A wonderful day up in the Cities at Lake Harriet!

Since Brandon had the weekend off and the weather was supposed to be beautiful, we decided to go up to the Cities to have a fun day at Lake Harriet (a place that we had heard was neat but had never been to). We were going to bring our bikes since we heard there were bike paths, but we decided to leave them at home at the last second. It was a beautiful day, and when we first got up there, we grabbed an Italian pizza from a cute restaurant, Broders, which Janet recommended to us! We were hungry so we ate it at the first place that we could find that overlooked the lake. It was very yummy but after walking around the whole lake later on, realized that it was probably the worst location we could have chosen since it was the most crowded with little kids swimming in the lake...oh well!

After lunch, we decided to walk around the whole lake (2.75 miles) but we took some detours. We visited the Rose Garden and Peace Garden. Both were beautiful and it was fun to see 4 brides getting their pictures taken there. One ceremony was actually being set up to take place in the Rose Garden. I included some pictures below of two of the brides. We thought it was hilarious that the groomsmen of one bridal party were all wearing white and the brides gown was hot pink!! They might look back at those pictures and have a good laugh someday! :) There was a statue in the Peace Garden with cement blocks circling it that taught you how to fold a piece of origami paper into a crane which symbolizes peace. I struggled a but, but with Brandon's help, we were able to make two cranes.

We continued walking the path and were amazed at how big and nice some of the houses are right along the lake. What a great location and it overlooks the city skyline too! There is a picture of me below with a house that I want someday...it is huge and it is right across from the lake. We also saw the neat band shell that is set up for concerts each night. By the time we were 2/3 around the lake, we were both pretty hot and decided to get some ice cream from my favorite ice cream shop up in the Cities, Sebastian Joe's. It was no coincidence that this was close to the lake that I wanted to walk along!

After getting back to our car, we decided to drive along Lake Calhoun which is right next to Lake Harriet. It is a bigger and nicer lake with more park and beachy areas. We thought it would be fun to come back up here and bike all the paths and then go canoing on the lake! There were more big houses along that lake. We loved the area and hope to come back up here and explore more!

No trip to the Cities is complete without going shopping so we stopped at the Bursnville center where I was able to return a couple of things that I have been meaning to do for quite sometime. We were able to eat at Qdobas, our favorite Mexican restaurant while in college, since it was at the mall. Overall, it was a fantastic day!

Where we ate our yummy pizza!The Rose GardenThe crane statueMe holding our finished cranesOur cranes!One of the many bride and grooms that we sawI had never seen groomsmen in white while the bride is in hot pink....crazy!There were two paths, one for biking/roller blading and one for walking/runningThe huge band shellHe just can't seem to get away from medicine!

My new house! ;)

The beautiful view of the lake