my last day in new york was sister's birthday, and so we took bikes on the train to the south tip of brooklyn and biked along the waterfront.  and when i got a flat tire, the birthday girl got her hands dirty and showed me her mad bike repair skills.  pop up bike shop.

we ended our ride at the coney island boardwalk where we walked on the beach and had a little clam snack before catching the train home.

and then i flew back to minnesota, to wrap things up and pack things up and say my goodbye-for-nows.  i'm currently taking the very long route to summit county, colorado.  taking the new car on his first roadtrip, visiting some girlfriends, mooching some couches.

this is an ode on bikeshares:

after breakfast in queens, we donned our helmets and headed to grand central station to rent big awkward blue bikes.  we biked around manhattan streets with stupid grins, then across the williamsburg bridge to meet brooklyn.  we travelled through the epicenter of the universe and stopped by allswell for lunch and beer.  then we biked onward, rebooted and beerhappy, to dumbo and the waterfront at brooklyn bridge park.  it proved impossible to look at the glorious brooklyn bridge and not bike across it, so we picked up one last blue bike and made the pilgrimage, weaving our way though throngs of bridgewalkers back to manhattan.              

it was the best possible first day in new york, and i will be planning all future vacations based on bikeshare options.  please, check out this fabulous directory of bikeshare articles.  or look HERE for new york specific information or HERE for minneapolis niceride!

the magic hour

sister's birthday yesterday

on the coney island boardwalk 

i have loads of new york photos to sort through, but i will leave you with these for now.

the finale first.  

this is the end of summer in minneapolis.  my lovely friend gretchen came to visit from texas a few weeks ago.  we rented nice ride bikes, roadtripped to lake superior, frequented my new favorite treat shop (glam doll doughnuts!), saw some local bluegrass and went out for coffee a hundred times.  when they invent teleportation, i will have coffee dates with gretchen every day, all over the world.  

yesterday i finished my waitress gig downtown.  the staff poured a pitcher of water down my pants, gave me hugs and sent me off into the world.  it's movin' time.  the leaves are falling, and things are happening.    

i leave for new york in about an hour, to visit sister in her big beautiful city.  

mumsey's birthday dinner at the bachelor farmer last weekend has us feeling pretty enthusiastic about the minnesotan nordic experience.  we ate seafood toasts and duck and swedish meatballs in a perfectly delightful converted warehouse space in the north loop.  this place, where farm to table cooking meets old-country scandinavian charm, is so quintessentially minneapolis.    

wanna get even more in touch with your stoic northern side?  minneapolis is a smorgasbord of scandinavian treasures.  tour the castle at the american swedish institute.  have a swedish coffee break at FIKA.  buy scandinavian gifts and interesting meat products at ingebretsen's.  or there's always IKEA, if you like a cheaper meatball.        

i'm working at the old faithful inn for the last five weeks of the summer.  old faithful is an entirely different animal.  roosevelt was small and rustic and often quiet.  here there are people everywhere, swarming the old faithful boardwalk, running around with geyser schedules, hoping to see things erupt, photographing everything.  

and there are amenities here that i had all but forgotten about - phone and internet and bike paths and a salad bar full of veggies!  

the hotel dining room is enormous.  i have been working nonstop since i got here and i'm feeling overwhelmed.  no time for adventuring in this new part of yellowstone like i wanted to.  but i will all be worth it come november - i need some mad money for the TRIP TO PUERTO RICO that i just booked!  bring on the beach!