Despite living a mere five hours south of the Twin Cities for pretty much my entire life, I’d never properly explored them. I’d been to the Mall of America twice and…that’s it. A fine destination to be sure (there’s a Tatyana store there!), but not exactly an accurate look at what the metro area has to offer. So last weekend I armed myself with a trashy romance novel on audio book and a full tank of gas and hit the road to visit some college friends in Minneapolis.
My friends live in a neighborhood that actually reminds me a lot of my own beloved Bay View…a suburban neighborhood right near the city, lots of historic houses converted into duplexes or fourplexes, and we walked to a taco & tequila bar (and passed an organic Indian restaurant along the way). Very vibrant.
We started off my Minneapolis adventure at the Walker Art Center. We just intended to wander through the sculpture garden (because, free) but it turns out that they have First Free Saturdays, so the whole museum was open free of charge! The sculpture garden was still my favorite part, though. I got to check out the iconic cherry sculpture (and get the requisite picture), and I really liked this glass fish and the driftwood horse.
The rest of the day was definitely interesting. We had brunch at the Wilde Roast Cafe, which is for some reason themed around Oscar Wilde (but who needs a reason, I guess! Oscar Wilde is pretty great). We had grand plans to walk to the stone arch bridge, but while approaching the river I slipped on some gravel and twisted my ankle (insert sad trombone noise) so it was back to the apartment to recover before the evening’s adventures. And oh, what an adventure! You guys know how I feel about tiki bars, so you won’t be surprised that Psycho Suzi’s was the highlight of the trip. The place is HUGE and was packed. We poked around upstairs in the Shangri-La Lounge, but ended up settled in a nice roomy booth in the tiki bar proper. In addition to bringing a new mug friend home to join my collection, I finally got a chance to try one of those iconic flaming shared drinks…and now I definitely need to try one at my local haunt!
Tragically, with the return five hour drive ahead of me, I couldn’t linger long on Sunday, so it was back on the road again. Next time, I definitely think I’ll try to take some more time off so I can settle in a bit more and have more opportunities to enjoy the city (plus, making that drive twice with only one full day between was killer). Thanks for having me, MPLS – hope to see you again soon!
Hey, Milwaukee! 