We Pay Our Respects to George Floyd and Survey the City

We've been having talks with Meadow about what's going on lately. It can be hard to explain without her actually seeing it. We've had the news on more, but I thought she should see some things in person.

This Sunday we came to 38th and Chicago to pay our respects to George Floyd.

I had wanted to come during a weekday morning as I knew it would be busy on the weekend. Masks and hand sanitizer were required before entering.

The names of black people killed by the police were painted on the road.

Black Lives Matter. The current structure of policing does not make many Minneapolitans safer, especially BIPOC people. Change needed to happen years ago, but hopefully we reach for a new understanding of what public safety means.

We decided to grab some lunch at our favorite tamale and taco places. Lake Street needs our business more than ever right now.

First I picked tamales for the kids at La Loma.

Then we got some tacos and a burrito at Taco Taxi.

Meadow has been asking to have a picnic lately. I think we fulfilled her wish.

Meadow has been interested in Star Wars lately so we have been watching the movies. Theo now thinks everything is a light saber.

We then decided to check out Midtown. Another area that was damaged with fires.

This intersection was much harder hit than where we'd been to date. A one block span of Chicago just south of Lake is nearly all severely damaged.

It was a hot day. Our neighbors offered us their old sandbox to use as a wading pool for the kids.

It's strange to go and reflect on how we systemically hurt Blacks in this country and then come home to lily white Southwest Minneapolis.

Still, on a hot day it's a wonderful time to play in our condo buildings little yard.

Comments

Yardwork, Ikea and Pumpkins

My new parents-in-law got us a dehydrator for the wedding. Knowing we were going to be cleaning up the garden and going to farmer's market, we took a gander at our millionth kitchen device during breakfast. Scott added granola to his oatmeal. The oatmeal was rather bland, just the way Brooke likes it. Scott was actually cleaning up so I had to take a quick photo of him as proof. Scott told me he was, "putting a blanket down for Peanut," while singing. During the winter months peanut needs a warm place to peer through the window. Seeing as it was nearly November, I setup his blanket for him. Seeing as the farmers market season is dwindling down, we headed to the market...once again. The close proximity to the cities central farmer's market has to be one of the best assets of living in NoMi. We were both amazed by the bounty of produce still on sale. We quickly filled up our first bag and took it back to the car....

Beaver Creek State Park Hiking Club (with a Layover at Frontenac State Park)

After we dropped Meadow off at school on Friday morning I made some last second plans to camp in southern Minnesota this weekend. Once we picked up Meadow we headed towards Red Wing. Red Wing Brewing has some really great pizza. The crust is something special. So we stopped there for dinner. Getting back to pre-COVID life is a bit strange, but we're getting used to it.

Ice Skating Off the Gunflint Trail

Last year we made a trip up to the Gunflint Trail and Voyageur Canoe Outfitters for Brooke's birthday. Due to a faulty pump the VCO folks provided us with a complimentary stay in 2026. So with the kids off in mid-January we took them up on that. We stopped for the night at Blake's house on our way to the Gunflint. He had recently acquired my Grandma's old Apple computer. The kids were blown away by the old style computers. Then they decided to write a story and were sad that it couldn't be saved. Blake's winter project this year is working on his library.

Search This Blog