Last Day

Normally all we want to do is head for home. Not this trip. We had a full half day planned and started off at Perkins for another great breakfast, gassed up and were on our way. A lot of businesses don't open early in the morning and with the time difference working against us we had to plan carefully. We made our way up France and Lake to the Midtown Global Market. It's an open space with dozens of ethnic restaurants and shops, every kind of food imaginable. We stopped for some cupcakes at The Salty Tart Bakery, one of the few open in the market. 

Next was the Freewheel bike shop which is behind and below facing the Midtown Greenway, the main bike route across town. They have a full shop for repairs or rent, coffee and juice bar, showers and lockers, bike storage, wifi and everything a bike commuter might need. You can literally ride right in!

From there we headed back to Hennepin Ave. and made our way downtown without the gps or freeways. Beautiful old buildings, especially churches, neighbourhoods and small shops were just a few things you won't see from I-35. Traffic at 10am local time was amazingly sparse so I was able to look around. Even downtown the traffic was relaxed and we arrived at Kramarczhuk's Sausage (a Diners Drive-Ins and Dives location) in search of the elusive blood sausage. The sausage hoarding masses had headed back to Milwaukee so we were able to taste and buy two rings. Not what Great Grandma use to make but maybe a hint of that taste we remember so fondly. 

We had one more stop before it was time to leave, the outdoor sculpture park. For that I flipped on Gloria and she had us standing under the twenty foot cherry on a spoon in about ten minutes. There were workers all over the grounds setting up for an event so getting a picture without them in the scene was tough. We walked slowly back to the car knowing the best vacation we've ever had in Minneapolis was ending, nothing left but the six hour drive home. But this was one trip that while short, was full of activities and discovering new-old parts of the twin cities.