Swallow Cliff Woods

Another chilly spring day, but this whole "doing something new" thing is getting to be addictive. Now Lilia is asking me first thing in the morning,"What are we doing to do today? What's our new thing?" Today, we headed to Swallow Cliff Woods in Palos Park. I didn't grow up going to Swallow Cliff, but Fran, who spent most of his childhood in the area, has fond memories of the surrounding forest preserves. The intriguing thing about Swallow Cliff is that it used to be home to toboggan slides for many years and even though the chutes are long gone, the people keep on coming. The stone staircase that used to lead tobogganers up to the top of the chutes now challenges people looking for some considerable exercise and is a means to get up to the scenic trail. Lilia had no problem bounding up the stairs and passing up some of the panting hikers. The trails were still pretty muddy from recent rains and thaw so we trekked back down the steps and around a paved path at the bottom of the hill. On our walk, we saw a water pump and lo and behold, Lilia had never used one before. I gave her a quick demonstration on how it works and she had a blast pumping water. It's the little things, I guess.