Duluth for Work and Exploring East Lake After the Chaos

Oh, hey. It's our neighborhood.

The kids wanted to play with the Potato Heads and made our family with them.

There's Theo.

Oh yeah I dyed Meadow's hair teal. 

No, wait, there's the real Theo.

I had a job up in Duluth, so I asked Meadow if she wanted to come up with me. She could spend the day with Blake whose done a good job social distancing.

The poor kid has been stuck at home for so long. I stayed back with Theo, I figured these two could have a little trip together.

We arrived the night before and met little Ruth, Blake and Daniel's new dog.

We played in his yard for a bit and then a double rainbow showed up.

It was pretty great in person.

We walked through Blake's new neighborhood, Central Hillside.

Meadow even got to walk Ruth.

She loves walking dogs.

We got some food from the King of Creams and brought it to a nearby park.

Then we played on the playground. I feel better about this in a smaller city like Duluth, but who knows with Covid-19.

The upper stretches of Central Hillside are all new to Meadow and me.

We came back down to the Cities from Duluth the next day.

When they returned we took a bike ride over to our friend Cayla and Amanda's house. Luckily when we biked by we saw Cayla at the neighbors. Amanda wasn't home so we chatted for a bit on the sidewalk.

We had some clothes to return to Amanda so she can sell it at her vintage store, which is currently online only. It was nice seeing Cayla even if just for a bit.

Since Amanda wasn't home we ended going for a walk along East Lake. This was hardest hit area during the riots other than Chicago & Lake.

I'm loving all the murals that are still up.

It was strange to see a restaurant open with patio seating only just block from empty shells of buildings.

Restaurants were supposed to open when the protests started. A few are just starting to open up to dining.

This was pawn shop near Lake and Hiawatha.

This was one of our favorite Indian restaurants, Ghandi Mahal.

I'm pretty hopeful that they'll rebuild since they owned the building.

The area is in a sad state, but I'm hopeful that much of Lake Street will get rebuilt. At least I hope so.