curtain call

218/365: home of the twins

Finally made it to Target Field. But not for baseball. Thanks Children’s Theatre for a great season opener! Congrats on 50 years of making magic.

viva l’opera!

The Mill City Opera is one of our favorite dates of the year. Now in it’s fourth year, the opera is staged among the ruins of the former Gold Medal Flour factory (now Mill City Museum). Sitting under the stars on a warm summer night with a cold beer, gorgeous music, and my best guy beside me: pretty much heaven on earth.

197/365: mill city opera 2015

fauns in the fountain

When I worked downtown, I was always seeking out fountains. It’s something I’ve loved since childhood and never miss a chance to photograph. This one is classically quirky with dancing fauns and fish men all done up in bronze.

149/365: face in the fountain

lakeside seating

Give us 84 degrees in the City of Lakes and we will hit the beach. It was a beautiful May day for playing hooky, lunching at Sandcastle, and watching the waves with my favorite beach bum, even if we didn’t get our toes wet.

146/365: nokomis beach, may

art here

One of our favorite things to do each May is visit Art-a-Whirl in our old Northeast Minneapolis neighborhood. This open studio tour is now the largest of its kind in the country and grows every year. The addition of food trucks, new breweries, and live music in recent years make it all the more festive.

There is literally art EVERYWHERE from warehouses full of artist studios to galleries to people laying paintings out on the lawn or selling out of the back of a minivan. Quality and experience levels vary. Considerably. This was one that made us laugh. I wonder how many people accepted the invitation to ‘come upstairs’…

135/365: art here

a walk in the woods

We walked through Eloise Butler Wildflower Garden Sunday morning until the rain chased us away. It’s a magical place – the oldest public wildflower garden in the country – with cultivated but naturalistic woodland & prairie gardens. I’ll be back mid-summer to see the prairie flowers in full bloom but on this cool, cloudy morning, I thoroughly enjoyed the quiet simplicity of the woodland flowers shining in the shade.

129/265: trillium

may day (observed)

Minneapolis has an epic, one-of-a-kind May Day parade that’s hard to put into words. It’s celebratory, political, diverse, beautiful, grungy and just makes me fall in love with my city all over again every time. One picture can’t really convey the extravaganza. I’ll put up an album on my Facebook page with a few other favorites. But for today, it’s the Rainbow Hula Club. Welcome Spring!

122/365: hula hoop club, may day parade

saturday night

We were really at Cedar Cultural Center – being spirited away on the waves of infectious Cuban rhythms. But then we found ourselves at Palmer’s – a Minneapolis dive bar institution I’d somehow never stepped inside before. Nothing like a little Saturday night surrealism. Palmer’s was worth the wait.

72/365: 2 No Ho on stage @ palmer’s

these days are numbered

It was written in the receding line of snow at our neighborhood sledding hill – the last day of sledding for a while. Maybe for the season. With a string of 50 degree days ahead, the world is utterly transformed.

66/365: sledding hill

Today’s post title is also the title of a song by The Head & the Heart. We fell in love with this band after seeing them play live at Festival Palomino last fall.

field trip

We finally got a chance to visit the new Surly Destination Brewery yesterday – a sprawling industrial complex full of gigantic shiny vats, black t-shirts, and happy people drinking beer. There’s also a full kitchen cranking out all kinds of yummy snacks at a fast and FURIOUS (couldn’t resist) pace. I recommend the brussels sprouts.

38/365: surly brewing