Nice day for a run and a hawk

January 30th and a nice day for a run to coffee. I've been running to Excelsior and Grand to meet the gang for coffee at Starbucks. It is around 3.7 miles one way via the Greenway. I felt a bit sluggish on the outbound trip so decided to return along Excelsior boulevard.


Excelsior road passes through the Minikahda Country Club golf course. Often there is a hawk hanging out looking out over the course. I was lucky to see the hawk this morning, The photo doesn't show very well how big this hawk is.

I did stop at Isles on the run home for coffee cake and it was warm (Minnesota warm) enough to sit outside. The sparrows were were also out and hungry.

Sleepy

I'm sitting outside of Isles and the little sparrow in the middle keeps falling asleep. It is right in the middle of the sidewalk.

Gracie and Alex visit

My niece Gracie brought her son Alex to spend a year with his father on Wisconsin. They spent a couple of days with me before Alex's dad picked him up on Saturday.

Gracie and Alex flew in to MSP on Wednesday while I was still in Denver for work. They went to a Twins baseball game and stayed the night at the downtown Hilton. My fantastic neighbor Roxi lent them keys to my house so they could check out and move Alex's huge suitcases. I got home a little after 9pm. It was still light out.

I worked a couple of hours Friday morning. They are still on Hawaii time so sleeping in was pretty much assured. We went to Isles Bun and Coffee before going over to St. Paul to the Como Zoo. There was hardly anywhere to park but the zoo and Como Town were not crowded.

We had a wonderful time at the zoo. Got to see the baby gorilla and the baby orangutan. Alex also got to see two gray wolves (wolfes as he calls them). One of the wolves is all white.

Turns out Alex loves carnival rides so an unlimited ride pass at Como Town was perfect. He rode all he could twice.

We drove back to Minneapolis and walked to the Stone Arch Bridge to see the Mississippi River. Alex was starting to run out of steam. Walked over to Izzy's for ice-cream. The goal now was to try to keep Alex up to switch him to Midwest time. By the tome we got back home, all three of us were out of steam. Everyone laid down for a nap.

The Uptown leg of the Northstar bike races was Friday night. We got dinner at Salsa a la Salsa before going to Hennepin Ave to watch the professional bikers race around. Alex's nap hadn't really helped. His biological clock was totally off.

These pro-racers are incredibly fast and fun to watch. We stayed to the end though Alex was done half way through.

Alex's dad Nate drove from Wisconsin on Saturday to pick up Alex. Because Gracie has to finish her tour of duty on Hawaii then go to training in Florida the move to Washington state for her next two year tour, she decided to have Alex spent a full year with his dad and go tone school for third grade. It was an emotional going away.

I took Gracie to the airport after stopping at Chipolte one last time. There are no Chipolte restaurants in Oahu.

Isles Bun and Coffee

As almost everyone knows, I love my local coffee and bakery. I decided to treat myself to their famous cinnamon bun. As you can see it is almost as big as a paper plate. And tastes fantastic.

Its Open

All last summer and fall, I watched the construction of the Mozaic project in Uptown which includes the first pedestrian only bridge across the Minneapolis Greenway.

Today the bridge opened to no fanfare.  I plan on using it as a short cut to Isles Bun & Coffee and to Old Chicago.

On the Mozaic side there are several sculptures in the plaza in front of the new building.

The building and multi-level parking ramp has not opened yet.

It looks like a mess but tastes so good

This is the incredible Isles Bun and Coffee coffee cake.  Famously known for their cinnamon buns, its the coffee cake that gets me going every weekend.

coffee cake