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!

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.