First Friday

Because I have a part-time contract, finally I can have something I've wanted for ten years. I'm spending the summer with my kids. On Fridays. This Friday we took a 9-mile journey, them on bikes and me running. We decided to go straight down Nicollet Avenue, which is two blocks from our house, all the way to the Mississippi.

This bridge is the border between where we live, Richfield, and the City of Minneapolis. We made it a milestone.

I packed hot dogs and Gatorade which we stopped to eat.

The boys also packed their journals. Ezra is working on a story.

The next milestone was hitting downtown. This is 13th St. Where Nicollet Ave becomes Nicollet Mall. That's where the title sequence of Mary Tyler Moore takes place. There's a statue. Meanwhile I let the boys put Mountain Dew in their thermoses, which they are holding here. The caffeine helped us make this trip. The thermoses exploded, and then they closed them and blew them up again. Several times.

These people were promoting Cars 2. They gave us posters.

Here's Ezra on the foot bridge over the Mississippi. To the left is a giant lock and St. Anthony Falls. The spray was cool after that long trip.

There's the lock and the Falls.

This is a very Minneapolis picture. Modern mixed with flour. From right to left you have high-end condos, the Mill City Museum--built inside the ruins of an exploded Pillsbury plant--, the Gold Medal Flour sign, and the ultra-modern Guthrie theater with its bridge to nowhere, an observation deck overlooking the city.

This is Foxy, Foxy and "Foxeh" (which Ambrose says with a James Brown intonation) bungee jumping.

Did I mention it was Foxy's birthday?

Ezra listening to Run DMC.

I felt great after the 9-mile run when we stopped down by the river. Then I started running again. I made it about 5 blocks before my left knee and lower leg completely shit the bed. Ezra let me ride his bike all the way home, and he rode Ambrose's, carrying his brother on the pegs.

I saw Ambrose giving Ezra little Tuina treatments ("Gun Fa," which means rolling method) when he got tired while riding.

Ezra wanted me to take a picture of the boys looking their tiredest.

This is going to be one of those days the boys talk about for a long time. They've been talking about it since Friday, and planning what we'll do the next, and the next and the following. I'm going to pretend it will never end.