A gem is discovered....

So last night, I was out and about in the Linden Hills area of South Minneapolis. For those you who don't live in Minneapolis, you need to check this area out on your next visit. For those who live here already, you need to check this area out asap if you haven't already! Linden Hills basically borders the western edge of Lake Harriet (I think... I am directionally challenged...) The area we were in last night was off of Upton on 43rd street. We were in route to dinner at Cafe 28 which is a wonderful little restaurant located in an old Firehouse. As we were walking on foot, looking for the restaurant, we stubbled across 'Wild Rumpus' - a store that I had heard about from the girl that does my facials. We were in no rush so decided to duck into the store & check it out. So glad we did - it is one of the COOLEST bookstores I've ever been in. It is geared for children, so has lots of real, live animals. For instance, we walked in & Eric points to a ledge & says, 'that's a real rooster!'. (see picture to the left!) That was just the start of it. There were birds & chinchillas (both in cages) as well as some cats and other animals. Pretty cool place.


The store was actually inspired by the book, "The Salamander Room," which James will be getting from me this weekend as part of his birthday present (shhh, don't tell him!). You can go on the Wild Rumpus website (see hyperlink above) & read about the store & how it was designed with this book in mind. We actually got to meet the owner & creative mind behind this gem of a store. Truth be told, I could have spent hours (and lots of $$) here, but figured we better head to dinner. The woman that was working was so so helpful, too, which was nice.




I recommend checking out the website at a minimum. Each employee has a page where they recommend books so it's a great place to come up with gift ideas for kids... or books you missed out on as a child. There's even a book club for 'immature adults' that want to go back & read books they might have missed out on as a child. When I finish up grad school, I can totally see myself joining this book club!

For those of you with young children, nieces, nephews, etc, I think it'd be a great place to go for the afternoon. Plus, Sebastian Joe's Ice Cream shop is a few blocks away - what kid wouldn't be thrilled at the thought of a seeing live animals, getting a new book, and having some delicious locally made ice cream? Actually... what adult wouldn't enjoy that sequence of events!!!!