We rolled out of Chicago around 10 Am for the drive to Minneapolis and were immediately met with several more toll plaza before finally escaping the Illinois Turnpike at the border with Wisconsin. God willing, we won’t have to pay any more tolls on this trip. I think that, for the most part, western states either tax people enough to pay for road repairs without tolls and just allow their roads to decay because there’s no one to use them anyway (I’m looking at you, Montana). The drive was rather uneventful, other than a sojourn into Madison.
Somehow NCCC in Sacramento had a remarkable number of UW Madison alumni, and a healthy serving of people from Minnesota and Wisconsin in general. Erik, Erin and Trisha (the three AmeriCorps folks that we met up with in Minneapolis) all attended UW and insisted that we stop there during our day. So, we made the 20-minute side trip onto campus to see what it was all about. The city and campus are sandwiched between Lake Mendota and Lake Monona (it took me 10 months to get the names right) along a narrow strip of land that’s only about 2 miles wide. We tried to park somewhere near campus in order to eat lunch at the Memorial Union, which rests right on the shore of Lake Mendota, but every single student was moving into their apartments that day. Move in day in Davis has nothing on this – there were people everywhere, Uhauls double parked, and parents and students walking everywhere. We tried for about 15 minutes to find parking and decided to just drive through town and get back on our way to Minneapolis. We drove by the state capitol, which is a really cool building set right in the middle of the town and from which all of the street originate. A 5 mile drive along Washington Avenue had us back on the freeway and on our merry way.
When we arrived in the Twin Cities area, our first stop was the Mall of America in Bloomington, about 10 miles south of Minneapolis. I was expecting it to be much bigger than it is. Don’t get me wrong, it’s still a monumental building and a worthy tribute to American consumerism, but the actual footprint of the building wasn’t really that big. The extra retail space that makes it the biggest in the US comes from the fact that it has 4 levels throughout. The amusement park in the middle was pretty cool, although the Nickelodeon theme was definitely aimed at children. We walked around and took in all of its glory and then headed back to the car to drive to Erik’s house.
After a quick stop at Target (after getting turned around several times in the freeway construction) we cruised through downtown and arrived at Erik’s place. He had his first exam of dental school on Monday and was expected to learn about 4 weeks worth of anatomy lessons in the span of 4 days prior to the exam, so he was occupied studying muscle tissues and bone growth. Sarah and I dropped out things off and used a short term bike rental station and rode along the Mississippi River front for about an hour. As we did that, I realized that we’re basically at the northern extreme of the Mississippi, whereas two weeks ago we were at its outlet in New Orleans. We’ll also be crossing the Missouri and Snake Rivers during our trip, which I think is kind of cool.
We turned in relatively early the first night and slept in the next morning before getting back on rented bikes and going south along the river, through the UM campus, and back up the other bank of the river. Eventually we had to pack it in because it was getting to be disgustingly hot, but not before we enjoyed the riverfront and went crazy-fast down a few hills. Lunch was sandwiches (again) at Erik’s house before meeting up with Erin in St. Paul.
Twin Cities is an appropriate name for Minneapolis and Saint Paul, because getting from one downtown to another takes about 15 minutes. We found some parking near the capitol and walked down to meet up with Erin at the front stairs. After we chatted for a bit the tour began. My favorite part of the tour, aside from the beautiful building and numerous types of stone used in its construction, was the tour guide’s Minnesota accent. Hilarious. Another hilarious thing about the capitol was the fact that almost none of the amazing paintings were done in place in the building – none of the artists wanted to go to St. Paul to paint them and many lamented the unfortunate reality that so many masterpieces would be in such a city as St. Paul. We also drove over to the St. Paul Cathedral before heading back to Minneapolis for dinner.
Dinner was great, and we were joined by Trisha once she extricated herself from her cousins and the Mall of America. We ate at Burrito Loco, which has a deal on Monday nights in which one orders a 25 once mug of beer and gets a free chimichanga. And we’re not talking a little chimichanga – this thing was a full on fried burrito. Amazing. We moved on to The Library for a few more drinks and then back to Erik’s to keep his roommates up for a while and chit chat. It was a great night, and I was really thankful that I got to see Trisha, Erik and Erin again before heading back to Sacramento.
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