Hard Times in Harrar

On Sunday morning we walked with our friends to Grand Ave. I showed them where I work and pointed out some spots where there'd been posters for the SPC (now all removed!). Quince was open but we were burnt out on crafts for the weekend probably, although they did buy some stuff at Bead Monkey, which employs three of the vendors from this year's fair.

After they went home, I went to visit my friend Jhenn who is going to teach English in Japan. I haven't seen her in three years and she came to see the SPC and say goodbye. Hopefully I will see her again before another three years go by, but we tried to cram as much into one night as possible just in case. First stop, Arise! in Uptown where we got directions to an Ethiopian restaurant. Then we walked around Lyndale for about an hour and visited Muddy Waters, Robot Love, and tried Uptown Tattoo but they were closed. If I had lots of disposable income, I would start a toy collection and shop at Robot Love every day!

This mural was across the street from Robot Love. I'm glad Jhenn was along because I forgot my camera as always! Looks like this graffiti got put up as part of B-Girl Be. We need to see more like this around the city, in my opinion. She also took a shot of me not looking tough next to the piece on the right:

Next we drove to the West Bank in search of our restaurant. The dude at Arise! said it was good and we were excited, but it was still pretty early, so we went to Hard Times for a vegan pancake and hash browns. We walked around the West Bank area for a while because I've never really hung out there. I didn't go to the U of M and I've never lived in Minneapolis, but I love to visit and explore.

When we found the Ethiopian restaurant for dinner, it was just an empty building. Looks like we missed out. I drove us over to Fasika in St. Paul (a quick freeway trip on a Sunday evening) and we shared the veggie sampler and I tried a Harar beer. There was a definite honey taste to it, which I liked. We ate as much of the food as we could and drove back to the hotel, where we soaked in the hot tub for a few minutes. It felt so good on my tired legs after the long weekend. When I got home I drank a can of Black Label beer and fell asleep on the couch. Now I'm ready to do it all again next year.