Category: garage sales.

Fall garage sale season is in full swing.  My sister and I have plans to hit the neighborhood sales every Saturday for the rest of this month.  So far, we’ve been finding lots of great stuff.  This past Saturday we went to another Minneapolis neighborhood, Lynnhurst, for their neighborhood sales.

Once again, we filled up my sister’s SUV.  As it turns out, people in Lynnhurst price their stuff to sell!

My sister and I each had one specific item we were looking for.

Debbie wanted some pretty dishtowels to put in a bowl that was going back to her neighbor.  I don’t think I mentioned this here, but a week ago Debbie had a house warming party at her new place and a neighbor brought over a bowl of watermelon.  Debbie follows the rule that you never return a container empty, you put a thoughtful little ‘thank you’ gift inside.

Sure enough, she found a set of pretty blue and white dishtowels.

You might think it’s … well … icky to buy linens like these at a garage sale, but these have obviously not been used.  Often times people have been given stuff like this as a gift and it’s not the right color for them, or for whatever reason they just never used them.  So they sell them.

The one item on my list was a globe.  Not for me actually, but for my co-worker Jodie.  She mentioned that she was looking for a globe to turn into something.  I’m not entirely sure what, but she is very crafty.

Sure enough, we found a globe too.

Granted, it doesn’t always work out this way, but you’d be surprised how much luck we often have finding just what we need at garage sales!

I also came home with a glass canister and a bunch of old blocks.

As well as some more vintage graters to turn into photo holders.

I also found this adorable whisk broom with an embroidered cover.

Have you ever seen anything like this before?  I hadn’t.  I just couldn’t resist it.  I’m going to try soaking the cover in some OxyClean and see if I can clean it up a bit.

My sister added to her Disney ornament collection.  She likes that they are Disney, I like that they are vintage.

She also came home with a fab mid-century ice bucket.

I found a pretty little side table that I’ve already begun to make over, here is the before photo.

But the find of the day was definitely this oak washstand (or as some like to call them, commode).

The drawer pulls on this piece are gorgeous.  I think I would have purchased it for the hardware alone.  But it’s also quite lovely overall.  And look what I found when I opened the top drawer …

It looks hand drawn to me.  Only the top drawer has this liner.  I’m debating whether or not to leave it.  Unfortunately it has some water damage spots.

Do I rip it out?  Or do I leave it and let whomever buys it decide?

Also, I won’t be putting the mirror back on.  These pieces make perfect nightstands, but not with a mirror, because a mirror would be weird on a nightstand, right?  I know it seems like a bit of a shame, but they are both just far more versatile on their own.

The mirror and the harp that held it on the washstand are really pretty though, and in great condition ‘as is’.  I think they would look amazing hung on the wall over the sink in a bathroom.  Especially since it has that towel bar.

I added some hangers to it and hung it in my photo cottage just to give you an idea of what that would look like.  I wish I had a fabulous pedestal sink to use as a prop, but no such luck.  Instead, I’ll share this photo from pinterest to inspire you.  I love the look of the darker wood with the white ship lap behind it.

So if any of you locals happen to have the perfect spot for a mirror over your sink, be sure to check my ‘available for local sale’ page for details.

We didn’t come across the washstand until one of our last stops.  The SUV was fairly full at that point, but I was determined to fit it in.  So there we were once again, unloading the contents of our vehicle onto the curb and packing it all back in around the washstand.  Debbie’s girl scout camping trip packing skills come to our rescue yet again!

Currently I’ve got three furniture makeovers underway out in the carriage house.  Each one is taking much longer than I anticipated.  So let’s all keep our fingers crossed that I manage to get at least one of them finished this week to share with you, but in the meantime I think I still might be able to eke out another five post week.  Be sure to stay tuned!

 

This year has pretty much been a bust for me for garage sale finds.  I missed most of the early summer sales while gone on my trip and while helping my sister move into her new house.  I went to a few random sales in July and August, but didn’t find much.  But all is not lost.  There are a handful of good neighborhood sales in early fall so I might not have to write off the entire 2017 garage sale season.

This past Saturday was the 6th Annual East Isles Super Sale with about 40 sales and as an added bonus the neighborhood just north of them, Lowry Hill, added their own neighborhood sale with about 25 additional homes participating.  My sister picked me up bright and early and we headed off to hit the sales.

If you aren’t familiar with Minneapolis neighborhoods, both of these are stunners.  They are situated along the eastern shore of Lake of the Isles and they are filled with gorgeous historic homes.  My sister and I play a fun game while driving around the neighborhoods called ‘which house would you buy if you won the lottery’ (I know, not a very clever name).

The day started out slow.  We didn’t buy a single thing at the first 5 sales we stopped at.  But then things picked up.  I found two adorable kid sized chairs.

I love painting these little chairs so I pick them up whenever I see them at a good price.

Next, I spotted a trio of gorgeous old chairs that I knew would be fantastic painted, so those went in the back of the SUV too.

I also found some ornaments to add to my growing non-collection.

At that same sale, Debbie picked up a stash of these adorable vintage candy molds.

I hadn’t really looked at them closely until I pulled them out to take photos.  Each one is different and quite a few animals are represented, including a cat, a rooster, a pelican, a frog, a horse and a fish.

Debbie recently put up some open shelves in her kitchen and has displayed some blue canning jars on them.  She’s looking for fun things to put in the jars, and that’s where these will go.

By the time we ended up at the sale with these awesome bar stools, the back of the vehicle was already pretty full.

But I just couldn’t pass them up.  So we unloaded everything onto the curb and then reloaded more carefully so that we could fit them in.  We had to remove the headrests from the car seats to get it all situated, but we were determined.  I had to spend the rest of the morning with big rusty metal planter on my lap (and I forgot to get a photo of it) because there wasn’t another inch of room in that vehicle.

One of the sales we stopped at was donating all of their proceeds to hurricane victims.  Although we didn’t buy anything, we did make a donation and get a free homemade cinnamon roll which was delicious.  Our thoughts were with the people in Florida as we were enjoying the perfectly gorgeous day here in Minnesota.  One of Debbie’s good friends from high school (we both went to high school in Boca Raton, Florida) still lives in Boca and was on the road for hours on Friday evacuating from her home.  We were both happy to hear that she had arrived safely at her destination late Friday night and I hope that everyone else in Florida stayed safe during the storm.

Meanwhile, back here in Minnesota, it’s always fun coming home with a haul, and it definitely was the day for chairs!

Be sure to check back tomorrow (yes, I said tomorrow, I think it’s going to be another five post week!) to see what I did with one of them already!

 

 

 

 

Hi everybody!  This is a public service announcement especially for my local readers (Twin Cities, Minnesota), although the rest of you may enjoy it as well.

You may remember that last year I shared a tour of Kim’s fabulous home, Stone Hill Farm (here, here and here).

Kim and her friends Lisa and Susan host the fabulous Barn Chic Vintage Sale out of Kim’s barn and this year they are having their sale a little earlier than usual.  In fact, it starts tomorrow!

They let me swing by last night for a little preview, so I thought I’d share a few photos with you all!

They have tons of lovely painted furniture.  So much that I can’t possibly share it all with you in a blog post.  This french provincial vanity/desk is so pretty, I love the colors on it paired with the natural wood top (which is a little hard to see in this photo).

There is also a matching nightstand (and you can see that wood top better in this photo) …

Although not french provincial in style, this next dresser looks equally lovely in the blue and white color scheme.

 Here’s an adorable wicker sofa reupholstered in vintage chenille.

I didn’t ask what paint color was on this petite desk, but it looks a lot like the MMS Flow Blue on my Norwegian stool from the other day, doesn’t it?

I love the hot pink bird on the fabric on this vanity bench.  The green and white waterfall style vanity that it’s paired with would be an awesome addition to a girl’s bedroom.

There are many, many more pieces of furniture!

But there are also plenty of smaller decor items too, like this rustic folk art house.

And as you can imagine, this miniature dresser has my name all over it!

I was also really tempted by these adorable banners made out of remnants from vintage embroidered linens.

What a great use for those pretty vintage linens, right?

You know I have a weakness for floral china, and they had a lovely set.

I think most of my favorite colors were well represented.

Aqua …

Green …

Yellow …

Red …

Oh, and guess what?  This is just the stuff that was inside.  They also have a ton of stuff outside!  They didn’t quite have that stuff set up yet, and I was distracted by the chickens, so I didn’t get any photos out there.  You’ll just have to take my word for it, there was a lot of great stuff!

Here are the details for the sale.

When:  Thursday, June 22 – Saturday, June 24 from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. each day.

Where:  2946 Oakgreen Avenue, Stillwater, MN

Please note, they do not take credit cards, so come prepared to pay cash.

If you are local, you won’t want to miss this sale!

 

 

First things first, the winner of my foreign decor magazine giveaway is Andrea J (I sent you an email Andrea, so be sure to look for it)!  Congrats to Andrea!  She mentioned in her comment that she needs inspiration for a garden shed, so I’m hoping she finds it in the Jeanne d’ Arc magazine.  Now, on with today’s post.

Every June my co-worker/Carriage House Sale partner Sue and I get called away from the office for a very important breakfast meeting.

Last Friday was another of our ‘meetings’ and this time our friend Cathy joined us too.

Not only do Sue, Cathy and I work together at our day jobs and bring you the Carriage House Sale, we also live within about a mile of each other.  And each year around now there is a woman who lives between all of us and our workplace who has a garage sale. We know exactly what her sign looks like and we try to watch for it every June.  She’s a former antiques dealer, so she always has the best stuff.  So good in fact that we can’t wait until our lunch break, we have to head out immediately for a ‘breakfast meeting’.

Here’s my haul from last Friday’s breakfast meeting.

The little green lunchbox is so fab!  I’ve never seen one shaped quite like this.

It would be adorable filled with some geraniums.

Those ornaments with the lunch box are just a handful from the box of them that I bought.  There are some very nice additions to my collection in the box.

Isn’t the petite watering can fun?  Sue actually picked it up first, but was kind enough to let me have it!

I grabbed this vintage wooden toy just because I liked the colors on it, and the chippy paint.

It might be fun to use as a prop in furniture photo shoots.

Hmmm, made by ‘Hustler Toy Corporation’ … that seems like an unfortunate choice of name for a toy manufacturer …

 I liked the subtle blue stripe on the galvanized bucket.  I filled it up with peonies for a photo.

It seems that peony season has come and gone in the blink of an eye this year.  Most of mine opened up just in time for the hot spell we had on Saturday, and if that didn’t do them in then the hail storm we had on Sunday did.

I’m glad I got some photos of them while they lasted.

 The peonies were not the only things to suffer from Sunday’s hail storm.  My gardens were really looking pretty fantastic last week, so I took a bunch of photos including this picture of one of my favorite hostas.

Which now looks like this …

Yep, hail is a serious bummer for the garden, especially the hostas.

A little research online resulted in advice ranging from cut them back entirely, just remove the damaged leaves (which in this case is pretty much the same thing), leave them alone and new growth will eventually replace the damaged leaves, or most pessimistic, they aren’t going to recover until next year.

Since it’s early in the season, I’m going to try removing some of the most damages leaves and hope that I get new growth this season.  Wish me luck on that one!

Before I get on with today’s post I’m wondering if any of you can help me out.  Last Saturday there were a whole bunch of new visitors here on the blog, and I got quite a few new followers.  So, first of all, welcome to all of my new followers, I’m glad you are joining us!  Second of all, how did you find me?  I’d like to thank whomever it was that shared my blog, but since it seems to have been a Facebook thing, my stats don’t tell me where you all came from.  So if you’re willing, please share how you found out about me in a comment.

Earlier this year when Mr. Q and I were trying to decide when and where to go on vacation this year we ran into some scheduling problems.  Between both of our day jobs, both of our side jobs (mine is furniture artist/blogger, his is wedding officiant), scheduling my occasional sale and numerous other things on the calendar it was hard to find a time that we could both be away for any significant length of time.

So when we found the cruise to Norway & Scotland that we’re taking next week it seemed like kismet.  It worked perfectly with our work schedules.  It wasn’t until after we had booked it that we realized we’d be missing Mr. Q’s grandpa’s 100th birthday!  Argh!  Luckily the party is scheduled for the day before we leave, so we weren’t aren’t going to miss the party, just the actual day.

We’re also going to be gone the day my sister closes on her new house.  Dang, I would have liked to share a champagne toast with her the first time she opened the door to her new home with her very own key.  But, we’ll be home just a few days later and in plenty of time to actually help her move (she’ll be doing some painting and cleaning before she moves in).

I also think I’m going to miss the lilacs!  They generally bloom during the last half of May, while I’ll be gone.

But what I didn’t even think to factor in was which of my favorite neighborhood garage sales I would be missing!  What was I thinking planning a trip right at the height of garage sale season?!

In a recent comment, Carol asked me to share some of my favorite sales so I thought I’d do that in a post.  Even though I’m missing out on some of them this year, maybe some of you local readers can check them out.

It’s tradition to kick off the start of garage sale season with the Bryn Mawr neighborhood sale.

Bryn Mawr is always the first weekend in May.  You can check out some of my previous posts about Bryn Mawr here, here and here.

Bryn Mawr is an extremely popular neighborhood sale.  There is traffic congestion, limited parking, and tons of people.  Many of the residents have a sale every year, and in some cases that means they pull out the same ol’ stuff each year, then pack it up when it doesn’t sell and pull it out again next year.  It also means you probably won’t find any really amazing bargain prices.  Usually I manage to come home with at least a few fun things, but this year I didn’t have much luck.  The few things I found didn’t even merit a photo or a blog post.

Although you’ve already missed them, there are several other great neighborhood sales to pick from the first weekend in May including Tangletown and Summit Hill and I may try one of those next year instead of Bryn Mawr.

Another big favorite of mine is Linden Hills, and that’s one I will be missing this year.

Much like Bryn Mawr, Linden Hills is very popular (ie. crowded) and it has a great festival-like atmosphere.  Last year they even had live music.  I’m not positive, but I think Linden Hills is always the first weekend after Mother’s Day.  This year it’s on May 20.

Yep, I’m bummed to be missing it, but since I’ll be spending that day in Stavanger, Norway I guess I can’t complain, right?

The Hale-Page-Diamond Lake neighborhood sale is also on May 20 this year.  If you’re looking for something a little less crowded than Linden Hills, Hale-Page might be a good choice for you.  You can read about my last trip to Hale-Page here.

I’ll also be missing the Roseville city-wide sale this year on June 1 – 3.  This is one that I discovered last year after a tip from a blog reader.  I was on vacation from the day job so was able to get there on the first day of the sale, which is a Thursday.  My friend Meggan joined me and we had a great time.

Since I do work full time, sales that start during the week usually don’t make it onto my list.  I prefer to stick with Saturday only sales whenever possible.  Otherwise all of the good stuff is long gone before I can get there.

Although you don’t usually find many garage sales on holiday weekends, believe it or not the Armitage-Kenny sale is usually held on Memorial Day weekend and so I was assuming I’d miss this one too.  But this year they have moved it to a week later on June 3.

I always enjoyed the fact that Armitage-Kenny was so quiet compared to the other neighborhood sales.  I’m sure that was because of the holiday weekend.  In 2015 we came home with fake tattoos and plastic spoons and not much else.  Although Debbie found a great table with benches.

The East Calhoun neighborhood’s ECCO Super Sale is the sale I usually pick for the first weekend in June (also being held on June 3 this year).

Last year I found a stash of vintage cameras at reasonable prices at ECCO and I even gave one of them away here on the blog since it was a duplicate of one I already had.

Speaking of vintage camera hauls, I hit the mother lode at the Nokomis neighborhood sale in June 2015.

Eureka, right?!

But both my sister Debbie and I love Nokomis for another reason as well.  Our parents both grew up in this neighborhood.  We always make a pilgrimage to our grandparent’s former houses that day in addition to hitting the sales.

The ‘find of the day’ from last year’s Nokomis sale was a croquet set that my sister bought.  I just loved the black and white graphic on it.

This year the Nokomis sales will be held on Saturday, June 17.

Organized neighborhood sales tend to take a hiatus after Nokomis.  There isn’t much going on in July or early August.  It’s too hot for garage sales!

But they start back up again in late August with the MacGrove sale which will be on August 26 this year.  MacGrove is another of my favorites.  Last year I got a gorgeous french desk at MacGrove …

Here is how it looked when I was done with it …

Vintage luggage was the find of the day two years ago at MacGrove.

The St. Anthony Park sales and the Lake of the Isles sales take place in the fall.  I couldn’t find dates yet for this year, so you’ll just have to keep them in mind and watch for dates later this summer.

If any of you locals make it to Linden Hills while I’m gone, be sure to let me know if you find some great stuff.  Or, on second thought, just tell me it was a bust this year so I don’t feel so bad about missing it, OK?

You just never know what you might find at a garage sale.  I try to keep an open mind when I’m out hitting the sales.  If something has a vintage appeal (i.e. it looks good and old) I often buy it even if I have no idea what I’m going to do with it.  There is nothing more annoying that seeing a really cool project somewhere and then realizing I passed up the exact item needed at a garage sale two weeks ago.

Today’s project is definitely falls into the category of ‘what am I going to do with that?’, but I bought it anyway.

It’s an old newel post.

I paid $15 for it, which is a little high in garage sale money (which has way more value than typical money).  I felt a little sad when I saw it there because I knew that the sellers had callously ripped it out of their older home and probably replaced it with something new and with far less character.

I knew it deserved better.

I brought it home and put it in my carriage house where it got buried behind 50 other potential projects.  It sat and gathered dust for a couple of years.  Ha!  Maybe not really better treatment after all.

Then a few weeks ago I was surfing the blog world and I ended up on the Liz Marie Blog looking at her Cozy Farmhouse Winter Entryway (click that link to visit) and I spied a fabulous chippy black newel post.  And she just had it leaning up against the wall.  Duh!  So easy, and so fab!  And I knew just where I could find a newel post … sort of … somewhere out in the carriage house.

So I headed out there in sub-zero weather and started digging around.  I unearthed it from a pile of cast off remnants and hauled it in the house.

I started by cleaning it up, then sanding it, then cleaning it again, then adding a layer of Homestead House’s Salad Bowl Finish because I wanted some more of that perfect chipping.  This time I used a little more wax than I did on my original ‘perfect chipping experiment’ with the Buttermilk Cream mirror frame.  I wanted a really beat up chippy look similar to the inspiration photo.

Here’s how it looked after the wax.

Then I painted it with just one quick coat of Miss Mustard Seed milk paint in Typewriter.  Once dry, I sanded to distress and found that I got plenty of chipping.  I vacuumed up the dust and chips and then added a layer of Homestead House Black Wax.

And then in answer to the question ‘what am I going to do with that?’, I just leaned it in the corner of the piano room next to my Paris subway sign.

Easy peasy.

Chippy architectural salvage for $15, not bad right?

First things first, I used a random number generator to choose a winner for my blogiversary giveaway and that winner is Tamara Pompilio.  Congrats Tamara!  I also want to take another minute to thank all of you so much for the kind comments left on that post.  They served to remind me that there are plenty of you out there reading along and that really motivates me to continue trying to provide some awesome content for you!  So let’s get on with that, shall we?

Last Saturday my sister and I experienced a phenomenon rarely seen here in Minnesota.  A winter garage sale.

I feel a little like a wildlife photographer who finally got a shot of the rare and elusive snow leopard.

My friend and Carriage House Sale partner Sue gave me the heads up on this sale after seeing it posted on Craigslist (thanks Sue!).

Debbie and I had to make two trips to the car to load up all of our goodies, so that gives you an idea of how much stuff we found at the sale!  I have a plan for that pile of silver, by the way.

It helped that the person selling was a bit of a collector and was moving to a much smaller place.  She’d already had several sales where I’m guessing things were priced higher.  This was her final ‘everything must go’ sale.

And she literally meant everything.  We took things off the walls like that ‘Washroom’ sign and the enamel soap dish in my first photo.  I also purchased two rugs right off the floor (and they had the dirt to prove it).

And this birdbath came right out of the garden.

As I mentioned in my post about finding vintage ornaments at garage sales in the summer, it’s always a good idea to grab off-season items when you see them like these Halloween books.

I saved ‘find of the day’ status for this gorgeous old camera.

When I came across it in a pile of other items it looked like this …

It is in pretty rough condition on the outside.  And I’m guessing that a lot of of shoppers didn’t even realize what it was.  When Debbie and I first got it home we couldn’t get it open and I was beginning to think that was probably why it was priced at only $3, because it was permanently ruined.

But I asked Mr. Q to take a look and he used a little ingenuity and got it open for me.

One thing you probably haven’t figured out from these photos is that this camera is ginormous.  Here it is next to a similar camera that I already owned, just to give you an idea of its size.

See?  Ginormous.  OK, maybe that’s a bit of an exaggeration, but it is almost a foot tall.

By the way, I purchased this camera without getting it open because 1) it was only $3 and 2) I had a massive pile of other things in my arms that I was trying to juggle.  Normally I would recommend making sure you can get the camera open and that the bellows are intact before you buy one.  I did end up with a camera like this once …

Those bellows were permanently stuck to the back of the camera.  They are very fragile, so trying to force them out would likely just rip them to pieces.

So I was very happy to find that my latest addition to my non-collection of vintage cameras was in good condition on the inside!

By the way, that snow you saw on the birdbath arrived overnight Saturday.  On Sunday I awoke to this gorgeous view from my window …

I ran outside in flip flops just to capture a couple of quick photos.

That snow practically looks fake, doesn’t it?

Luckily all of this snow arrived after the winter garage sale.

Do you find many winter garage sales in your neck of the woods?  Or are they as rare and elusive as snow leopards like they are here in the frozen Northland?

Somehow I was thinking that neighborhood garage sale season was over.  Luckily my friend Sue gave me a heads up on the St. Anthony Park sales this past Saturday, so Debbie and I headed out at the crack of dawn to see what we could find.

SAP is another gorgeous neighborhood full of older homes in St. Paul, MN.  My sister is often so busy admiring the homes that she forgets to keep an eye on the road!  For us half of the fun of these neighborhood sales is getting to prowl around residential areas admiring the houses and the gardens without anyone calling the cops.

At our very first stop of the morning I grabbed so many things from the ‘free pile’ that we had to make a trip back to the car before we even looked at the items for sale!  Then we had to make two more trips to load up the car with our purchased items including the darling table with green legs.  I’ve already started stripping the top of the table because it had been very poorly refinished, but my sister thinks I should leave the green legs.  What do you think?

After our second stop I was nearly out of money and the car was pretty much full.

By our third stop I had to carefully make room to squeeze in this fantastic oak desk chair.  I’ve painted a few of these chairs in the past and although they can be putzy to paint, they always turn out fantastic.  My sister grabbed the pair of linen throw pillows.

By our 4th stop, I had to borrow some more cash from my sister to buy this phone.

I purchased this spatula just because I like the typography on the handle, and I purchased the book just because I liked the photo on the jacket.

I thought the spatula would look good mixed in with some wooden utensils.

I’ve saved ‘find of the day’ status for this washboard.  I’ve never seen one with a galvanized top like this before.

I might keep it, or my sister might want it, or it might end up in my sale.  At this point it’s anyone’s guess.

There have been slim pickins around here for garage sales since the end of June, so I was very excited about the MacGrove neighborhood sales.  It’s certainly not the biggest, but it is one of the only ones going in late August.  I look forward to this one every year, check out my posts about 2014 and 2015.

My sister picked me up bright and early on Saturday and we headed out.  And actually, it wasn’t really all that bright.  It was overcast and cool, and every once in a while we’d get a little drizzled on, but luckily it didn’t rain heavily.

The very first sale we stopped at had the little blue suitcase, that wicker case and the darling kid sized ice cream parlor chairs.  You know I couldn’t resist those!

The second sale we stopped at had the desk, or console table … I think it could be used as either … and either way, it’s gorgeous.  I’m giving it ‘find of the day’ status.

That old ‘antiquing’ style paint job has to go.  I’m envisioning it with a chippy milk paint makeover.  I hope I can do it justice!

Things kinda went downhill from there though.  We found a smattering of stuff here and there, but nothing really amazing.

I did pick up some more wooden spoons.  I’m not an expert, but these look hand-carved to me.  Does anyone know how to tell?  The seller was an elderly woman and she told me they were antiques.

I also brought home this trio of travel books.

Unfortunately, I’m not planning a trip to Paris anytime soon.  However, I like to throw together some themed baskets of goodies for my occasional sale and I can see these books together with some other Paris themed items.

I also bought this lovely etched glass jar.  This would be perfect in the bathroom filled with cotton balls or q-tips.

I also picked up this vintage looking (is it?  isn’t it?) split wood basket.

With apple season coming up, you never know when you might need a basket like this.

We called it quits on the garage sales by about 11:30 because we were both starving.  We headed over to Grand Avenue and ended up at The Uptowner.  I thought my sister would appreciate the ambiance of this greasy spoon diner.  I think we both made a tactical error in ordering lunch items instead of breakfast though.  I don’t know what we were thinking.  In a place famous for its breakfast, why would you order lunch?

Then, since we were at the corner of Lexington Parkway and Grand, I decided to show my sister one of the back ways to return to my house.  We drove north up Lexington, which is one of my favorite roads in the city as it winds through Como Park.  We ended up stopping at the Como Streetcar Station and taking a little walk around that neighborhood.

The historic homes around Como Lake are gorgeous.

It was the perfect way to cap off our day.