more than the mall of america!

I just got back from a long weekend in Minneapolis with my sister in law, P. The great thing about travelling with P, is she does a lot of the legwork, finds the cool things to do, and the best places to eat! Usually a trip to Minneapolis is either about the Husband's soccer team or shopping at the Mall of America. This time our trip was an amazing adventure!

The Walker Art Centre...photo from here

Spoonbridge and Cherry...photo from here

First stop was the Walker Art Center. On Thursday nights, admission is free (thanks to Target!). This museum is contemporary art, some of it was a little hard to understand, but still, very enjoyable. We started our tour with the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden (always free!), and saw the famous, Spoonbridge and Cherry by Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen.


After our tour of the museum, it was off to dinner at 20*21, a Wolfgang Puck restaurant located in the Walker Art Center. It's kind of Asian fusion, and I had some of the most amazing food I have ever eaten!! If you go, I highly recommend sharing a couple different plates, we had the pork pot stickers, shrimp and scallop spring rolls and the beef. Can I just tell you it was the best beef I have EVER eaten....melt in your mouth YUM!

Hell's Kitchen...photo from here

The next day, we had breakfast at Hell's Kitchen. I highly recommend the Huevos Rancheros, it was sooooo good! Then, of course, we shopped till we dropped along Nicolette Mall. It was a beautiful day, and was so much better than dealing with crowds and the air conditioning at the Mall of America! Did you know there is a two story Target downtown, you can even put your carts up the escalator!! It was pretty cool.

112 Eatery...photo from here

Dinner was at 112 Eatery. This place was very nice! It was in the Warehouse District, and had maybe 35 tables (reservations recommended). Though we had an amazing meal, I still wore jeans, so no stuffiness at this place! Again, P and I shared our meal...we had the cauliflower fritters, pan fried gnocchi (I almost died, it was so good), french fries and we each had a cheese burger. It was so good, P and I barely talked to each other during dinner. All topped off with my Kir Royale, it was pretty near perfect! Our waiter was amazing, and made some very good recommendations!

Cathedral of Saint Paul...picture from here

Saturday afternoon, we took a drive along Summit Avenue in Saint Paul. Close to the Saint Paul Cathedral, this avenue has all the stately homes of the gilded age. There is the James J. Hill House which is open for tours, and you can even take a historic walking tour of the neighbourhood. We topped off our visit with a coffee at a sidewalk cafe on Grand Avenue.

Guthrie Theatre

Saturday night we headed over to the Guthrie Theatre for a performance of Little House on the Prairie..it was a musical! If you're going to be in the Twin Cities, you should go and see it, it was really good! The Guthrie houses two stages, and our theatre was very intimate, every seat was a good seat. The Guthrie is a marvel of architecture, and take a drive across 3rd street to truly appreciate the Endless Bridge.

Foshay Tower...picture from here

All that was left was a yummy breakfast at Key's Cafe in the famous Foshay building (which now has the W Minneapolis, very cool, and will definitely have to have a drink there next time!) It was a great trip, I will never stay at the Mall of America again, downtown is where it's at! Thanks P for the great food, laughs and good times. Where are we going next year?