The Twins' City

Time to leave less-populated America behind and return to big cities, big freeways, and too many people. We started the day in Fargo by giving the car a much needed service. An oil change and new air filter later and we were ready for the three hour drive  to Minneapolis.

This was my first time in Minneapolis and I’ve always loved their slogan, “Land of 10,000 Lakes.” On our drive we only counted five (if you included the flooded rest stop which looked like it used to be a rest stop next to a lake) meaning there are 9,995 more to see. Pretty daunting.

By the time we reached Minneapolis we pretty much only had time to drop our things and head over to Target Field to catch that night’s Twins Indians game. Our hotel was in ‘Dinkytown’, the neighborhood around the University of Minnesota, and it was very nice. I never appreciated that the University was so close to downtown – similar to UW in Seattle.

The new Twins stadium was marvelous. It’s in an interesting part of downtown with great modern architecture. Not sure I would place it among the elite (San Francisco, San Diego, Baltimore, etc.) but it’s certainly close. Two complaints: the sections are choppy with separate ‘neighborhoods’ (including a moat separating us from the next section up), and a closed-in centerfield.

We had a great time, though, despite the game dragging – three hours and fifty-eight minutes for a nine inning game.

The next day we did a bit more exploring of Minneapolis, driving by the Metrodome and then down to Bloomington and the famed Mall of America.

It’s the largest mall in the United States by commercial square footage. Meaning on this trip we’ve now seen the country’s largest tree, highest waterfall, deepest lake, and largest mall by commercial square footage. It was interesting, though – glad we went. According to the directory there are four Caribou Coffee’s in the mall but, alas, we only found three.

Also, I always knew that there was a rollercoaster inside but had no idea there was an entire theme park. It made our jaws drop – largest indoor theme park in the country, too.

And in the middle of that theme park madness, is a spot signifying where homeplate stood at the old Metropolitan Stadium – home of the Twins (and Vikings) before the Metrodome was built. Great Twins teams of Killebrew, Carew, Oliva, and the rest.

After the mall we hit the road for Sweet Home Chicago. Although there was a rare Cubs night game, we decided to take our time and go see the Cubs the following day. So, with no idea where best to stay for a good price, we decided to stop in my brother’s old grounds of Evanston and Northwestern University.

Tomorrow we’ll take the ‘L’ train to Wrigleyville and see the Cubs and then start working our way to Durham, North Carolina. We had originally planned to see Detroit and Cleveland, but decided we need to start winding the trip down and settling into our new home.