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.

Comments

Yardwork, Ikea and Pumpkins

My new parents-in-law got us a dehydrator for the wedding. Knowing we were going to be cleaning up the garden and going to farmer's market, we took a gander at our millionth kitchen device during breakfast. Scott added granola to his oatmeal. The oatmeal was rather bland, just the way Brooke likes it. Scott was actually cleaning up so I had to take a quick photo of him as proof. Scott told me he was, "putting a blanket down for Peanut," while singing. During the winter months peanut needs a warm place to peer through the window. Seeing as it was nearly November, I setup his blanket for him. Seeing as the farmers market season is dwindling down, we headed to the market...once again. The close proximity to the cities central farmer's market has to be one of the best assets of living in NoMi. We were both amazed by the bounty of produce still on sale. We quickly filled up our first bag and took it back to the car....

Japan Family Trip: Exploring Sangenjaya, Shibuya, Harajuku and Shinjuku in Tokyo

After a 12 hour flight and years of planning we finally made it to Japan. I'd been looking for a decent deal to Japan for ages. Tracking on Google Flights. Searching different points websites. Then finally a flight showed up on Points Yeah the same week Meadow and Theo were off for 3 days. After a nervous half hour of transferring points from our credit card to KLM Air France, we got 4 direct tickets to Tokyo Haneda! Day 1 But first we had to fly and fly and fly. Ready for our longest flight ever. At least we were lucky and got a direct flight. Theo looked nervous. I couldn't really see the kids too well since I was stuck in the center rows with strangers. Meadow, Brooke and Theo got the better end of the deal. He had been worrying about this trip ever since he learned we were going to have to sleep on the plane. Meadow was excited to see that the flight had anime. First time in a long time that I've had a meal on the plane. My chicken curry was pretty good. We got an...

Duluth For The Day

After work I decided to drive up to Duluth to visit my little brother Blake. Scott would have come with me if he didn't have to work. Like most streets in Duluth he lives on a steep hill. I couldn't remember how to park on a hill so I copied the car in front of me. He gave me a tour of his house and when we were in his backyard I heard rushing water. There was a trail and some woods that we followed down a hill to Chester Creek. I had no idea he lived so close to a park. Or a waterfall. We walked a ways to find an old ski jump. Blake said he climbed it when he first moved here and a month later the city took the stairs down. The ski lift is still in use for sledding. Walking back to his house we passed another ski jump. Back when this was first built it was the tallest in the world. During World War II 50 feet was taken off the top to give to the war effort....

Search This Blog