Walking, Shopping & Friendly Faces in Minneapolis

We left Sioux Falls, South Dakota, on a Tuesday morning and drove 4 1/2 hours northeast to Minneapolis. We decided to hit the infamous Mall of America first since it was on our way just before the city. Apparently Mall of America is to Minneapolis what Times Square is to New York City. Locals steer clear of it at all costs! We, however, quite enjoyed roaming around the castle of commercialism for the first time.

Our first stop in MoA was the Nickelodeon theme park in the center. Yes, a theme park complete with THREE roller coasters AND a log flume. We looked around in amazement that this was inside a mall - encircled by four floors of shops. We rode one of the roller coasters and the log flume before exploring the stores. They were both fun!

So we decided our plan of attack would be to walk around each floor and head up a flight when we'd done a complete circle. Each floor took about a half hour, and we'd already spent about an hour in the amusement park, so we were starting to get hungry as we neared the third floor. We decided to backtrack a bit and have dinner at the Twin City Grill for some local food. I had their specialty - the northern lakes walleye fish fry. Quite possibly the best fish & chips ever. Their fries (chips) are cooked with vinegar in them, and they were so delicious. Tom had filet medallions with brandy sauce - best filet he's had in quite a while, too. Our server was the nicest woman - our first taste of Minnesotan hospitality. She recommended good local beers and also gave us a free signature flatbread to try. Everything was so delicious, and as tempted as we were to try one of their decadent deserts, we got the check and set off to finish the four-floor tour.

We made our way around and just popped in a few stores - I bought a skirt at Express, and we got a MoA postcard at one of the visitor/tourist stores. Something I didn't mention from floor 1: the lego store. The first floor is just the store - pretty standard. But... on top of the store and suspended above it all the way from floor 2 to floor 4 are gigantic lego statues - a minotaur, transformers, helicopters with SWAT teams, and more. It's pretty amazing.

From MoA, we headed to our hotel in Minneapolis. The next morning, we drove into downtown and met another friendly Minnesotan: the parking lot attendant. He was so courteous and gave us a few hours of free parking just for the heck of it! Then, he recommended places for lunch in case we were hungry. Our first order of business, though, was the post office for postcard stamps. And yet again, a super-friendly person behind the counter. When he found out we were tourists he started giving us a list of places he recommended visiting. These and our server from the night before were just a few examples... people here are so nice!

So, we walked around outside in downtown for a bit and were wondering where everybody was... it felt dead compared to other big cities. We found a place for lunch that was inside one of the big buildings, and suddenly we realized - this is where everyone is! Minneapolis is more of an indoor city - there are skyways connecting all of the buildings, and there are restaurants and retail shops galore inside. You'd never know it from outside - they all look like boring corporate buildings. But each building's interior has its own unique character and architecture. We spend hours walking all over the indoor city and were even able to get to the Twins stadium and the Timberwolves arena from inside!

Some shots from our time outside (I love the little sculpture guys!):

And some shots from our time inside:

With all the donuts and mini-donuts we've eaten on this trip, this contraption seemed blog-worthy!

Fun fact about Minneapolis: it's the birthplace of Target, Caribou Coffee, Pillsbury Flour, and Gold Medal Flour. I love all of these, so consequently, I love Minnesotans even more. Tom and I got a drink at a Caribou here since I also got coffee at the first Starbucks in Seattle.

After walking around inside in downtown, we walked over to the riverfront (the Mississippi River!). There's a paved path for runners and bikers, so we walked along that and learned some history about the city. There were diagrams of the city skyline from the last 100 years, and we also stumbled upon mill ruins. In the early 20th century, Minneapolis was a mill town, thriving in the grain and textile industries with mills powered by the Mississippi River. Now, the ruins have been incorporated into parks, museums, and new residential complexes. Pillsbury and Gold Medal are still rivals, but we didn't find out if their big, flashy signs are just landmarks now or still house any production facilities below.

After all of this walking, we decided to head back to our hotel and put our feet up. Our hotel here had a really nice Italian restaurant, and since we didn't feel like heading out again after expending so much energy during the day, we just went downstairs for some great pasta and wine. And yet again, everyone was so nice!

Up next: Madison and Milwaukee