Tourist in My Own Town, Day 1

Kayla, Jesse and Abby are down visiting from Minnesota, so it’s a week’s worth of activities, acting like a tourist in my own town. I’ve been spending summer vacations with these three since they were wee ones–always a great time.

Yesterday, we spent one of the hottest days of the year cooling off down by the lake. Later, I introduced them to the wacky, hilarious and addictive world of Katamari.

Today, once they were all out of bed (teenagers sure do lovvve to sleep!) we trekked down to the Museum of Science and Industry to see the da Vince exhibit, the Omnimax movie Greece: Secrets of the Past and best of all, the frog exhibit, Frogs: A Chorus of Colors. The brightly colored and highly toxic frogs were way cool and totally worth the extra five bucks. My favorite part of the day.

The colorful theme continued with tonight’s dinner at the amazingly decorated, must-be-seen-to-be-believed Persian restaurant Paradise Cafe on Broadway. This place is utterly one-of-a-kind and happily the food is tasty too, making it a great local dining spot. A memorable spot to take out-of-towners to be sure. The baba ghannoug and hummus were great (so fresh), as was the beet and garlic appetizer. All the meat dishes met with approval but my favorite was the Middle Eastern pizza, a spicy meat sauce on flat bread that was flavorful (cloves, perhaps?) and delicious. The only disappointment was the rather bland lentil soup, a minor complaint.