Chain Livin': Touring the Blossoms

"The Chain" was put on the map as a recreation destination over 100 years ago. Busy Chicagoans took the newly expanded train route to Fox Lake in order to find a relaxing distraction from city life. One of the main tourist attractions in the area were the "Egyptian" Lotus Blossoms.

Back in olden tymes people would visit Fox Lake and Antioch to see the famous flowers that only grow in two places around the world: Egypt and The Chain o' Lakes, IL. There are a few pictures and old postcards online showing the blossom tour as a true attraction through the '40's and beyond.

Blossoms in the "K"

The "Egyptian" portion of the blossom is still a common myth today. We thought these flowers really were only here and in Egypt until we researched this post. Cooter's History Thing Blog quotes the 2010 Grant Township (Which Fox Lake is in) Historical Society:

Fox Lake, Illinois', official flower is the very fragrant lemon-colored Egyptian Lotus Flower. At one time, when the Chain of Lakes was much lower and boat traffic much less, huge lotus beds covered parts of the lakes.

Today, there are far fewer, primarily near Crabapple Island where the water is too shallow for boating.

The Chain of Lakes, here in northeastern Illinois, is the only place in the US where they have been found growing in the wild. No one knows for sure why that is.

The Lake County History Blog presents a different story:

The lotus caused quite a tourism sensation from the 1880s to 1940s. Vacationers were drawn by word of their beauty and by the legend. The legend, created out of a combination of naiveté and marketing, stated that the lotus actually originated in Egypt and were brought to Lake County by bird or by an early settler. This myth made for great advertisements and was generally accepted as fact by area residents, but simply wasn’t true. 

The lotus, known as Nelumbo lutea, or American lotus, grow not only in the Chain O’ Lakes, but also in Illinois’ major rivers and lakes and ponds, and shallow water areas throughout the eastern United States.

We checked out wikipedia and it seems pretty clear that Nelumbo lutea is the flower in our lakes. No matter where they are from, they are very pretty and add character to the places they still grow.

With the blossoms in bloom we decided to take a boat ride and take a closer look. Here's a quick video we made from our tour and some pictures.

Some photos were sourced from the Internet for educational purposes. We do not claim the copyrights.

Run Disney and the Great Medal Caper

Find out why Donald was in Chicago and help us find out what the 20th anniversary Walt Disney World Marathon Medal will be. Click here for more details at Facebook (login required).

Also, check out runDisney.com

Jamaica 50

Unfortunately the biggest party of the year is being overshadowed by The Olympics.

On August 6th Jamaica will be celebrating its 50th anniversary as an independent nation. If you follow any reggae or Jamaican related websites it's pretty hard to miss everyone's enthusiasm. The parties aren't only in Jamaica. The country's influence has sparked a wave of celebrations all over the world. The largest ones will likely be in New York, London, and Toronto - cities with large Jamaican communities. To share in the fun, here are some links to help you learn a little more about Jamaica and get you into the spirit of one of our favorite countries.

• Visit Jamaica: Once you go, you know. Official Tourism site.
• How Jamaica Conquered the World: Home of a new podcast about Jamaica's influence outside its boundary. Contains a nice history section.
• Top 10 Jamaican Stereotypes / 10 Jamaican Myths Busted: Surprise! Most Jamaicans don't smoke ganja.
• Jamaica 50: Official Anniversary site.
• Jamaicans.com: Online community and resources. Great place for jerk chicken and shrimp rundown recipes.
• Reggae Marathon: Since this is kind of a running blog we had to include this site. Holly ran the full and Dave did the 10k in 2011. Here's our report.
• Negril.com: Check out The Capital of Chill!
• Reggae Train: Great source for all things reggae.
• World Reggae Show: Jack Slater gives you an hour of sunshine reggae each week. This is where Dave first learned about artists like Gregory Isaacs, Dennis Brown, John Holt, and many others.
• Big Up Radio: 24/7 streaming music. Pick your genre: Roots, Rocksteady, Soca.......

To keep in the Olympic spirit, here are a few recent ads for Jamaica with Usain Bolt:

We put a musical tour of Jamaica together for you (may not show up on idevices, which is odd since it's from the itunes widget creator):

Some of our photos from various Jamaica trips.

2012 Chicago Rock and Roll Half Marathon, 5K, and Video

Here's Holly's recap of the weekend and the Half Marathon:

I was super excited for the 2012 Chicago Rock and Roll Half Marathon weekend. We had a bunch of Team AllEars friends coming into town and knew it would be a great time. The weekend started with the Expo. We got there early and it wasn’t crowded so I was able to do some shopping. I broke a bunch of running rules by wearing a new watch and a new fuel belt on race day. Thankfully they all worked fine.

After the expo we met up with everyone at the Palmer House Hilton where we were all staying. We decided to take a walk up to Dick's Last Resort on the river. It was a nice day, not too warm. After a great lunch we kept walking up Michigan Avenue. Did some shopping and then we all stopped for a cupcake at Sprinkles. Carb loading, right?? By now we were all getting tired of walking and we did have the race tomorrow so we decided it would be better for us to stop for a beer and sit down than to keep on walking. We spent a couple of hours people watching on Rush street at the Cedar Hotel. Then it was off to dinner to meet the rest of our crew. We had dinner at Scoozi and it was very good and reasonably priced. Then it was back to the hotel for the early wake up.

A few of us met in the lobby at 5:30 for the 6:30 start. The Palmer House is a great location for this race as it is 2 blocks or so from the start. We got to the start area and all split up to get in our various corrals. It was warm, humid warm. I was already hot and sweaty just standing in the corrals. Soon we were off. I have done this race 3 times prior so am pretty familiar with the course. I was hoping for a PR, but after seeing the weather report I knew that wasn’t going to happen. I revised my goal to get under 2:30. Did I mention it was humid? I was already soaked by mile 2. I was on pace for the 2:30 until mile 8 or so. It was great seeing Laura, Marybeth and the thing-a-ma-jig at Mile 7. They are always a great pick me up. I ran into Liz at mile 8 and she said she wasn’t feeling well. I can see why, it was so freaking hot! I started slowing down around mile 10 and knew I wasn’t going to hit 2:30. I was ok with that. My legs just didn’t have it. I have been training hard for a marathon Labor Day weekend and I think it took its toll. I’m sure all the walking the day before didn’t help, but that was so much fun it was worth it. I finished in 2:33:13. The Rock and Roll group has the best finish area with icy cold wet towels, popsicles, and Jamba Juice. I met up with Dave and we headed over to the concert area. Enjoyed some beers and the band Cobra Starship. It was a really great weekend with great friends. Can’t wait to do it again.

Here's Dave's recap of the 5K (mini marathon):

As Holly mentioned, we hit the race expo on Saturday morning. I really don't like expos. Usually they are crowded and full of the same stuff row-after-row. Luckily we were early so the crowds were low and snacks easy to get to. Thanks Clif!. While Holly was looking at iFitness belts,I delighted in the antics of Charlie Tuna. Yes, a costumed mascot. As Holly mentioned we had a great time with our friends.

This may have been the biggest race I have been in. 5kers corralled with the halfers and I was in Corral 26 out of 28. Took over 25 minutes to get to the start line. 5kers split right within the first 1/2 mile and stayed on Lower Wacker until almost mile marker one. After that we were on the Lakeshore bike path and some sidewalks in the Grant Park Area. The last .4 miles were back on the streets.

Overall the course was nice. After the start we could all spread out a bit until we hit the narrower path and sidewalks. Lots of kids doing that whole run-then-dead-stop in front of you. The Lake Michigan and skyline views were great. I passed 3 bands along the way. It was super humid! You really felt this in the stretch of Lower Wacker. I walked the whole race in 42:59 with a 13.50 pace. I couldn't possibly hold everything they gave out at the finish line. Had to ditch the popsicle. The benefit to doing the shorter race is more post-race party fun! I got a beer before 8am, listened to the opening band, and took advantage of free wifi in the middle of the park. Lots of fun.

Here's our video from the race. Most of it is pre and post commentary, plus some photos from the 5K, and Cobra Starship snippets.

2012 Beers From Around the World

In our house we celebrate the start of the Olympic Games with a tradition we've kept for over 12 years. That tradition is "Beers from Around the World".

On the night of the Opening Ceremonies we'll order out some food and have beers from different countries (as the name implies). We buy a variety and share each bottle.

Rules: Sample the U.S. beer when the U.S. Team comes out and save a beer from the host country last.

Here are some pictures we were able to find from prior years:

2002

2004

2010

2012

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A couple of years ago a friend asked us to tape our sampling. I just found some of them on YouTube, along with our follow-up 2010 Winter Games. We're not going to share those with you - you can look for them on your own. But we will share this year's sampling. Here are the 2012 BFAtW Sampling videos (broken down in segments for easier loading):

 

My Life with Pedometers

My name is Holly and I am addicted to pedometers.

Admitting you have a problem is the first step right? I started wearing a pedometer daily over 10 years ago. I first used it as a way to get some exercise. This was before I was running. I would strive to get the magic 10,000 steps a day that everyone said you needed to stay healthy.

I started off with a high tech version called the Sportbrain. This was a really cool little pedometer. The first version didn’t even have a display. You would have to put the “egg” into a port, which would then dial up (yes dial up) the company and download the steps to the site.  It was a great tool.  For no extra fee they would run challenges that you registered for. Get a certain number of steps during the time period and you automatically get the prize. It was very motivating for me and I loved it. Eventually they came out with a unit that had a display so you could see your progress without having to plug it in. That model also had a USB upload. Unfortunately Sportbrain’s service started going downhill and they stopped doing the challenges so I moved on.

I used a basic Omron pedometer for a few years and it was great. They are low cost and accurate, but no bells and whistles.  I liked the extra feedback that the Sportbrain gave over the Omron.

Then along came the Fitbit! I was so excited when I heard about this product. It took awhile for it to come to the market and I was one of the early adopters. It is very small and can be worn on the belt/bra or in your pocket. Data uploads wirelessly whenever you are close to your computer that has the base charging station attached to it.

The website has a lot of information and feedback and I loved it. Unfortunately my first one lasted a month before the display died. Fitbit sent me a replacement. The next one lasted about a year and again they replaced it. The last one the plastic cover came off and I had to superglue it back together. These are not inexpensive: $100. I had enough and moved on once again.

My latest love is the Striiv.  This is also about $100. No monthly fees and you can see your data online, but currently only your cumulative steps, the current day and previous day. I am hoping that eventually you will be able to go back and see older daily data.

The cool thing is that as you step you are accumulating points towards donations. To date I have donated 14 days of water for one child, 78 polio vaccinations and 31 parking spot sizes of Rainforest. Pretty cool!

It also has an environment creation/management game called Myland. The more you step the more you can buy in the game. It will also give you pop up challenges throughout the day. Such as go climb 15 steps. Or get 10 more minutes of activity. Very motivating.

I have had the Striiv since April and it still works perfectly. It has been through a few marathons, plus lots of sweaty workouts, and it is still going strong.


I highly recommend the Striiv, or just wearing a pedometer in general, to get some extra motivation throughout your day.




All images sourced from the Internet.

Live Update - Rock and Roll Chicago: Half and Mini-Marathon

Dave here: I'm in Grant Park in Chicago waiting for Holly and the rest of the Team AllEars crew to finish the Half. I did the mini-marathon his morning: a 5k. I wish they would just call it what it is. I didn't even do a quarter of a marathon this morning.

They have wifi in the park so I downloaded blogger's app to test while I wait. If this post seems out of our normal format structure you know why....

The main act in about 90 minutes is Cobra Starship. Should be fun.