The started a bit aimlessly. I had already checked off most of my main items on my list of things to do in the first couple days. I had a dinner reservation at 8:15, but for a Sunday that left a lot of time. I decided to be a little adventurous and head over to the intricately linked lakes, canals and creeks that make up the famous Lake Minnetonka. The one surprising thing that Lake Minnetonka did not have is a lot of walkable coastline, but it is a great place to just drive around aimlessly.
The map of Lake Minnetonka, and the various towns and inlets that surround it, is a fascinating tapestry. The lake itself a giant rohrsach ink blot, allowing for truly miles and miles of jagged coastline surrounding the vast lake. Some of the views of the lake itself are stunning, and with this being a slightly windy day even giving us some nice waves. There are boats everywhere, with me coming early enough to seeing a lot of people just go on their boats for a nice day asea (alake?..).
Also what this entire area has is a lot of really nice homes. I plan to do a proper Zillow session of these areas to figure out what prices are like, but there are many large, modern, beautiful looking single-family (i.e. 3-5 bedrooms, not too big) homes with the lake in their backyards. There are a handful of small parks or lookouts scattered throughout the random walk of roads I drove on, but really it was more just an atmosphere of lake houses, architecture, greenery, with a giant lake peeking out on one side of the road always, that made it quite a good experience.
I had two real stops in my time in Lake Minnetonka, first being the town of Excelsior, which is an upmarket kind of New England Coast type town that comes right in the middle of the lake. Think posh local arts shops, probably overpriced restaurants, a few kitschy souvenir spots, but at the end of the day a nice view and large open marina. I did stop at one of the shops and bought what I saw to be the cheapest thing in there, a wooden block coaster with an etch of Lake Minnetonka on it.
The other stop was Back Channel Brewing, which I was a little worried would be more of a touristy spot than having actually great beer, but I was surprisingly wrong. It was definitely a bunch of lake people visiting but their tap list was lengthy, and the two beers I got, an IPA and a Irish Stout were both excellent. They had a visiting food truck where I went for my lunch. They had an open side of the space which had a direct view of Lake Minnetonka behind it, and an incdible breeze blowing in off of the lake as well.
From there I drove back to Minneapolis, heading to a potential souvenir spot in Homespun, which was far more affordable than the place out in Excelsior. It was small but had a few nice Minnesota-shaped or Minnesota-themed handicrafts.
The last bits of tourism for the day were two museums, one truly local-focused - the Mill City Museum, and then the other being the Walker Art Institute (the indoor companion to the sculpture garden from my first day). The Mill City Museum was perfect in a way. Not too big, being one interactive exhibit and one large open area exhibit, but so pointed in its focus. Minneapolis apparently was the most productive flour milling city in the world at the turn of the 20th century through about 1940. This museum was a testament to that industry, and the company that grew out of it - the one we know today as General Mills.
The interactive piece was a audio-visual trip through the mill in a grain elevator, with little exhibits on each floor that you went to sitting in the massive elevator. The open area had small exhibits touching on the prodcution process, labor strife, advertising, the slow-burning war between the Washburn-Crosby Company (the predecessor to General Mills) and Pillsbury, their biggest competitor that General Mills then bought. It is such a unique aspect to this city that was jsut really well displayed. The only annoyance is the lack of pillsbury or just advertising based merch in the museum store. I'm guessing maybe they don't have the rights potentially. I mean they could be selling plush Pillsbury Doughboys hand over fist!
The Walker Art Museum was a quick traipse through one large modern art sculpture exhibit, three exhibits of their rotating collection, and a side exhibit featuring the art of some British guy. Again it is impressive if only you wouldn't expect this place in Minnesota to be so full of art. When I say "you shouldn't", I largely mean that as a put-down on myself. Maybe many would have known.
Following was my last "new" brewery as from here on out the 1-2 I go to will liekyl be repeats. This one was Falling Knife Brewing Company, which seems to be both the most successful (I've seen their beer at multiple bars in the city) and most industrial. Their taproom was a small area of a much larger facility. What they lack in decor (and I should note, it isn't bad or anything, just a bit simple) they more than make up for in the quality of their beer. Both their Hazy IPA and Stout were excellent. At some point I'll probably have to do a brewery rankings of Minneapolis. Again it is always hard to say these things when every year more and more open, but Minneapolis is probably right there with Denver as the best beer city I've been to.
I lied - I was summarily told to leave Falling Knife - granted this was because they were starting an event at 6pm that I didn't have a ticket for. So instead I headed on over to Dangerous Man Brewing, the last one on my list that I had resigned myself to not visiting. I'm glad I did. It wasn't the biggest space, but maybe had the best variety of beers. Their hazy IPA was fine, but their cream stout was incredible. The decor was nice, if more "traditional" than many of the other open layout places I went to otherwise.
Dinner was at Sooki & Mimi, one in a group of popular Minneapolis restaurants. This wasn';t some fancy tasting menu, just a traditional dinner in a trendy spot. Most dishes had a hint of asian flavors to hit, including my two: a korean chicken wing starter (great, dusted gochujang instead of what I was expecting which would've been messy) and a pepper-crusted butchers cut with a korean sauce.
After dinner was a quick stop to Meteor which was far more relaxed than the prior two times, and then a hop over to Dusty's a classic dive bar in the Northeast Minneapolis district (where Meteor is as well). Dustys had an outdoor alley where most of people were, but I sat inside at the bar with about 10 other people (some left, some more came - I left around 1:15am and it was still about 10 people). They had a decent tap list but I followed a few patrons ideas and had a white russian to cap it off, all the while a latin jazz DJ was playing. It was a pretty unexpectedly chill late-night Sunday crowd.
Day 4
My last day would see me try to do things without feeling too depressed of this vacation ending. I had planned this trip for a while, but in my early iterations I was spending Sunday, Sunday Nigth and most of the day Monday in Duluth. I went away from that partially because Duluth didn't seem as interesting as I initially expected, and Minneapolis seemed to have a few too many things to do to give up that time. In the end, not sure I made the right decision but the last day did see me get closer to nature.
The first part was a walk around the Minnehaha Falls park, which was a nicely manicured little park above either side of the Minnehaha Falls that flow into the Minnehaha Creek which flows into the Mississippi River. The falls themselves weren;t at full power - a local said usually it is a bit drier in the summer months, but the area itself was nice with some statues, manicured gardens, etc. I then went for a drive down the Mississippi, stopping at a few lookouts. It is amazing how peaceful this giant river seems in this part of the country.
Following a quick lunch at Sammy's Avenue Eatery - a notable sandwhich shop that sells basically a perfectly elevated, delicious version of a subway sandwhich but with just way better of everything - I checked off two remaining parks, the Nicollet Island and Boom Island park, connected to each other within minutes walking by a nice rickety wooden bridge.
Both parks are on the river bank across from main Minneapolis, so you get nice view of the city on the other side of the Mississippi. The views on Boom Island were better because whether intentionally or by accident there were nice little outcrops without greenery and direct sightlines to the Minneapolis skyline. Nicollet island had some nice art and the famous Grain Belt Beer sign (their version of Baltimore's Domino Sugar, or the Coca-Cola sign in Brooklyn). Both islands were really pleasant to walk around. The greenery thrown aroudn the city around its river reminds me a lot of Calgary actually.
After a final stop at Inbound where I bought a shirt in lieu of beer to go (Minneapolis craft breweries almost exclusively sell oversized cans that they just call growlers that are quite unwieldly), I took in my last bit of tourism - checking out the Mall of America. Yes, it is a bit commercial (I mean it is a mall after all) but the sheer size of it, the giant amusement park in the middle, the large Lego exhibit, the mini golf course, the time it takes you to circumnavigate it. All of it was overwhelming and interesting. They had decent food options, with a "Food Street" row of restaurants and bars at the back on the 3rd Floor, and the "Culinary on North" upscale food court on the front side - upscale meaning thai food, birria tacos, shake shack and no pando express in sight.
It might be weird effectively ending my trip at the mall, but the Mall of America is the thing that Minneapolis is maybe most known for. Certainly it is one of the first things I learned about the city apart from the fact that there are people from Scandinavia. It was a reasonable way to end the trip, especially since it is a stone's throw from the airport.
This basically concluded my trip to Minneapolis, which as a city is about as nice, and I'll say this - maybe the most livable city I've visited. Granted, I only went in the summer and not the winter, but right now it was a perfect 80 degrees / 60 at night. There was never really much traffic, and this is after driving basically all over the city proper. The different neighborhoods are a good time. Even beyond the endless supply of breweries, they have a food culture that is beyond "burgeoning" at this point. I got to go to Travail, but there were a half dozen similarly well reputed fancy places, and many well reputed not as fancy (one of them beeing Sooki & Mimi).
As a place to visit, it has some sites but while it wasn/t the outdoor paradise that my last three Summer Mountain/Midwest trips were (Salt Lake City, Calgary, Denver), it surprisingly could make up for it with better indoor sites than maybe those cities. From the Minneapolis Art Institute which was just endless and quality, to the Mill City Museum, to Paisley Park. Next time maybe I'll rent a small boat for Lake Minnetonka to complete the routine.
