There was not enough blue sky to make a Dutchman's britches, but it was a cool and liveable day. So, after about an hour of tennis practice in the morning, I had lunch and rode over to Minneapolis, the City of Lakes. It's a bike friendly city with plenty of trails and visually pleasing destinations. The map in the photo shows the lakes closer to St. Paul, just a short distance over the Ford Bridge and past Minnehaha Falls: Nokomis and Hiawatha. Nokomis was Hiawatha's grandmother in Longfellow's "Song of Hiawatha" and she was the one to raise him after the death of his mother, Wenonah, in childbirth. Lake Hiawatha is just north of Lake Nokomis. Gitchi Gumee, where Hiawatha was raised is reputed to be Lake Superior. His lover was the beautiful Minnehaha. You can look it up.
This is the Minneapolis skyline across Lake Nokomis looking north. You can make out the IDS tower and other landmarks.
I rode home the long way through Hidden Falls Park and Crosby Farm. It was a cool enough day, but the 21 miles spells k-n-a-c-k-e-r-e-d for Tennis Tousan.
UH bought Papa Murphy's takeout pizza for dinner. Mushrooms, black olives, and artichoke hearts. Yum. Yum.
3 comments:
Good to see Nokomis and the skyline. I think this lake shaped my life,learned to swim there and was the lake that I walked 361 days in one year. MM
It sounds like a really nice ride, and different from the usual. How hilly was it? 21 miles is a pretty good distance -- too bad we're not doing TRAM this year. This is probably the most bike training you've ever had. (I am just kidding about the 'too bad' thing.)
That's also my lake at the moment, as it's closest to my apartment. In fact, I plan to rollerblade around it tomorrow. Also, you can see my work from there. Pretty cool. I might even be in that photo, although I would be microscopic...
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