All the hilltops are lined with little family mausoleums, but I think the first hill inside the Dupont gate is the best.

My favorite mausoleum The idea seems so obvious in retrospect, but this is the only pyramid-shaped mausoleum in the place. Sort of high concept for Lakewood, but it fits the abstract shapes theme that predominates in this cemetery.

Memorial Day Weekend. Weather was a little iffy, but at least the tornado didn't hit us. And that's kind of how the long weekend went: hot and cold. It was good to get three days off work, but somehow I spent hours making a new necklace instead of doing all the spring cleaning that was on my list. And it's a ridiculous 5-foot long glass necklace that I can't quite figure out how to wear. I probably should have cleaned the attic instead, like I'd planned.

On the plus side, I also spent hours on my bike, just riding around the city checking out yard sales and cemetery open houses (no, REALLY!). In fact, Richard and I were just riding back from Lakewood Cemetery when we were hit by a cold blast of wind from the north and looked over our shoulders to see a wall of dark cloud looming ominously over the northern half of the city. We skedaddled for home, and didn't find out until the next day that an F4 tornado had been devastating Hugo at that very moment. 50 houses reduced to splinters, another hundred damaged. I felt vaguely guilty that we didn't give that wall of weather another thought once we realized we weren't going to get rained on.

Monday my friend Trish came over with her bike and we rode up the Midtown to check out the new express bike shop that Freewheel has opened by Global Market. It's not of much practical use to me, but it's such a cool idea that I very much hope it catches on. The store front is nifty looking, in a kind of hip industrial way. The best part is the juice bar and public bathrooms, something every bike path needs but so few actually offer. The shop itself is full of random merchandise not particularly well targeted to the location, but they'll probably sort that out over time. The showers and indoor bike lockers aren't open yet, but are a wonderful idea. I hope the Allina workers make use of the amenities. I hope that more shops open up down there on the bike path, kind of like the underground subway shops in New York.

We rode back to the Bryant Ave exit and over to King's Highway for one more visit to Lakewood. Trish actually has some grandparents and distant cousins buried in that cemetery, but we couldn't find any of them. We did discover some surprising group monuments. I think I've seen the Big Daddy Elk before, presiding over a field of little elk tombstones. But until Richard pointed it out I'd never stopped to read the inscription on the only monument in the place that features a long poem about ferris wheels!

We finished up the day at a lovely backyard BBQ. I pigged out on fancifully marinated grilled meat and vegies and tofu and homemade beer while indulging in a lively conversation about turtles that ultimately mutated into several on the spot initiations into the Ancient and Honorable Order of Turtles. Lots of fun!