Family in Town

My parents never get to enjoy the Twin Cities whenever they visit. They're either here for a family event or work, so we've been trying to get them up for a while just to enjoy some of the fun things around town. They were finally able to come up Sunday night--with my niece and nephew. They were only able to be here two days, so we packed a lot of fun into the past two days. We never left Minneapolis and did completely free things.

We started the time together by taking a bike ride along the  Mississippi River  down to  the Stone Arch Bridge and to the Guthrie Theater.

In the Yellow Room on the 9th floor of the Guthrie,  enjoying some air conditioning.

We headed down to Minnehaha Falls to cool off in the water.

After enjoying time in the river, we still finished the day going for a swim in the lake at Theodore Wirth Park. The river was restful--the kids played with the rocks, swam down the current, and tried to catch small fish in their hands. The lake was one last cooling off on a 101 degree day with energetic swimming.

This morning we went to the Minneapolis Institute of Art and enjoyed getting cultured.

On our way home we stopped at the Sculpture Garden.

Ethan ate the giant cherry.

We finished off the day driving down around the Chain of Lakes so that Mom could enjoy the homes along the way. We stopped at Wild Rumpus bookstore; the animals and fun decor in the store were a hit. Then we made our way to Lake Harriet for a picnic supper, but got sidelined by the grand opening/ribbon cutting of the new playground there (free coupons for ice cream!). After supper we finished off the night enjoying the concert at the bandshell.