Late start, strong finish make for perfect day touring St. Paul

10 a.m. A perfect Saturday starts late with me not getting out of bed until I'm good and ready. Feeling rested and normally hungry, I take the short drive or bus ride from my Dayton's Bluff home down the Kellogg Boulevard-Third Street Bridge to the St. Paul Farmers' Market in Lowertown. It's a great place for families, though I sometimes opt to go on Sundays to avoid some of the larger crowds. Some of my market must-buys are cave-aged cheese from LoveTree Farmstead Cheese and peppered bacon ends from Prairie Pride Farm of Minnesota. The ends are a good size to put on bread for a bacon-egg sandwich for breakfast.

Noon. Is it too early to start drinking alcohol? Nah, it's the weekend after all. I like to head over to the Flat Earth Brewing Co. (688 Minnehaha Av. E., St. Paul) conveniently located at the old Hamm's brewery in my East Side neighborhood, to trade out my empty growler and down beer samples (be sure to try the unfiltered brews) that they liberally pour at the bar for free. Though it's old and disheveled, the Hamm's Brewery is beautiful and sort of magical, graffiti and all. I often try to kill two birds with one stone and walk over to another part of the Hamm's site and see what the guys have cooking at 11 Wells Spirits distillery (704 Minnehaha Av. E., St. Paul), which is supposed to open a cocktail room this spring or summer.

1 p.m. I take my bike down to the Bruce Vento Nature Sanctuary and head along the Bruce Vento Regional Trail, which always makes me feel like I'm in some sort of secret garden.

3 p.m. I should probably eat again. Thank goodness for pho. My favorite pho spot is Tay Ho (302 University Av. W., #100, St. Paul). I normally order the egg rolls and a simple P11, which is pho that comes with rare beef and meatballs. The vermicelli salad is also pretty good. For some sugar to counteract the salt, I sometimes get the tri-color dessert (jelly, mung bean, red tapioca and coconut) which comes in a to-go cup.

5 p.m. It's hard to turn down friends when they suggest a quick game of disc golf. It's fast to get through the nine holes at Highland Park (1200 Montreal Av., St. Paul) If we have more time, we head to Lakewood Hills Park (2110 Orchard Lane, White Bear Lake), which has a nice mix of terrain.

7 p.m. It's time to hit up the Saints game at the new CHS Field in Lowertown (360 N. Broadway St., St. Paul). Public transportation is a must. Do you need an excuse to enjoy baseball, food and family on the cheap?

10 p.m. Nothing completes a night quite like a bonfire. Luckily, we have plenty of friends with large yards to crash. Games, BBQ and Hammerschlagen keep us up sometimes until "7,000 in the morning" (7 a.m. when you are so tired that you can't read a digital clock correctly).

Nicole Norfleet • 612-673-4495

Twitter: @stribnorfleet