Bike Lexington...

I started this posting last Thursday to be exact and had a variety of different names for it.  Like...

Why we live inside the Circle...

Or, when the boys are away, the girls will play...

So many different title thoughts for a fun-filled day in the Bluegrass.  When you get all your work done in the morning and the boys of the house are off to other various points and the girls are left alone.

Nothing beats a morning started with a good 3-mile run, a little bit of real estate (really a closing would have been the best but I'll settle for a listing appointment) and an afternoon spent with your favorite teenager.

Here we are setting off for an afternoon bicycle adventure on empty stomachs.  Mother and daughgter (taking the photo and refusing to be in a picture) committed to boosting our local economy and saving the environment at the same time.  Equipped with a wallet, a gift card, a reusable shopping bag and my handy bike basket, Mary Rollins and I are ready to hit the road. 

First stop...Le Matin (a.k.a.  Zuni).  I'm certain that I've blogged about Zuni before --  My favorite European-style bakery and cafe.  On this particular charmed afternoon, my favorite table (and as it turns out Mary Rollins' favorite as well) was available. We arrived chez Zuni just in time for a torrential early afternoon thunderstorm but lucky for us the awning of Zuni proteced our bikes perfectly and we could keep an eye on them from our front and center window seat.  And, of course, Lexington being what it is, we had kind offers of rides home from other diners worried about our having to ride in the rain.  But confident that the storm would pass in good time, we enjoyed perusing the menu and deciding on delectable desserts to follow our meal. 

Mary Rollins declared that multiple desserts are acceptable when one bikes to lunch.   I think we can safely say that she does NOT have an eating disorder.  Here we see the infamous Simply Chocolate and a Peanut Butter Fudge Torte.  Can you have too much chocolate?  Not if you ride your bike to lunch! 

And clearly, we are trying hard to be members of the clean plate club.  Waste not, want not.

Our thunderstorm ended just as we licked the last crumbs from our plate. I wanted to buy a baguette so that we could re-enact Fou de Fa Fa from Flight of the Conchords but Mary Rollins indicated it was time to go and she would find the baguette embarrassing. 

Next stop:  John's on South Ashland.  (Please note, it's also embarrassing for your mom to document a day with iPhone pictures but I gave in on the baguette.)  John's, like Le Matin, has a lovely awning perfect for bikes if the rainstorm might return.  I love John's.  I love the shoes at John's and I love the clothes they now sell at John's. I love that the old manager from Laura Ashley now works at John's and remembers baby Mary Rollins and my Laura Ashley-loving sister.  I also love the great packable dress I bought at John's that fit nicely in my bicycle basket.  Fortunately, there was room for it since I hadn't bought the baguette!!

And off we go again, pedaling down High Street, waving at my office over Starbucks!  Hi everybody!  Past Woodland Park and arriving at Calypso -- Mary Rollins' most beloved of all Lexington boutiques.  Calypso is probably worthy of its very own blog post.  Run by a twenty-something graduate of UK financed by her dad, Calypso opened a couple of years ago in the eclectic Woodland Park shopping area.  Filled with adorable (and affordable) dresses, tops, bottoms and vintage cowboy boots that can only be worn by the young (not to be confused with the 40-something young at heart), Calypso is the ballet girls' favorite store.   Here you can find the perfect dress for Cotillion or the ideal dress for shopping in New York.  It's even more perfect when you have brought along both a gift card from your birthday AND an AMEX-carrying mother.  I noticed several combinations of cool-looking girls and not-quite-as-cool-looking mothers shopping there.  Apparently, mothers are a good accessory to take shopping with you when your fourteen.  Baguettes, not good accessory.

And finally, a quick trip into The Black Market, our other favorite boutique around the corner from Calypso.  Not quite as affordable but fashionably fun.

As much as I love all the wonderful places we've travel to and visit on a regular basis, sometimes there really is no place like home.