Minneapolis (and other) Adventures

I really enjoy traveling and exploring new cities. Over the last year, we realized that we didn't have to spend huge amounts of money or even go that far to have some fun adventures!

First Avenue and 7th Street Entry

In the last year, we (or I) have visited the following cities:

Bentonville, Arkansas
Denver, Colorado
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (I went on this trip with a friend.)
Des Moines, Iowa
Minneapolis, Minnesota

Only one of those (Philly) involved air travel. The rest were all within driving distance - Denver was the longest drive at 9ish hours. Both Bentonville and Des Moines were the shortest, at about 3 hours each.

Minnehaha Falls

Anyway, when we went to Des Moines in April, we realized that Minneapolis was only a few more hours north and also a pretty easy drive. So, when we decided that we'd like to go on a little mini-vacation to celebrate our anniversary, we selected Minneapolis.

And it was great! It was a larger city than I expected, with a really active downtown (even on the weekend, which wasn't the case in Des Moines at all). Because it was 95 degrees one of the days of our visit, we really enjoyed having the Skywalk (11 miles of buildings connect to one another) as a way to still explore yet still have a reprieve from the heat.

I think my absolute favorite was the Minneapolis Institute of Art. They have a really wonderful collection. We are spoiled with the Nelson Atkins, and the Minneapolis collection was just as good, if not better in some areas (a much larger Impressionist collection, for example). If you find yourself in Minneapolis, do yourself a favor and visit this place.

Just a random collage of photos from our trip.

We also enjoyed the Mill City Museum, Minnehaha Falls, and the University of Minnesota. And despite our original protests, we even broke down and visited the Mall of America as a way to get out and explore while having lots of access to air conditioning.  We didn't buy anything, which I find humorous, but we did enjoy the people watching and marveling at the sheer size of the place.

And the food was great too! My favorites were the Lemon Ricotta Hotcakes at Hell's Kitchen (not affiliated with the television show) and the tacos at Barrio. Both are downtown restaurants.

Overall, it was a great visit and I'd love to go back sometime! But in the meantime, there are other places to explore.

In just a few months, we're heading to the Big Apple, and I am so excited!