A Trip to the Gardens

When I was little, my family and I would take a trip to the Botanical Gardens for a day in the summer. I remember vividly the dragonflies and lily pads in the water near the Japanese Banzai trees. Till this day, I believe it is a beautiful place to visit and enjoy the scenery. Until recently, I thought it would be hard to visit the gardens without a vehicle considering it is a considerable ways up north from Chicago. But then I found out from my biking friends that there is a bike trail running all the way up to the gardens. Haha! I can combine my frequent bike rides around Chicago to now accommodate for this trail! I was pretty excited because the trail is about 14 miles long... I believe it starts from Foster and some other street, but there is an entrance at Devon and Harlem or Austin, I can't remember which one, but if you go west on Devon, you are bound to see it (I thinks it's by Nagel, going on I-90). Well anyways, the only "trail" I've gone on is the Lake Shore drive one and I'm sorta tired of it. I needed something new and also I wanted to go back to the Botanical Gardens and see how it is during these days. The first time taking the path, I went with four other friends. Basically, the path goes through a forest preserve and cuts through some big roads like Touhy and Golf. There are some steep bridges which sucks going up but awesome going down. Also, there were A LOT of cicadas.
It's a nice trail to go on if your have about half the day to go on the trail and also visit the gardens. Also, you are saving gas and enjoying such a beautiful view.