Today started off pretty lazy in the hotel:

We were going to head to the National Blues Museum, but when we left at about 10 to go down there, we found out it didn’t open until noon. So instead we went to the zoo to walk around a little bit. We saw some butterflies – I loved this Paper Kite in particular:

Annika got to see a guineafowl , which is pretty much an exotic chicken:

(It’s behind her right next to the fence)

We also got to see rhinos, elephants, and some wonderful hippos:

After getting drenched with sweat at the zoo, we headed down to the Blues Museum, where we had the best barbecue ever at the Sugarfire BBQ.

We went through the National Blues Museum. Here are some highlights of Annika singing with Mamie Smith, in front of over 900 harmonicas (and one big one) and me hanging out with Janis:

After we went back to the hotel and relaxed a while, we ventured back out to the turtle playground and climbed the turtles.

Next we took a driving tour of different neighborhoods and found Chuck Berry’s childhood home.

Right down the street was this sign (which is pretty blurry, but it says “no standing, no loitering, no drinking.” They were on a number of abandoned buildings. The “no standing” part seemed pretty ridiculous to me – criminalizing standing?

Finally, we found a cute little corner with a small, funky ice cream shop that had a line out of the door called Jeni’s. We stopped, obviously, and it was amazing.

I had Wildberry Lavender, Strawberry Buttermilk, and Frosé Sorbet (frozen Rosé sangria with berries). I love our ice cream shops in Mpls/StP, but these were delightful new flavors.

That was the end of the day. I don’t have a keyboard with me so I’m writing with my thumbs on my phone. Writing will be short, but once I’m home I’m sure I’ll have a lot of thoughts to get down (I already do, but I can’t imagine writing that much with my thumbs. Ugh.)