Twin Cities Round-up

Well, if you are looking for a medium to large city to settle down in, we think we have found a winner.  Not being the big city types, we thought our time in Minneapolis-St. Paul would be a battle.  But we've made a real effort to see as much of the two cities as possible, and can now honestly say we would gladly move here (if our darn families weren't so inextricably fastened to Utah).  We saw a lot of amazing places this week, most of which were free or very cheap.  

The University of Minnesota has a Landscape Garden, which includes one of the best and most complete arboretums I've seen, plus beautiful flower displays, fountains, a hedge maze and vegetable garden.  We left inspired to redesign our yard.  

Yesterday, I rode through downtown Minneapolis in the morning and came upon Oktoberfest just gearing up in the old Mill Ruins Park.  We returned and found the Mill City Museum, the site of what was once the biggest flour milling plant in the world.  It was built there along the Mississippi with a system of canals that used the river's water for power.  Pillsbury and General Mills both started there.  The old mill building fell into ruin and a few years ago they decided to make the burned out shell of the building into a museum.  Next door is a brand new theater museum called the Guthrie.  Between these two buildings, Oktoberfest was going on with a farmer's market and all kinds of local brewers.  A 3 man polka band was jamming, taking requests.  We shouted out the only polka song we know by name, "the Pennsylvania Polka", which they ripped off without a thought.  The kids were dancing and having a great time.

Down at the river is an old stone bridge, built in 1883, that farmer's used to carry there crop from the east side of the river to the mills on the west.  It is now adjacent to a huge lock that allows ships to pass over the St. Anthony Falls.  We got to watch it lower a big cruise ship as we walked across.  

All that walking got us hungry, so we headed out to find a good restaurant, one thing Minneapolis has no shortage of. The beauty of the restaurants here are there a so many independent, original places.  I don't think we have eaten at a chain restaurant in a long time, and have no intention of starting anytime soon.  Next to the little pub we ended up dining at was a locally owned outdoor store where we grabbed deals and met some great people.  

We next jetted over to the Como Zoo and McNeely Conservatory in St. Paul.  They are both free (with a recommended donation of a few bucks).  The kids loved the gorillas and big cats, and we loved that it was relatively small and didn't stink too bad.  The conservatory had a great floating garden with lovely waterlilies, a Japanese Garden and a huge collection of bonsai trees.

It was clearly time for ice cream and pastries, so we headed to Grand Ave. in St. Paul.  We hit Bread and Chocolate for just that, a nice chocolate filled pastry.  We then moved down a few blocks to the Grand Ole Creamery and got some great waffle cones with admittedly marginal ice cream in them.  But the ambience along the street made up for it.  A block off Grand is Summit Ave., where row upon row of old time mansions reside.  If you had money and lived in St. Paul at the beginning of the last century, you lived on this street.  There were no less then 3 weddings going on in the front yards of these houses as we drove by.  The beautiful St. Paul cathedral sits like a book end at the end of the street and the State Capitol is off in the distance.

Mic heads out next week, so we only have time to hit a few more places, but we're already in deep thought about our next adventure.