The wifey and I are going to Minneapolis on Sunday and will be there through the 14th. Does anyone have any ideas of stuff to do in the evenings and that next weekend? We know about Mall of America but some good places to eat and maybe some other things to do would be cool. We will be staying downtown at the Crowne Plaza just to give you an idea of where we will be. Sishir, I know you are up there. If you want to catch a Rox game, we are definitely down.
Dude. There is a big differance between cold and "Minneapolis cold". You're in for a shock. < 32 degrees = cold < 0 degrees = really cold < -20 degrees = f**king cold. Minneapolis has some surprisingly quaint old neighborhoods with some nice little pubs. Good local beers usually are available. I recommend Summit Brewing Company.
Winter is nice, but be prepared for unbelievably cold weather. I was there one time with a wind chill of 40 below and thought I was going to die walking a few dozen yards outside. I did some scenic stuff on some of the "nicer" days like the frozen waterfalls and lakes.
Do yourself a favor and stay clear of the Mall of America in Bloomington. That place is hell during the holidays, as you can imagine. ] Might be fun to catch a hockey game while you're down there. Also, there's some decent bars and restaurants in the new "uptown" area. Come to think of it Minneapolis has a pretty similar layout to DFW, but with much fewer douches.
Sishir brought me to a great brew pub, I think it was called Town Hall. Downtown Minneapolis is a pretty fun place to bar hop. I liked it up there. Way better than Milwaukee, which I was expecting.
I lived in Chicago \ Kenosha, WI for 4 years and Indy for another. While it definitely gets colder in Minneapolis sometimes, I without a doubt know what cold weather is. The weekend I graduated boot camp in Great Mistakes (Feb 2, 1996) it was -35 with a wind chill of about -60. My wife is Swedish, she knows cold too
The MOA is fine during the holidays. We regularly go on Black Friday and once you are inside, it is so big, it doesn't appear crowded. If you like meat, go to Fogo. Plan to attend the Holidazzle parade which runs Thursday-Sunday along Nicollet Mall. It starts around 6:30 PM and lasts 30 minutes or so. If you like lines, you can go see the animated figure display at Macy's before or afterwards. The southern suburbs got about 3 inches of snow on Wednesday and it will be cold enough to stick around for a while. The Wild games are generally sold out, so you'll have to work to get tickets. You should be able to easily get a T'Wolves ticket. If you like zoos, the Minnesota Zoo in Apple Valley (~20 miles south of downtown) is a nice one. Seeing the zoo int he winter is nice. They used to have a nice lighted display during the winter, but I don't know if they still do. If you like Casinos, Mystic Lake is a nice one and isn't terribly far from downtown, perhaps 30-45 mintues at most.
Next time you are in Milwaukee, take a Segway tour and tell the guide you don't want the tour, you just want to ride the Segways. They'll take you over to Lake Michigan and turn you loose for 30 minutes.
Your nordic wife is gonna laugh her ass off watching you squeal like a little girl when the wind blows. Are you taking a month of vacation? That would be nice.
Damn, no Wild home games while we are there. I'd have loved to go to a game. bobrek, do you live up there? We should do a Clutch get together for one of the games next week.
Ha, that's what you think. I know how to deal with the cold and she's lived here for the last 10 years and I think her blood has thinned.
I hear that's a great place to purify oneself. <embed FlashVars="videoId=11927" src='http://www.comedycentral.com/sitewide/video_player/view/default/swf.jhtml' quality='high' bgcolor='#cccccc' width='332' height='316' name='comedy_central_player' align='middle' allowScriptAccess='always' allownetworking='external' type='application/x-shockwave-flash' pluginspage='http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer'></embed>
Your visit coincides with my in-laws visit, so I am entertaining that week. If I get a break, I'll email you through the board. If you like Sushi, there is a restaurant called 7 Steak House and Sushi bar downtown. I think it is cat-a-corner to Fogo de Chao. You can try to get tickets to attend the U of M Gophers hockey game on 12/13. That would be at least as much fun as a Wild game. If you are into 80's soft rock, I have a couple of tickets to see Richard Marx at a restaurant called Trocaderos (also on 12/13) that you can have. The restaurant was giving them away when we were at a charity event a couple of weeks ago.
