Cruising Around Minneapolis

After wrapping up the Duluth leg of our Minnesota trip, we drove back down to Minneapolis/St. Paul. We made a brief stop along the way at another candy store, this time at a place called Sweetly Kismet. While they didn't make their own candy on site, they did stock a variety of weird and obscure things -- in their building hidden in a forested clearing at the end of a "candy" lined dirt road, like the witch's cottage in Hansel and Gretel or something.

Our first stop in Minneapolis was the Mississippi River -- specifically, a short cruise on a riverboat called the Minneapolis Queen. Yes, it was a very "tourist packaged" experience. But also -- it does exactly what you want that kind of experience to do. We went by city landmarks including the Stone Arch bridge (among other bridges), old flour mills, and odd buildings like the Weisman Art Museum that you can see from the river. We got to pass through a lock system in the river, and were lucky enough to see a bald eagle perched high in a tree right along the bank.

Later in the afternoon, we headed over to the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden, a park where dozens of sculptures are scattered for you to stroll around and take in. The large "Spoonbridge and Cherry" is something of a mascot for the city, but there were all sorts of interesting creations in all sizes and styles -- including a horse that appears to be made of driftwood (but is really bronze), a big blue... rooster, and even giant suspended art you can sit on and swing.

We also visited the Mall of America, which is both exactly what you'd expect and more than you could imagine. Sprawling larger than the largest mall you've likely ever been in, and then stacked three full stories high (with still another partial level above that), it is both "just a mall" and "ridiculously excessive." Well, maybe more "ridiculously excessive," when you consider the multi-ride amusement park in the center.

We also peppered a couple brewery stops in throughout that day -- though a great many of the city's breweries are closed on Mondays. Town Hall was a solid example of "pure beer styles" with decent food, while Lakes & Legends was the most outspokenly pro-LGBT+ location we visited amid many breweries over the trip that were celebrating Pride Month.

We still had one more full day of our trip before returning home the day after, and so I still have one more post's worth of short stories to recount soon.