A North Minneapolis Garden Ride and Open Streets Nicollet Avenue

Once and a while Brooke works on Saturdays. That means another daddy-daughter day. Luckily for us there was a North Minneapolis garden bike ride. Will told good old Jim Lovestar about his mountain bike that used to be owned by Josh Hartnett. Good things come from those that clean for rich folks homes.

Alexis now gets Will's old bike. Not a bad deal.

Of course our ride was more about the wonderful community gardens along the route. We found this giant zucchini at the first stop.

Quite a few of the gardens in north allow neighbors to pick what they need. You could feed a lot of people if all our vacant lots transitioned to tiny farms.

After the first garden south of Plymouth we ventured to Karamu Garden on the old commercial corridor. I picked some dino kale that we'd use in Portugese Kale Soup later in the week.

Then we ventured up to lovely garden on Emerson. The resident has yards on both sides of her home. In the backyard she lends her yard space to a few of the Beez Kneez hives.

Before we got to lunch in the Folwell neighborhood we stopped at a youth driven farm in my hood. 

We weren't supposed to pick anything here Alexis.

Mr. Lovestar explained that the garden needed storage so they got this cargo container and had the kids paint it. I love the ingenuity that comes out of theNorthside.

Meadow is now just one of the bikers.

Up in Folwell we had a picnic.

The neighborhood kids had to stop by.

I think you could get Alexis and Jim to put together a great event.

The next day

Meadow is finally old enough to make decisions on her own. Every morning she comes straight to my side of the bed at tells me to get up and make breakfast.

Today it was, "Mama get up! Breakfast."

"What do you want for breakfast?"

"Oatmeal. Get up!"

Peanut does the same thing to me. Except he doesn't get to request what to eat.

Since we had to get a bike ride in we decided to head over to Nicollet Open Streets. 

We noticed  an ad for the Hoigaards tent sale. We made a detour to St. Louis Park to see what they had.

Meadow wanted to try out everything in the store. She still doesn't quite get how pedals work yet. 

Meadow also played with a paddle, which I don't think the salesman liked. He gave her a stuffed animal wolf to placate her.

We then took the Midtown Greenway over to Nicollet Avenue. I'm always surprised by how much has changed since I lived in south Minneapolis.

Don't worry. The Kmart is still on Lake Street.

At the start of the festival Meadow got to jump in her first bouncy house and see Police horses.

We let Meadow walk and by walk I mean run.

Every once in awhile she would stop and get distracted by something.

Not too far from Brooke's first apartment everything is little different.

I remember when I first moved her and my friend Cevonne thought I lived in a rough neighborhood. Ha!

In some Latin American countries they close off the streets to cars every Sunday and on holidays. We get excited about a few of these every summer in the states.

It was kind of interesting to see all the different ways parents biked with their kids.

Wait, where did all these posh restaurants and stores come from?

Folks stood in line for fried chicken at Minneapolis' it restaurant of the moment, Revival.

 We travel so frequently that we only eat out while  on the road. I'm always way behind on what new restaurants are in my city. 

These guys didn't get the message that this was food to be savored.

As we were heading back Meadow was starting to get tired and insisted that only I carry her.

Somehow we forgot to eat at one of the many of restaurants along the route.

Since we didn't have any cash we settled on one of our old favorite restaurants for lupper, Salsa a la Salsa. Their tacos have always been my favorite.

They had two for one margaritas. We hand to splurge.

When we got home Meadow wanted to ride her bike. Somehow she managed to get stuck in the doorway.

Then she helped me make some chocolate oreo ice cream.

We ate popcorn and watched the Packers game until it was time for Meadow to go to bed.

Go pack, go!