On May 16th I walked to the Volo Bog from the Fox Lake Metra station, a distance of approximately 4 miles. The google maps route suggested for walking is fairly accurate. It is an easy walk mainly along frontage roads and through a residential area.

My reason for going out to the Bog was to explore the idea of Landscape Tourism, where Nature is seen primarily as a destination, a place to visit. Hence I was primarily interested in the process of getting out there. Here are some photos from my trip:

http://picasaweb.google.com/thomas.garman/VoloBog?feat=directlink

This weekend I went to the Indiana Dunes to climb Mt. Baldy. I decided to get off the South Shore train at the 11th street station in Michigan City using a map I had printed off from Google Maps. The walk along US Highway 12 was like walking down the middle of a busy city street. It was absolutely ludricous how much traffic there was. I would recommend walking from the Beverly Shores train station.

Here is a link to some pictures and notes I made about my trip: http://picasaweb.google.com/thomas.garman/IndianaDunes?feat=directlink

On a recent Saturday, my partner and I took a short daytrip to explore the Village of Riverside. A short trip via Metra gets you to this early streetcar suburb designed by Frederick Law Olmsted, a landscape architect best known for his plan for Central Park in New York. We went on the first nice day of spring when there weren't yet leaves on the trees, so my photos don't really do the place justice. If you have any tips of your own for Riverside, please share in the comments or consider logging in and posting your own blog entry about your trip.

Getting There

Got a free weekend? Like trains? Sick of unpredictable and overpriced air travel? Amtrak offers car-free Chicagoans plenty of chances to make a quick one- or two-day weekend escape with "red-eye" (overnight) trains from Chicago to several cities that are a few hundred miles away. I like traveling overnight, since it offers maximum sightseeing time at your destination and cuts back on expensive hotel stays.

Last week, a friend of mine rented a shared car to get to the Farnsworth House, the famous glass house designed by Mies van der Rohe on the banks of the Fox River, about 60 miles southwest of the city. Two years ago, a few months after it was purchased by the National Trust for Historic Preservation, a friend and I decided to bicycle out there. It made a truly rewarding destination for one of the best bike routes out of the city: the Illinois Prairie Path -- the nation’s first rail-to-trail, built on the remains of an old electric interurban.