a field trip

Yesterday, Jared and I biked over to the Eloise Butler Wildflower Sanctuary in Theodore Wirth Park. I think this is the largest park in Minneapolis, and neither of us had ever been there before, what a crime! Our first summer here in Minneapolis was a bit weird, Jared was working a super early shift at a coffee shop, our car was in its 6th month of being repaired, and we were still getting our bearings. Last year, Jared was in LA for almost the whole summer and I was pretty unhappy about that, and did not take advantage of my time alone. So this year...I just know that this is going to be our best summer yet. I'm so excited to explore the city more (mostly by bike), get outdoors, have an incredible garden, and just have fun. In fact, I've already deemed 2009 to be the official "summer o' fun."

This park seems like a little (okay, large) gem in the corner of the city. It was really interesting to read about Eloise Butler, and her vision of creating a wildflower sanctuary in the city, for children to learn about nature, and for visitors to see all of the native plants in one place.

Unfortunately, we got a bit of a late start and Jared's "brief stop at work" was longer than we had anticipated, so we didn't have tons of time to wander around the park. Also, it was freezing! (Seriously, it was 93 degrees last month, and this morning it's 51, wtf?!). I think this time of year, we've missed a lot of the spring blooms and are a little bit early for the summer ones, so there wasn't too much blooming. But it was still beautiful to walk around, and after Saturday's rain, everything was super lush and green. We really did not feel like we were still in the city.

Last weekend, we were in NY for a wedding of some old friends and I found myself (yet again) explaining to a whole bunch of New Yorkers why I love Minneapolis so much- this is definitely one of the reasons. The parks here are amazing. You can be within the city (in fact- within biking distance of our house!) and feel like you're deep in the woods. It was incredible. We'll definitely be going back there more this summer, I've even signed up for a workshop on medicinal plants of summer later this month, and I'm hoping we can do a picnic there at least once. Hope you all had a good weekend!