Skokie Sports Park, Part 2: Traveler's Quest

  
NOTE: You can click on the embedded photos to make them larger.

 I think Aaron and I had really different impressions of this course.  I loved this course a lot more than he did.  We talked about why.  My theory is that they set the par so low on this course that we felt discouraged.  I think Aaron would’ve like the course a lot better had the par been higher - with the low par he felt as if he wasn’t doing well.  Seriously, most of the holes were par 2!!!

What I loved about the course was how they had historical or geographical information at the beginning of each hole, and they had music that matched the

theme at many holes.   (The music came out of fake rocks.  Those fake rocks that have speakers in them always make me laugh.)  All the decorations were really high quality - they didn’t look cheap and tawdry.  Even the “Great Wall of China” in miniature looked impressive.

This whole course, though, felt like real putting, rather than goofy golf.  As if it were built so that Dad could get serious about practicing his putting while the kids have a good time.

There was a cool practice green at the beginning - which is really great to get a feel for putting on astro-turf if you’re not used to it.   Plus, it’s just fun extra putting!!  The turf is in great shape over this whole course, by the way.

In Old Faithful, hole number 2, there was an initial tier with three different holes to putt into.  Then, from

those holes your ball went through a pipe and emerged on the lower tier where the final hole was.  Aaron went into the middle hole, so I tried to go into the left hole so we’d get a different outcome.  Man.  That was a mistake.  I ended up with a 6 on the hole because it took me three tries to get into the initial hole I’d chosen!!   And then I got a worse outcome than Aaron did on the tier below, so if you play this course, don’t go for the hole on the left!!  SHEESH!!!

Look at this cool crossing of the river on rocks!!!!   WHEEEE!!!

Oh, dig the Mayan Temple hole!!  I love these decorations!!!  This made Aaron think of some old game show called Legends of the Hidden Temple.  He told me about it - something about the shrine of the silver monkey.  Did anyone else watch this show??  I think it was a game show for kids.  A show I’m too OLD to have seen.  Actually, we just watched a clip on YouTube.  It seems like a kid’s version of Wipeout.  Aaron says Wipeout, in turn, is an American version of Ninja Warrior.  We watched a clip of that - WAY better than Wipeout.  Wipeout OOKS me.  I always have to turn it off because I can’t bear to see people SNAP their SPINES!!!  SHEESH!!!  But Ninja Warrior seemed like a true display of amazing physical feats.  It’s, like, in its 22nd season in Japan.

The Pueblo Village had this nasty gap lurking just out of sight.  It ensnared Aaron.  But not me!!!!

 
Easter Island.  Man, I couldn’t love these decorations more.  And look, you can use your golf balls to give sight to the Moai!!  

Oh, dig the cute koala.  You can see the driving range in the background.  This

place has a driving range and a batting cage, in addition to the minigolf.  But, why were all the drivers on the bottom level??  Man, if I’m going to hit a bucket of balls, I want to hit from the top floor, so it can seem as if I’ve gotten a LONG drive!!!  (Aaron says the people on the ground floor want an accurate representation of their drive.  I say, accuracy - BAH!!!)

Hole 8, Great Coral Reef was a creative three-tiered hole.  Aaron and I both went in the initial hole on the right, which sent us magically into the second tier hole that sent us down to the actual final holes at the bottom (you have your choice of two!!).  Where there was an octopus.  A very, very, large octopus.

 

You know, I loved the decorations on this course a lot more than the actual golf.  Maybe that’s why I liked this course better than Aaron did.  And, look at that water fall!!!  It’s gorgeous!!!

I loved that the Viking ship had the Mayan Temple in the background - and I loved “feeding” the zebra at the Savannah.

 

Man, the hippo hole SUCKED!!!  See that open mouth??  That’s the HOLE!!  There’s a  steep ramp up into it, and it’s all bouncy surfaces in there!!  ARGH!!!!  We both got a SIX on that hole!!!!  And that was only on account of there was a six stroke LIMIT on all the holes on this course!!!  SHEESH!!

 

Look, this elephant has a butt that looks like MINE!!!!  And yet, HIS butt matches HIS general size!! Sadly, we both had to putt from underneath that elephant!!!

 

The last hole was maybe the coolest on the course.  It was Egypt.  Depending on which Sphinx you putt underneath, you follow either the lower or the higher track to the hole.  It was just cool.  

 

Hieroglyphics.

 

 






We also sampled the ice cream at the “Mi-La” snacks at the end of the course.  We split a scoop of ice cream.  But, they didn’t have any bowls, so they just gave us a gigantic cup full of ice cream.  It was real ice cream.  It was really good!!!

Statistics:

Par:  40
Aaron:  59
Peg: 59

Difficulty (1-6 putts, 6 putts being the most difficult):  5 putts
Rating (1-10 balls, 10 being the most wondrous):  

Aaron’s rating:  5 balls.  The scenery was nice, but he didn’t really like the course.   It could’ve just been on account of the low par, but he just didn’t find it as entertaining as the kids’ course.  Also, on three different holes, the cups were so shallow that his ball bounced back out, ruining his score!!  I have to agree, that’s really aggravating.  It wasn’t like they skimmed the top, either, they hit the bottom of the cup and bounced out.  ARGH!!!

Peg’s rating:  7 balls.  The scenery was gorgeous, and the course was in great shape.  There wasn’t a lot of whimsy, though.  Or, not WEIRD whimsy.

Coming soon:  Par-King!!

Skokie Sports Park, Part 1: Kid's Quest

 NOTE: You can click on the embedded photos to make them larger.

Today’s minigolf course is Skokie Sports Park - Part I - the Kid’s Quest.  This course, run by the Skokie Park District, is at 3459 Oakton in Skokie.  This is actually the course that made me want to write this blog.  For YEARS I’ve been seeing this course from the road (OK, the adult course part) and thinking how much I wanted to play this course with my nephew, Aaron.

ANYWAY, the Kid’s Quest is a 9-hole course.  Instead of them giving you your ball at the front desk, they give you a token, and then you go to these gum-ball

machine things where you can put in your token and get out a golf ball!!!  I wanted a purple ball.  The purple ball machine was broken.  ARGH!!!  Luckily the very nice boy behind the counter was kind enough to exchange my token for a purple ball they had in the office.  Yay!!

And look at these funny beavers they have on the metal flap covering the place

where your balls come out.  Isn’t that amazing??  That they’d make such a beautiful decoration for something so . . . mundane!!  I love that.  And why beavers??  Really.  Are golf balls somehow related to beavers??  Were they ever made out of beavers??  I’ll save that question for another day.

So, Kid’s Quest.  The first hole is called Lego Land!!!  Aaron reminded me that he’s actually BEEN to the Lego Land in Billund, Denmark!!  I remember seeing their photos of that vacation.  They had a replica of Mt. Rushmore made completely out of Legos!!  Seriously!!!    I can’t figure out why you’d do that to a mountain in the first place, but then to follow it up with making a Lego replica - WOW!!   Our culture has jumped the shark.

But, the Kid’s Quest hole called Lego Land was some giant Legos that looked like something a real kid would make.  Cool.

The third hole was kiddie nirvana.  You teed off, and then got in the slide, to slide

across the river, directly to the hole!!  Kids who followed us on this course were SQUEALING over this!!  The hole crossed the river, too.  It was, I think, an artificial river that ran through the entire course. 

 
Hole Five - Into H2O - was the coolest hole EVER!!!  You were meant to actually putt INTO the river!!  I couldn’t believe it!!  Aaron putted into the river, and sure enough, his ball got swept up by the current and dumped out by the hole!!  I was amazed.  I was so excited to see that happen to my ball, too, so I putted in to the river, just like I was supposed to.  But my ball got stuck behind a rock.  See - Aaron took photos of the whole sorry process.  See my ball happily flying towards the river???  Now, this next photo is where the ball got tragically stuck.  You may have to click on the photo to enlarge it - it’s inside the red box that Aaron added.  I tried making waves with my putter - so I wouldn’t actually have to take an extra stroke.  But I wasn’t able to make good enough waves.  Sigh.  OH, here’s another photo of my sad, stuck ball.  So, I actually stood on a rock and putted it out of there.  I wonder if that hole gets a lot of people stuck like I got, or if that was rare?  

Hole 6 - Lion’s Head - was one of several where kids could actually sit in the decorations - so that they could become a PART of the decorations.  I think if you’d brought a little kid, they’d really dig sitting in the lion’s mouth while their siblings putted under them.

You know, my ball went flying right off the Lion’s Head.  Maybe I’m just not cut out for kid’s courses.

Aaron says he has a giant butt in this photo.  I say he doesn’t know what a giant butt is.  Aaron’s ball went into the river from the only place it was possible to leave this green.  Sheesh!! 

 

Look, see what I mean about people being able to sit in the decorations??  I’m parking the jeep for the end of this course.  9 holes really fly by!!

Statistics:

Par:  24
Aaron:  24
Peg:  28

Difficulty (1-6

putts, 6 putts being the most difficult):  3 putts
Rating (1-10 balls, 10 being the most wondrous):  7 balls

Oh, man, usually just the rating would be the end of this, but we ended up having a

big discussion about the rating.  You know, this course is astro-turf.  I don’t think I’ve ever played on astro-turf before.  It rolled really true, which was nice.  In general, the condition of this course was great.   The holes were pretty linear, without really many obstacles, but the Into H2O hole was SO brilliant it lifted the score of the course to 7 balls from 6.

Coming soon:  Skokie Sports Park - Part II - Traveler’s Quest