It was still the last few hours of meteorological summer Saturday morning when Joanne from Columbia Heights pulled up to a stop sign on Old Central Ave. in Fridley. "This is groovy," she said, adding that her scooter was a 60th birthday present—"a while back."

Dennis Carroll of Brooklyn Park brought his kids Madison, 9, and Tyler, 17, to Anoka County Riverfront Park Tuesday for some fishing and playing around. As of 2 p.m. nothing was nibbling but Carroll said they had only just arrived. "I've never fished here before," Carroll said. How'd he find it? "We were (recently) down here for a wedding," he said, indicating the Riedel House at the park's entrance off East River Road. Carroll said he had noticed the location just south of I-694, then remembered it Tuesday when he and the kids weren't having much luck at other fishing spots.

Jim Wright brings a taste of the Wisconsin woods to the corner of Mississippi Street and Old Central Avenue whenever he parks his truck in front of the A Backward Glance antique shop and lines up bottles of maple syrup on the hood. Proceeds from Wright's syrup sales go to The Wilderness Fellowship Ministries, which operates a Christian camp in Frederic, WI. That's also where the syrup comes from. The ministry puts out 1,750 taps each March, Wright said. Cabins at the camp are available for rental but no one is turned away for lack of ability to pay. On Tuesday a syrup customer stopped within …