Me in Place

When I saw that yesterday was forecasted to be Hot, I knew we had to break free from the constraints of Winter-y Indoor Life and make a foray into the Wild, Wild Outdoors.

So I checked the 30 Things to Do In Chicagoland List that my Uncle and I came up with a few years ago and decided to accomplish #29 – Walk on the Effigy Tumuli at Buffalo Rock State Park. Uncle and Aunt and Cute Cousin and the kids and I all made a day of it and headed out into the Warm Air.

First of all, back in the day, effigy tumuli would be built by Native Americans as burial mounds. There are real ones around. The ones we were going to visit were not real – they were created only about 20 years ago to reclaim land which had been strip mined. What they are are large mounds of dirt shaped to form five different animals: a turtle, a water strider, catfish, snake and something else which obviously did not make a huge impact on my memory.

So, yeah, the problem is, you have huge mounds of land – you can’t really tell what it is just by walking around. You would have to be able to fly over the site to really see them. So basically this event turned into a Hot Hike. But, alas, the company was fine and the weather was good and we had a grand time of it. Although, I do recall my question of: “All of Chicagoland is available for us and we choose this to put on the list??”

SuperBoy hikes through every puddle he can find:

The park is right by the Illinois River:

With just enough of a drop to make me worry about SuperBoy and how well he can (or can’t) swim (this is Cute Cousin):

As an example: Here is the sign for the catfish tumuli:

Here’s what you see. Roger is standing on the catfish’s eye:

Spot the SuperBoy! He is climbing on the catfish’s back down to the tail:

Just for the record: For all of you who have made fun of me for how far ahead of everyone I walk. This is a real photo, not doctored in any way, that shows how far behind I walk when I’m with my family. I’m just sayin’. This is where it comes from.

Roger’s a pro at panoramic shots. You can check out his blog at Listing Through Life.

Oh, and the Park Fun went over the top when we saw the two bison who live there. Maybe we could liven up the Chicagoland list a little by installing these guys by The Bean in Millenium Park. Now that would be fun.

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