The Scarecrow Trail at the Morton Arboretum showcases 40 beautifully decorated scarecrows around Meadow Lake, created by local Girl Scout troops.

Take this presidential election quiz at ISideWith.com, and see which candidate supports your views!  You'll be asked a series of questions about your stance on environmental, social, science, economic, domestic policy, foreign policy, immigration, and healthcare issues.  Your responses will show whether you side with the Democratic, Republican, Green, Libertarian, or other party.  Pretty cool! 

Don't forget to vote on Tuesday, November 6!

Have you seen "Hotel Transylvania" yet?  It's an animated movie about Dracula (Adam Sandler) and his daughter Mavis (Selena Gomez) living in a posh hotel, where their monster friends gather.  Frankenstein (Kevin James) and his bride (Fran Drescher), the Mummy (Ceelo Greene), the Invisible Man (David Spade), Quasimodo (Jon Lovitz), and the Werewolves (Steve Buscemi & Molly Shannon) come to celebrate Mavis's 118th birthday.

Mavis has always wanted to leave the hotel and go out to travel the world, but Dracula is afraid of humans and wants to keep her safe at home.  Unfortunately, in wanders a human and messes up Dracula's plan.

The kids enjoyed the movie, and it wasn't too scary at all.  A few times Dracula looks frightful, and there is an angry mob, but otherwise, the movie was mostly cute and funny.  It's great for a rainy afternoon this time of year.

At Navy Pier the other day, we decided to see the IMAX movie "To the Arctic," by director Greg MacGillivray, narrated by Meryl Streep, with songs from Paul McCartney.  We saw gorgeous scenes of icy cliffs and waterfalls, as well as birds, walruses, caribou, and a mother polar bear and her twin cubs as they survived the bitter climate of the Arctic.  

The beautiful icy landscape is quickly melting away, with average temperatures rising faster there than anywhere else, causing difficulty for the polar bears to access food to survive.  The ice sheets are disappearing, requiring the polar bears to swim long distances in search of food.  The cubs are adorable and playful, but danger presents when a hungry male polar bear, deprived of food, begins to target them.  

This IMAX movie shows us a fascinating world and calls upon us to think about conservation in new way.