Let's Rewind: Minneapolis

Let's talk about our trip to Minneapolis.  While my husband was in meetings in Chicago, the girl and I flew to Minneapolis to hang out with my husband's brother's family.  We moved to San Diego from Minneapolis and have only been back a couple times to visit.  I have a love-hate with Minneapolis.  This time around I was head over heels in love with it and in many moments thought about just staying...for good.  It's easy to fall in love with the city in the summer.

One day my sister-in-law and I took the kids to South Minneapolis, near where my husband and I used to live.  We ate an early dinner at this adorable restaurant, Broders.  There are two Broders and they are right across the street from each other, one is like a deli/pasta takeout restaurant and then the other, which is where my SIL and I ate at was a sit down restaurant.  They had one menu if you ate inside and a separate menu if you ate outside, which I thought was funny.  You couldn't order off of both menus.  We chose to sit outside and all the food was prepared in an outdoor kitchen.  The chef above is picking marigolds from their garden to make a salad dressing.  Talk about fresh!  

Outside they only served small plates.  We ordered one of everything!

I couldn't get over how sweet my nephews were with my girl.

This is where all the food was prepared for the outside menu.

This was our home for seven days.  The houses in Minneapolis are so different from CA!  My sister-in-law is an amazing gardner.

It was very hot and humid while we were visiting.  We took the kids to a lake close by (there are many to choose from) one afternoon.

How cute is this door?  A door inside a door for little ones.  This was the entrance to the most charming children's book store I've ever been in.  Remember that bookstore that Meg Ryan owned in You've Got Mail?  It was like that.

There were animals everywhere.  Chickens freely roamed the bookstore.

There were cats, ferrets, mice, guinea pigs, birds.  My sister-in-law loved having my daughter around.  She doesn't get much girl time.

This is what many streets of South Minneapolis look like...

and this is what many houses look like.  This is a big one, but there are many houses similar to this in smaller scale.  We lived two blocks from here.  Many of the houses in this area were built in the 20's and 30's, which is probably my favorite era.  This particular house faces Lake Harriet, one of three lakes right in the city.

The lakes in the city have paved paths surrounding them.  They are flat and perfect for a nightly run or a bike ride.  On this particular night there was a free concert in the beautiful band shell.  Lake Harriet is in the background.

These two had so much fun together.  They did this ridiculous dance all the time.  I was sad to take this away from my girl when we had to come home. 

On our last night we had dinner in this charming little town called Stillwater.  It sits right on the St. Croix river.  Andersen windows is headquartered here actually, random trivia.  After dinner we walked over this really pretty draw bridge.  On one side you're in Minnesota on the other is Wisconsin.

I miss it already.  I want to go back in the fall.  They actually have a fall in Minneapolis.

I hope your week is going well so far!