Greek Fest + Greenline

In the current issue of Edible Memphis, there's a round up of summer festivals. I did a short piece on the Greek Fest, which I've never actually been too, until Saturday. Since it was such a lovely day, we decided to ride our bikes over. I thought it would be a pretty strenuous ride, but turns out it was only 2 miles! We went down Broad Avenue most of the way and it was quite nice.

The festival was packed as expected. The kids couldn't wait to go on the inflatable slide, so we let them have a few turns while we took in the lovely aromas wafting through the church's yard. Man, I just can't tell you how awesome it smelled there! As far as the food goes, you have two options. Buy from individual vendors outside, or go inside for a plate lunch/dinner. We opted for the inside dinner. It included a choice of chicken or pork, rice, spanikopita, green beans and greek bread. We sat under a lovely tent and pigged out. That was the best spanikopita I've ever had. When we were done, we strolled around outside a bit longer and let the monkeys jump in the "bouncy house." (They had a choice of bouncing or ice cream, and chose bouncing since we completely stuffed ourselves. Thankfully the bouncing didn't cause them to vomit!)



We decided to take a different route home. As we headed towards Walnut Grove on Highland, we came to a trailhead for the soon-to-be greenline. "Wanna check it out?" Warren asked. "YES!" we all shouted.

Unfortunately we didn't get too far on our bikes. The current path consists of very chunky rocks. We decided to walk our bikes instead. Even though the path isn't suitable for much yet, it is easy to see how completely awesome the greenline is going to be once it is done. It's about 15 feet wide, maybe more, and there's tons of shade and solitude.

We were thinking we could get off at Holmes and head home on the road, but the greenline actually goes under Holmes. After checking out the graffiti, we pressed on, planning to get off at Tillman. At Tillman we discovered a giant ditch. Oops! It looked like construction has started on a bridge, but there was no way to cross. So, we went back toward Holmes and did a little climbing to get up on the street.


It was a nice little adventure. I'm glad we got to experience it before its done so that the monkeys will really appreciate it. I can hardly wait! It really is going to change the way we commute and open up all kinds of recreational opportunities.