and easy to grow.  I currently have rosemary and basil growing in my garden.  I planted these mostly for their culinary uses, but if they could possibly repel mosquitoes that is even better!  I will also say, that even though I do have some of these plants in my yard I also still have an overabundance of mosquitoes.  Perhaps I need to conduct a little experiment where I stand next to the rosemary and see if I can walk away ten minutes later without a bite. 

Goodbye August, Hello Planting Time

August in almost any location in the US is the hottest month; Orlando is no exception. The sad thing is that in the rest of the country you get to look forward to cooler fall-like weather, but here in Florida the only thing we get to look forward to is less humidity.  In and of itself this is a huge thing.  As they say, 'It's not the heat, it's the humidity!', and this is so true.  While slightly more comfortable weather is welcome what I really want is a real fall.  I want to wear jeans, boots and sweaters, but instead I will be wearing flip flops and tank tops with those jeans until about November (heck, it was 80 degrees on Christmas Day this past year).

Make sure you enlist help 

The best part about the onset of "fall" means I can get back out into the yard and start planting again.  Fall is the best time of year to plant.  Since most plants do the majority of their growing when the soil is warm, by planting in fall they get to familiarize themselves with their new surroundings before they have to expend any energy.  This compounded by the (slightly) cooler temperatures lessens the chance of transplantation shock and gives your new plants the best chance of thriving.  While you can still plant in the hottest part of the summer (and I have) you end up having put in a lot less effort and worry to keep your plants alive if you plant in the fall.

My plan for this fall is to replace the five or so azaleas that died for no apparent reason, plant a new magnolia outside of the breakfast room window to provide a little privacy from the street (even if my husband insists that no one looks in, though what else do they have to look at) and I want to start the front beds.  In addition to all of this I will also replace the annuals in my beds and replant my containers with fall plants.  There is a lot of work to do and the hardest part will be dragging my husband away from football in order to help me. So I say to everyone: get off that couch, get outside in the beautiful weather and plant something!