We took our second special biking excursion of 2010 today, this time on a trail we have long wanted to try, but never have yet. The North Branch of the Chicago River has a large forest preserve section following the river and the Skokie bogs, and there is a bike path and bridle path along most of it.
We headed north at noon right after church again, and it took about 90 minutes to get to our destination because of traffic on the north side of Chicago. Douwe napped most of the way, which we were hoping he would do, b/c it is uncomfortable to nod off in the bike trailer. We picnicked with the help of California Pizza Kitchen at the trail head we chose, than biked north along the river to the end of the trail which goes right into the Chicago Botanic Gardens. We entered the CBG free of charge because their only entrance fee is for automobiles and we spent an hour or so strolling the gardens, especially the amazing kitchen gardens. It was a cool day, but beautiful and sunny. There were many spots along the river and bogs where people were fishing and canoeing and kayaking, and also many bikers of course. It was a beautiful afternoon and we biked about 10 miles total.
Although our goal was to be back home by 5 pm, we were way past that mark so we stopped off in Wrigleyville to enjoy a dish of Penny's Noodles. Douwe was thrilled b/c this tiny restaurant is under the el where the brown line and red line meet, so he was craning his neck the whole time to watch for a train. We sat in a chair outside on the corner for 10 minutes after dinner and Douwe was entertained by taxis trains motorcycles city busses and all the other vehicles that show up on a busy city intersection.
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