The Susan Study: A Few of My Favorite Local Places

Technically my vacation has started. I have all of next week off, which means today was my first full day. The vacation plan is to spend the week on Rabbit Lake in Aitkin, which is about 2 hours north of here. We were originally going to go up this morning, but something came up, so Rocky and Teresa asked to delay the start for a day. This works out well for me, since I had a boatload of laundry to do, and a couple things I wanted to pick up in town. I decided to call my first 24 hours a staycation, and took my camera along for the ride, stopping to show you some of my favorite places in Anoka. All of them except for the library are within walking distance of my house (though you could easily bike there).

Hope y'all enjoy the tour. Feel free to join me in real life sometime.

My church. The picture doesn't do it justice. The best part is the people inside.
And the gorgeous stained glass windows in the sanctuary.

The library. On the Rum River. Beautiful setting and architecture, Peaceful feeling inside.

Two Scoops ice cream parlor. It is made of awesome. I have a frequent buyer card which I try not to fill up too fast.
Today I was shockingly able to resist.

This WAS the old used bookstore. I miss it terribly. The owner's cat used to wander between the tall shelves stacked with books. It is now a gift shop called Coco Ries. At least it still has the original floors.

This may become a new favorite place. It is called Genesis Winemaking. The owner, Lisa, is very nice, and has convinced me to gather a group of friends to make some wine. I think it sounds fun!

This is where I bought my lawnmower. It is also where you can buy bait when you come visit me to fish on the river.
I love places like this where you can get things that don't seem to go together. It's very small townish.

The dam. Anoka is a historic town and, back in the day, a lot of commerce depended on grain mills, and lumber moving down the river. This is the Rum River; it connects to the Mississippi.

Cowboy Mel's barber shop. Very cool. Definitely a guys-only kinda place.

Anoka Co-op. It's small, but nice to be able to walk to a place I can pick up a few groceries where the people know me.
Plus they have plenty of gluten-free foods.

View from the boat landing, a few blocks from my house.

My front door! C'mon in.

Hosta in my front-yard. If you squint real hard, you can see the Mississippi river in the background, just down the hill.

View from my backyard patio.

Saturdays throughout the summer, they have old cars lining 3 blocks and filling 2 parking lots, just off Jackson Street.
Street vendors sell corn dogs, egg rolls, and donuts. None of which work for my diet, but people seem to enjoy.