(the post immediately below shows the map of our bike ride...if you are feeling so inclined, you could open it in another browser window and follow along as I describe our day)
A Monday off in August is a wonderful thing. My office is crazy this time of year, even more so on Monday, so if I can avoid just a little of the crazy, I'm happy. David and I had originally intended to go camping this weekend, but the triathlon got in the way of that plan. Instead, we decided to go for a bike ride around The Cities (as Mpls/St. Paul are affectionately known in these parts).
David was at his place, so he got an extra four miles of biking in in order to meet me at the synagogue about a 1/2 mile from my place. From there, we zipped down Mississippi River Blvd, across the river, and then up Minnehaha Parkway to Mel-o-Glaze Bakery donuts for some coffee and carbs.
My donut was a bit too much - glazed, then glazed again with chocolate. A bit too sweet, but the coffee helped. We enjoyed our treats before we hopped back on our bikes and followed the Grand Rounds National Scenic Byway (we were actually on this most of the day). We zipped past Lake Nokomis without stopping, and then followed Minnehaha Creek over to Lake Harriet. Along the way, we passed some trees that had been felled by the storm we had last Wednesday.
When we got to Lake Harriet, we searched for a geocache near the bandshell. I was just about to give up (because I am always just about to give up), when we found the secret location.
Feeling quite pleased with ourselves, we headed over to Lake Calhoun.
We ate lunch at the Tin Fish, well known in these parts for their fish taco. For $4.95 I got a grilled tilapia taco that was more than enough food. It was quite spicy, by MN standards, which meant it was just right by me. It was amazing.
They also have the best lemonade around - not too sweet, perfectly tart. After enjoying our meals, and being quite full, we enjoyed the view and then made our way over to Lake of the Isles for a quick spin around the lake.
And there was a MONSTER!
Quite frightening.
From there we headed across town on the Midtown Greenway. When we were closer to Uptown, we passed many beautiful flower gardens along the way.
We also stopped at the bike shop located on the Greenway for ice cream and so David could get the brakes fixed on his bike.
Along the way. we kept seeing these bronzed shoes on benches. There were questions above them such as "When will we go dancing?" I'm not sure what these mean. There is a little information here.
At this point, we were back to the river! We rode northwest, past the new Guthrie, under the new 35W bridge,
across the river again, and all the way to Boom Island, where David was stung by a bee.
We took the time for a little photo.
We crossed over the Stone Arch Bridge (3rd time across the river!), rode towards the U of M, across the river again to campus, and then back along the U of M transitway to David's place.
All in all, 31.23 miles for me, 35 for David. At about mile 27 my body started to question what I was doing to it.
We celebrated with some amazing pizza from Crescent Moon.
All in all, it was a wonderful day!
A Monday off in August is a wonderful thing. My office is crazy this time of year, even more so on Monday, so if I can avoid just a little of the crazy, I'm happy. David and I had originally intended to go camping this weekend, but the triathlon got in the way of that plan. Instead, we decided to go for a bike ride around The Cities (as Mpls/St. Paul are affectionately known in these parts).
David was at his place, so he got an extra four miles of biking in in order to meet me at the synagogue about a 1/2 mile from my place. From there, we zipped down Mississippi River Blvd, across the river, and then up Minnehaha Parkway to Mel-o-Glaze Bakery donuts for some coffee and carbs.
My donut was a bit too much - glazed, then glazed again with chocolate. A bit too sweet, but the coffee helped. We enjoyed our treats before we hopped back on our bikes and followed the Grand Rounds National Scenic Byway (we were actually on this most of the day). We zipped past Lake Nokomis without stopping, and then followed Minnehaha Creek over to Lake Harriet. Along the way, we passed some trees that had been felled by the storm we had last Wednesday.
When we got to Lake Harriet, we searched for a geocache near the bandshell. I was just about to give up (because I am always just about to give up), when we found the secret location.
Feeling quite pleased with ourselves, we headed over to Lake Calhoun.We ate lunch at the Tin Fish, well known in these parts for their fish taco. For $4.95 I got a grilled tilapia taco that was more than enough food. It was quite spicy, by MN standards, which meant it was just right by me. It was amazing.
They also have the best lemonade around - not too sweet, perfectly tart. After enjoying our meals, and being quite full, we enjoyed the view and then made our way over to Lake of the Isles for a quick spin around the lake.And there was a MONSTER!
Quite frightening.
From there we headed across town on the Midtown Greenway. When we were closer to Uptown, we passed many beautiful flower gardens along the way.
We also stopped at the bike shop located on the Greenway for ice cream and so David could get the brakes fixed on his bike.Along the way. we kept seeing these bronzed shoes on benches. There were questions above them such as "When will we go dancing?" I'm not sure what these mean. There is a little information here.
At this point, we were back to the river! We rode northwest, past the new Guthrie, under the new 35W bridge,
across the river again, and all the way to Boom Island, where David was stung by a bee.We took the time for a little photo.
We crossed over the Stone Arch Bridge (3rd time across the river!), rode towards the U of M, across the river again to campus, and then back along the U of M transitway to David's place.All in all, 31.23 miles for me, 35 for David. At about mile 27 my body started to question what I was doing to it.
We celebrated with some amazing pizza from Crescent Moon.
All in all, it was a wonderful day!
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