As I had mentioned, initially I wasn't thrilled about a trip to Minneapolis especially one that would require me to spend some of my time exploring this foreign city by myself. I didn't envision myself holed up all day with a "do not disturb" sign" hanging from my hotel room door. I was going to get all that I could out of this trip ..... Google searches printed, a Moon publication for exploring the Twin Cities and a city map. I was ready, I could do this.
Not all of my adventures were experienced alone, Fletch was by side for most of these excursions (it gets dark after 9 p.m.). After several days into the Minneapolis experience, it dawned on me that I had done or had seen things I had never experienced before. Fletch and I decided to make a list - individually after we found Fletch could put "experienced a tornado watch" and I could not. I lived in Texas for a short time. I had experienced the tornado watch thing. If you are scratching your head, yes, Minneapolis was under a tornado watch for one day of our trip.
1. The first time laying eyes on
Ol' Man River,
the Muddy Waters, the Mississippi River. That is some smirk on my face. Not only was I checking out the river, we were also looking at the only waterfall on the Mississippi River, St. Anthony Falls. FYI for those who may find themselves in Minneapolis, the river walk on the St. Anthony side of the city, is beautiful and fun. We happened to be there during an art festival.
2. Took a ride on a river boat, paddle boat, steam boat? Not sure what to call it. There were steam stacks but no steam and paddles that rotated, kicking out water behind it. I am pretty sure what made this flat bellied boat move gracefully in the water, was the motor I felt softly rumbling beneath my feet. This Mississippi beauty is called the
Minneapolis Queen. Not much on cuisine but that hot dog and glass of Chardonnay was pure pleasure to a body who thought it was breakfast time at 2 in the afternoon.
3. Part of the
Minneapolis Queen cruise was being in a lock. I have seen locks, mostly smallish types in England's web of tiny rivers. We saw one being utilized in Stratford-upon-Avon, the captain's companion (most likely his wife) jumping from the narrow boat to crank the lock shut. For us, our lock experience was quite a thrill as we and our vessel dropped 50 feet down from the level of the river bed. This particular lock is called
Lock One/Ford Dam, the first lock one encounters while traveling down the waters of the Mississippi River.
4. Not for the faint of heart, might as well scoop up some Crisco shortening and pop it in your mouth. I ate cheese curds, deep fried. It was a cold afternoon on Lake Harriet (one of the 10,000 lakes!) when Fletch and I stumbled upon a take-out place along the lake shore path. We had seen "cheese curds" listed on some of the menus in the city. This could be a culinary adventure! Cheese curds, something we had never heard of and decided to give a try. It wasn't like they were entrails, spiders or cauliflower - cheese was something we could handle. After popping several curds into our mouths, we agreed the curds would either go into the trash or we could sop up the grease with napkins. We chose napkins, I am sure a Minnesotian
faux pas.
5. Had to go, had no choice. This is
MALL OF AMERICA, the largest in our nation. Supersize, American style. It's so large, you don't realize it's large ... does that make sense? They only thing we bought was wine. Yes, we found a wine store in a flotilla of shops and bought ourselves two well deserved bottles to take back to our room. After all, we needed to utilize the ice machine outside our hotel room door.
A few facts about the Mississippi River - it's 2,341 miles long. That's like flying from Maui to California! The river was named "misi-ziibi", Gathering Waters, by the American Indian Ojibwe people.
Last five later ......
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