July 17, 2015 18.1 Miles Summit – University, Downtown, Lowertown Victorian-era homes with narrow clapboard siding, bold colors, a variety of ornamentation and towers are often called ‘Painted Ladies.’ In researching this ride I learned there’s a bit more to it than that. Painted Ladies refer specifically to Queen Anne-style houses that are painted […]
On Saturday, there was an Art Sled rally at Powderhorn Park in Minneapolis for the 9th year in a row. Above is a short video showing some of the participants.
The mid-winter thaw has me in a boating frame of mind. With perhaps barely two months left before the first spring outing, the sound of dripping gutters has me recalling adventures last year and plotting more in 2016. I wrote last spring about the joys of boating to lunch in Excelsior, so here is a little outing […]
That planned park across from the new Vikings stadium in Minneapolis’ Downtown East neighborhood won’t have firepits–darn. Also, the fundraising effort for it is short by about $10 million dollars, out of about $22 million dollars that the Downtown Council and others have been looking for to fund this here park: Yesterday, the Star Tribune reported that […]
I used to live at 33rd Street and Lyndale Avenue in Minneapolis which is within two blocks of two parks – Painter Park and Bryant Square Park. Nearly every night in the winter, after dinner I would grab my ice skates and walk over to Bryant Square for a little skating. Usually I would skate […]
Whether it’s the Grand Rounds (plural) in Minneapolis or the Grand Round (singular) in St. Paul, together they add up to one ambitious bike ride.
The St. Paul Parks Department recently finished the restoration of an historic pedestrian bridge that was used by streetcar passengers to cross the tracks in Como Park. Streetcars connected downtown St. Paul with Como Park in 1891, and turned around at a rambling wood depot. In 1898 the “Como Interurban” was extended to downtown Minneapolis via […]
March 31, 2015 9.9 miles Highland Park The trees remain bare, the sides of most streets are ensconced in five months of winter grit and the temperature dips quickly as evening approaches. But none of that matters because it’s March 31st and my bike and I are out of the basement and on the streets […]
Like previous mass shootings, last week’s terrorist attack in Charleston, SC left me–and the rest of the country–heartbroken. What was even worse in my mind is that in the year 2015, even with the apparent progress that this country has made on the race relations front, there are individuals out there that still hate fellow humans […]
I watch the show House of Cards, as I assume many of you do. If not, go check it out, maybe (the third season wasn’t so great). There’s a rather jarring moment in the first season when Claire Underwood gets yelled at by a nun for running through a cemetery, calling it disgraceful. Later in […]