They see me troll trammin', they hatin'

Sep 22, 2018 20:34

Anyone who has driven down I-88 in recent months knows something special is happening at the Morton Arboretum: There's a huge troll guarding things by the tollway. Said troll has helped pique interest in visiting the rest of the trolls within the arboretum; I can count myself among those numbers. So when mom mentioned going there this weekend, I was way more interested in the trolls, not this weekend's festivities. But I'd be okay with checking those out, too. See, it's Passport Europe Festival this weekend, so there are a number of stages featuring musicians, dancers, storytellers, et cetera. The Red Hats are going tomorrow. Mom brought it up to me in part because, well, I'm a musician, plus I'm going to Europe, so perhaps this would be a jump-start on getting cultured. And she'd rather go with me, and on a Saturday where she could have a day to recuperate if necessary.

We both saw that there is a troll tram that can take you around to all the trolls; considering some are several miles apart, and on either side of Route 53, the tram seemed ideal. Now, I would have figured there'd be multiple troll trams, given how popular the trolls are; mom thought to call (she'd asked me to do it, but I knew I'd be too busy at work, which was 100% correct) and discovered there was but the one, and it was likely to sell out, so we made it a point to get there before the visitors center opened at 9 AM so we could be sure to get our tickets for the 11:30 tram. We ended up being the first and second people to buy said tickets, phew. :) We even got wristbands, so that the guides would know that we belonged on that particular tram, as opposed to the standard tram that drove around the rest of the day. (I'm sure it's the same tram; this was just the special troll-only tram.)

Once we got our tickets...now what? Nothing started until 10 AM for the European stuff. Mom got coffee and a cookie from the cafe, I used the washroom for the first time (but certainly not the last...we basically toured all the bathrooms we could find), and once done we went into the maze right behind the visitors center. That was pretty cool, actually, and I think mom enjoyed it. I'm a few inches taller than her so I could see some of the clue boards over the shorter bushes and would know where to go next; mom was all, how do you know it's there?!? Magic, mom. She remembered being in the maze before, when she'd come with a few friends, including the one with Alzheimer's; she'd climbed up to this tree-hugging platform and wouldn't come down. (By the way, that friend and her husband have now moved to Indiana to be closer to their daughter. The friend got into a facility, I believe. This happened around Labor Day, so just within the past month.) The Children's Garden is right across from there, so we popped in for a little bit (and to use the bathroom), but it seemed pretty large so we didn't stay too long.

At 10 o'clock, mom saw that there was a Swedish heart program in the library, which does not open its doors until 10, so we were stuck waiting out there with a couple of older ladies. Once inside, we were joined by two more women...and nobody else. I figured there would be a facilitator there, and for some reason I thought we'd be painting a design on wooden hearts. This is actually a paper weaving project which was not the easiest thing ever. One of the first ladies complained about the scissors being so small--clearly for little kids, though she said hers cut surprisingly well--and her companion said her thumb hurt after cutting for a bit. Because there were six chairs at the table, we fit just fine around it, but I'd sat at the head of the table so the last pair could sit together. This meant I was by all the colored paper that we were to cut up. We'd end up being joined by others, who ended up at other tables. Basically, there was a pattern printed on the paper. You cut out two colors, folded the paper in half, and then weaved them inside and out to complete the heart shape. If you did it correctly, you had a checkerboard pattern on both sides and could pop open the center of the heart. If you're my mom...that's not how yours ended up. The one lady, who'd started first, warned us that the center slits on the pattern, which helped form the three strips involved in the weaving, were not long enough and therefore did not give you enough room to maneuver. I did end up cutting mine a little bit more, and made sure to warn someone who'd come later and grabbed paper from in front of me. I also ended up trimming some of the ends of my strips in order to make them fit. I think it looks pretty good, though I'd left the pattern on the outside so there's lines visible; oh well. Mom's is pink and purple. Mine is red and white.

We were done by 10:30, a full hour before the tram would leave; it ran from 11:30-1. After a potty break, we wandered over by the food trucks I'd noticed from the children's garden. There was a pierogi wagon! I had to text pictures to dad. Next to them was a crepe and croissant truck; mom and I both got savory croissants, which I think had spinach and cheese baked in. Hit the spot. We also watched the pizza truck for a minute; they had a traveling brick oven that mesmerized me. By then we were smitten enough by the arboretum that we took the membership plunge, in part because they included our admission fee into part of the membership, and by signing both of us up, it saved us nearly half the price off a single membership ($95 for two versus $60 for one). Considering it was $15 to get in and the total $30 got taken off, that's a pretty good deal. It just takes four visits a year to make that pay off. Mom drives past on the tollway every day, and I work close enough that I've honestly been meaning to come there between work and band for years. So...yeah, let's do it.

From there it was (another) bathroom break, a tour around the gift shop, and then we went to get seats on the tram. It was already at least half full and it was only about ten after 11. Today was on the cool side, just in the 60s (though it was in the 90s on Thursday, the last hurrah of summer), and the tram was in the shade and there was a breeze, so that wasn't entirely pleasant. Mom pulled her hoodie over her head and ears to stay warm. And at times when we were moving, the breeze made things chilly. But otherwise I'd totally recommend the tram if you want to see the trolls. You go right to them, traffic notwithstanding, and you get to hear a bit about the trolls and the arboretum. Plus, our guides, Carol and (I think) John, were fun. Carol would ring a small green cowbell when it was time to return to the tram, and at one point she offered to take a couple's picture (they were attempting a selfie), and the wife got to hold the bell in the process. Lucky! :) Carol at one point offered to take mom's and my picture. Mom hadn't washed her hair today and I looked kind of dorky, so we were like, eh, thank you, but no.

You don't actually stop at all the trolls, though you do go past them all. One of them is right at one of the parking lots--I'd actually parked right by him--so there isn't a convenient place to stop, especially given all the people and tents and things related to the European stuff. And the one up by the tollway isn't off a road, and there isn't a good pull-off spot, so we only saw that one from afar. The other four, we got close enough to touch if we wanted. The first one, mom and I hadn't noticed the sign with her name and her clue, and it was only when we returned to the tram that we'd heard about it. For the rest, we made sure to find the signs. There were a fair amount of little kids with us, plus people doing the hunt unaffiliated with the tram, so there were always kids hugging and climbing (though that wasn't actually allowed), though one little girl was kind of scared by them at first. They're pretty cool and made from reclaimed wood. The one by the parking lot, someone said he needed manscaping--he had a bunch of armpit hair! Heh. All the clues added up to where their hideout is, and I was able to determine a general area for the hideout. I hoped to go back before we left.

Once the tram finished, we went to the restaurant for lunch. I got a steak quesadilla (which had mashed potatoes in it...?!) and the chocolate panna cotta, though the woman at the register only heard the first word and at first went to grab me a chocolate milk. Uh...no. Mom got ravioli and the "A" salad, which is made of ingredients starting with the letter A--avocado, arugula, anjou pears, almonds, asiago cheese. Funny, and tasty. Oh, and maybe an apple cider vinaigrette? By the time we finished it was almost 2. Mom wanted to see the Polish dancing, since I'd done that as a small child. I thought they were at stage 6, right by the parking lot troll, but when the people setting up did not look like said dancers, I pulled out my program and saw the dancers were at stage 5 and these were actually the flamenco musicians. Oops. We hoofed it around the lake and saw probably half the Polish dancers, then around the other side of the lake to see the Scottish dancers. There's a lot of verisimilitude to Scottish dancing, so that the girls dressed like sailors doing the hornpipe were, like, pulling ropes and dropping anchors, and the girls dressed like housewives were stomping around and punching at their terrible husbands. It was...interesting.

After that we were ready to at least get in the car; it was 3 PM and the European stuff was over. I'd wanted to at least attempt to find the troll hideout, which was on the west side. We drove over, and though I found a parking spot, I realized I wasn't in a close-enough lot to where I thought it should be, and then I never found appropriate parking after that. The thing about the arboretum is that you can drive through it, but some parking is sparse and the road is one way, so you can't go backward. And, on a busy Saturday, it's best to just keep moving. On the plus side, we discovered an exit from the west side that gets you right on southbound 53, so we didn't have to figure out how to get back to the east side (and its horrendous traffic) to get out of there, so that was convenient. We were both pretty tired by that point, but we were glad we went, and now we can go back at any time. I definitely want to do Illuminations at some point.

forest preserve, mom, family, comments

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