Western road trip, day 3: Twin Cities part 2

We started off our second day in the Twin Cities with a run along the riverfront to visit Iggy the Iguana, a huge metal sculpture at the Science Museum of Minnesota (thanks, Weird Minnesota!). 

Iggy the Iguana

We spent most of the rest of the day in Minneapolis (another reason I mentioned yesterday that it was a bit silly we stayed in downtown St. Paul). We first took a stroll around the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden, which we had been to before and heartily enjoyed.

Sculpture by Claes Oldenburg and his wife, Coosje van Bruggen

After the garden, we took a brief walk around the Bde Maka Ska lake park, then hit two more breweries.

We met Dave's cousin TJ and his wife Brenda at Indeed Brewing, which was selling many delicious IPAs and easy-drinking summer beers. It was good to catch up with them, as it had been a few years since we saw them.

Afterward, we visited Insight Brewing, which had a cute patio that was very knit-friendly. They also were heavy on hazy IPAs, which I'm not mad about at all.

Crocheting stars at Insight Brewing

We thought about visiting the George Floyd memorial, but I wasn't sure whether it would be strange or allowed to do so. Boy, I was clueless. We did decide to visit, and it is expansive, emotional, and even already getting a bit commercialized (guys selling "I can't breathe" t-shirts, etc.)

Police killed George Floyd near the corner of 38th and Chicago. Barricades have closed off the block in each direction from that intersection so that it's a gigantic pedestrian area, memorial zone, and public art installation.

Memorial in the square

To the left in the picture above is the black tent that covers the spot where George Floyd was killed. The octagonal garden with the BLM fist in the center is an impromptu garden in Floyd's memory. To the right is another memorial and some boarded up store fronts that have been covered with the faces of others killed by police in recent years. 

Memorials left around the spot where George Floyd was killed by police

Dave and I have been talking almost constantly about race and politics recently, and how we feel - we hope - that history is being made in this time of reckoning. Being in the area of this incident felt like being at Ground Zero. As you can tell from the first photo, we were far from the only pilgrims on the scene. It was good to see the interest from people of all races. Intense energy at the spot. In the end, I was very glad we visited.

After this sobering visit, we picked up our pre-ordered dinner at Trio Plant-Based, a vegan soul food restaurant owned by a black woman. I had read about it in a nationwide list of black-owned vegan restaurants and I knew I had to visit it while we were in town. Very tasty food; they forgot our collard greens and I wasn't even mad about it because of how good the nachos and cauliflower "wings" were (Dave got the burger).

We're in right now for an early night at the hotel, so I'm doing a bit of work and then I'll read and crochet. Gotta take it easy for a long day of driving tomorrow to our next state, North Dakota! Don't worry, Minnesota, we will have one more roadside stop on the way.