The day after we returned from the cabin was our last full day in Minnesota. We spent the morning at Erik’s mom house, and I was so touched to see that she had prepared ahead for my ulcer situation with some Good Belly juice. Awwwwww …

For breakfast, I had cinnamon toast with mashed banana on top:

I guess it doesn’t take much, but I was so excited about the beauty of this cinnamon toast!

Course #2 was an egg with cheese:

After a completely natural chat and some newspapering …

… we set out on our agenda of the day:

A bike tour around Minneapolis!

Once again, I was dazzled beauty of these MN houses, most of which were on lakes:

We rode through the Sculpture Garden …

And across the Mississippi …

We stopped for lunch at an amaaazing cafe, hand-picked by Erik.

I saw the menu and decided it was acceptable:

OK, more than “acceptable.”

Erik ordered the chipotle BBQ tofu sandwich:

And I ordered the black bean quinoa burger:

They were both delicious, but Erik’s sandwich was the winner by far. My sandwich had so many amazing flavors that I sort of couldn’t taste anything!

After lunch, we rode for many many many more miles around lake after lake after lake. When I thought I couldn’t stay on that seat another second, I made an executive decision for us to stop at the Lake Calhoun snack stand:

Obviously, we had to take advantage of the catch of the day: made from scratch extra tart key lime pie:

Satisfied.

We dropped off our bikes at the shop (after 7 hours of riding!) and took a stroll toward downtown. We walked through the Wedge on the way, a neighborhood that boasts a food co-op of the same name:

Snacks = happy Sarah.

Once downtown, Erik indulged my demands yet again and brought me to the Foshay Tower, as I have an obsession with observation decks on top of tall buildings:

When we finished observing, Peder picked us up and drove us back out to their mom’s house for a casual dinner of salad:

And pizza:

And carrot cake and lemon squares:

OK, don’t mind if I do.

After eating, we had a good chat around the fire out back, since Erik’s mom and stepdad had taken out a special permit for it and we did not want it to go to waste!

We spent the night at Erik’s dad and stepmom’s house and then had to catch our flight back to NYC the next morning. Sad to leave!

We were so bummed about the end of vacation, in fact, that we decided to keep it going with lunch at Chili’s during our stopover in Milwaukee.

After the fajita, however, it was time to admit defeat. Vacation was over. But do not cry for me, Minnesota. I will be back!