Minneapolis recap

Look! It's Minneapolis. When driving from Wisconsin, you go through farms and farms and farms and then all of a sudden you see a skyline! It's not actually Minneapolis. It's St. Paul. But you're close. I had a wonderful couple days in Minneapolis. Drew and Kai and Dave and Alicia showed me a wonderful time.

On Day 1, Kai and I walked around the U and then over to this area:




Apparently, Minneapolis was a big flour mill town. For years and years the mills would overheat and explode. The city would rebuild and then the mills would explode again. Eventually, they figured out a tunnel system to cool the system down but by then it was too late; the mill's heyday was over. What's left is the gold medal flour mill and the area around it. The city left the ruins but built into them a whole glass structural system. I think it's a museum now. The area around the mill is an amazing mix of new and old architecture. And then surrounding everything is a park system of trails and bridges. Minneapolis seems to do somethings right.

Other things, on the other hand, are a little more suspicious.

Yes, it looks cute on first glance. But what exactly are we doing here? Interspecies erotica, perhaps? These little sculptures are in front of the courthouse. I wonder what that implies.

On Day 2, Drew took off work and we drove out to Minnehaha Falls (HA HA). He claims that it's the tallest waterfall east of the rockies. It's not. But it's pretty.

And... the Luce Durham shirt made it for the ride!
Then we drove around the Lake district, stopped at a bowling alley/bar for lunch, and walked over to the Walker Art Institute. Their sculpture and flower garden is free and open to the public. The weather was perfect so we just wandered around for an hour or so.



By the time we were done, I was overheated and exhausted. We stopped at Gang Chen's for two for $5 dollar beers (the price hikes haven't reached the midwest yet...) and then met Kai for a late dinner.





The last treat of the evening was from Kai. He is crashing at a friend's place downtown. This place has roof access. So we finished the night leaning over the rails, watching the fireworks from the Minnesota state fair crash down over St. Paul. I'll end this post the way I began: with the Minneapolis skyline. This time, at night.