Eric turned 30!

On April 9th Eric turned 30 and I attempted to give him a big party. We ended up giving him a "surprise" party at a local bar called the Chatterbox with some friends and family. We celebrated early because his actual birthday weekend we were in I-Fall (post on this coming soon). It was fun to get together with some of Eric's cousins and friends for food and drinks. It was a pretty low key night but I think Eric had fun.

The next day we went to Summit Brewery in St. Paul for a beer tour as part of his birthday gift. The tour started at 10:30 am and lasted about an hour. To be honest, the tour was a little boring but it was still fun to see it all. I had a fun time taking pictures of the brewery. Summit gave us three 10 oz pours of beer to taste - for free!! The beer was OK - not our favorite, but it was still fun to try.

We also celebrated with Eric's mom, step-dad, grandpa, and my parents at The Craftsman for dinner. It was a fun night and we had some of the best food I have had in a long time. Overall, I think Eric had a good birthday!

Milwaukee Avenue

A very cool part of our neighborhood is a place called Milwaukee Ave. Milwaukee Ave is unique in that there is no street access to most of the homes. The are nestled behind other homes and you can only access them by a small path in the back yard or the walking path that separates the two rows of homes. It is also a historic place and was saved from demolition in the 1970s.

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The houses in the Milwaukee Avenue Historic District were developed between 1883 and 1895 in what is now the Seward neighborhood of Minneapolis. These low-cost vernacular structures with brick cladding and gingerbread trim were populated by Scandinavian and Eastern European immigrants who worked for the nearby Milwaukee Railroad shops and other industries. 

In the early 1970s, the City of Minneapolis planned to raze these homes along with 70% of the neighboring 35-block area in a gambit to address blight and “renew” urban housing stock. Visionary neighbors recognized the integrity of the original Milwaukee Avenue houses; they successfully challenged City Hall’s plans and advanced an alternative that emphasized historic preservation. Although eleven of the original houses were eventually demolished, most were preserved and rehabilitated, with new foundations, restored facades, and reconstructed replica porches. The houses front on a narrow street that was converted to a pedestrian walkway, and the entire district was listed in the National Register of Historic Places and designated a Minneapolis historic landmark district.

Sorry for the history lesson, but I just love these homes. They are so unique and the neighborhood is surprisinly quiet for being smack dab in the middle of the city. If I could live here, I would in  heart beat!



Spring Around Seward

We live in the Minneapolis neighborhood of Seward. We have grown to LOVE our neighborhood and I plan to blog about some of our favorite features. The weather here in MN has been overall surprisingly warm for this time of year. Spring has come early and I could not resist walking around the neighborhood to take pictures of all the beautiful flowers in bloom. And as always, I wanted to share....