New Face for an Old Broad

I've had a crush on Broad Avenue ever since we bought our house 3.5 years ago. Seems like after this weekend, everyone has a crush on her! Over 13,000 people came out to see the facelift!

We walked over on Friday night and ran around the skatepark, climbed on the climbing wall, and had a bite to eat at Broadway Pizza. It was great to see so many people out and about. Best of all, all of the buildings that are usually closed up were full of life. Pop up shops abounded and nearly every door was open. In fact there were so many people crowding the sidewalks that the freshly painted bike lanes became pedestrian overflow.



Speaking of the newly painted bike lanes, we filled them up with a hundred or so people on Saturday morning for our Biker Babe Parade. I was thrilled to see so many familiar faces and lots and lots of new ones too. The little bitties really got into the spirit of things.



The big kids had fun too.



Satchel and Jiro even seemed pretty excited about it. (Although this picture isn't exactly showing that.)



Warren wore his new hat.



It really was a lot of fun. I had a handful of awesome volunteers who made the bike parade run as smoothly as possible, even with several last minute changes. I hope we get a chance to do it again--bigger and better--next year!

After the parade, the kids visited the Jr. Archaeology station and Weaver & Associates and then we had to hit the climbing wall again, which was conveniently located next to Happiness where we procured cupcakes and chocolate keys to happiness. Then the monkeys reminded me that I promised them a crepe from the Crepe Maker.

We saw so many people we knew and were having so much fun that we could have easily stayed all day. There was so much that we didn't even get to see or do! We had plans to attend the annual ravioli making at the Alleys, which is one of our favorite activities, so we forced ourselves to leave.

I went back by on Sunday to talk to Pat, one of the organizers, and I have to say that seeing the street without all of the people was really exciting too. I got to take in the bike lanes and newly striped parking spots in all of their glory. I was sad to see all of the pop up shops dismantling, but I have hope that after this weekend, we might see some new, permanent businesses opening up.

All pictures by Chip Chockley, except the top one, which is from the ilovememphisblog.