Minnesota Nice

"Disneyland? or St. Paul, MN?" "Oh, please Mom! Can we go to St. Paul??"

Ok, it's not the first stop on everyone's vacation list, but it should be! I'm still discovering what the Twin Cities have to offer.

Quick Tips:

Weather wise: I've found the winter to be beautiful and full of snow. Great for outdoor winter sports of all kinds. Summer is hot and humid, and it reminds me of Florida with a better view and no large bugs. Spring and fall have an indescribable beauty to them. Nature enthusiasts would love Minnesota any season.

Best Way To Get Around:

Best way to get around is to rent a car, if you don't have your own available to you. The Intl Airport is located conveniently next to the Mall of America, and St. Paul and Minneapolis are just 20 minutes drive.

I stayed here one night while just visiting in Minnesota. Very nice Hotel and it''s just a few minutes from the airport. Even fewer minutes from the mall that everyone loves (Mall of America) but that wasn''t built when I stayed here last.

Very nice rooms and worth taking the family. If you''re travelling solo, then I would recomend a motel (there are plenty near by).

We stayed here just to spoil ourselves, heated indoor swimming pool, cable, all the good stuff.

Bucca's was one of those restaurants that I always hear about but never visited. My friends always talked about going there sometime or what they had the last time they went. A friend of mine wrote a review for the restaurant in a local paper once and had nothing but praise for the experience and she doesn't even like Italian food especially. So, when the group I was going to Prom with talked about getting reservations for the night of the dance I was really excited. I found out right away that Bucca's is one of those restaurants that you can dress formally or come in a t-shirt and jeans. The only expectation they have is that you come in a group because everything on the menu is served in family sized portions. Italians have more fun in large groups, anyways, atleast that's what the hostess told me. Because this is a very popular place we made sure to have reservations, 3 months in advance. Normally you don't need three months in advance, but this was Prom season. We had a group of 12 people, which was not a problem for the restaurant. In fact, there were several tables for large crowds. The restaurant was alive with the sounds of people talking, italian decoration covered the hand painted walls and a soft concerto was playing in the background. I looked around for a menu, but found that the menu is painted on the wall, in large print, and in Italian. We ordered 5 dishes, including two appetizers and we had lots left over, still. I had the egg plant parmisiana (and my Nona is probably rolling over in her grave hearing me say this) but it was as good as mom's home cooking. The bill was split equally and I believe everyone payed $20 so there was a big tip for our waiter, who did a great job translating the menu into english for us and making sure we had everything we need. Now, I take my family for special events, like birthdays and get togethers. We especially like to get a table out on the porch on a hot summer night, surrounded by trees and the light chirping of crickets.

The children's museum has moved into a new building it's bigger and has much more new exhibits, but still has the same old favorites. The building is four floors full of hands on learning fun. I noticed the large windows in all the rooms let in plenty of sunlight that make it a bright and cheery place even if there's a -20 wind chill out side. When we visited, it was about -20 degrees (f) but it hardly made a difference because the ramp across the street is connected to the museum by a heated (or air conditioned) sky way. Since the skyway also connected the mall next door to the museum we went over there first and ate lunch. We got our sticker after paying admission and headed to the first floor. There are names to each room of the floors, but I can't remember any of them. The first exhibits we saw were career related. The kids could be Post Office people, work at a market, type on a type writer, etc. When I was little this used to be my favorite because you could play pretend in this room for hours. We went to the second floor right after that because we heard about the new stuff about weather. The kids learned about how clouds are formed, lightning and thunder, and there's this big thing that has clear pipes that water goes through and you can get your hands all wet and play with toy boats. I don't know how to explain this one, but it's really fun. In the room next to this one there is a large ant maze. You can (I mean the kids can) dress up like different kinds of ants and run around and get lost in tunnels. I always see a lot of parents let their kids go in the maze and wait for them at the entrance/exit. There's staff in there, always, to help find lost parents/kids and that makes me really happy.

On the fourth floor they have seasonal/temporary exhibits. Those are usually for the younger types, so we didn't spend a lot of time there. They also do bedtime stories here on Wednsday nights, so we'll back for that.

Usually we like to park at the ramp across the street, play at the museum and go eat lunch down the block at historical Mickey's Diner. You can even do a little shopping next door at the world trade center.

This, like the Children's Museum, moved into a new, larger, building, but has the same old favorites and some new attractions. We drove through downtown, along Kellogg Blvd., and when I first saw the building it looked tiny! One floor and not much of one, at that. But when I realized it was located along a cliff and there are four floors under the first one, it made a lot more sense to me.

We came to see their newest attraction, Sue. An 18 foot tall T-Rex. They always have plenty of stuff about dinosaurs and other animals.

We stopped first at the interactive exhibits. In one station you can bow a violin string and see what the sound wave looks like. Another booth you can manipulate sound and light. There's one where you can make a tornado. All fun learning.

We arrived here on a snowy Sunday afternoon. It wasn't terribly busy, probably because of the weather, but in any case, parking was ample. When entering the zoo, signs directed us into two major lots. The lots are quite large, but on a beautiful afternoon they fill up quickly. The divides itself up into sections called trails. After we got through the bustle of getting through the ticket takers we chose to take the tropical trail, which is indoors and has a tropical climate. It's almost like taking a guided walk through a forest. The animals' habitats look quite natural, which is better then watching them sympathetically through the bars of a cage. The trail twists and turns and about half way through the trail there is a large monkey exhibit. The monkeys swing around in these large "trees" and play in the branches. It's an island surrounded by a pond that is home to flamingos and about 5 different kinds of ducks. Nothing seperates them from the other species. There's a shark and tropical fish tank that you can look down upon. A leopard shark wove in and out of the coral and suddenly a flash of bubbles told me that he probably ate one of the many kinds of fish that live in there with him. The trail leads on and suddenly down to get a beautiful view of the tank under water. I spent a little longer in here then I expected to. The Minnesota trail mostly shows the animals that are nocturnal. When I first walked in, it's almost hard to see the animals because it's so dark, but once my eyes adjusted by the time I came to the bats. I love bats. They were poking eachother or something. Half of the trail is sort of outside. There was a roof, but I wasn't protected from the weather. *Burr* We didn't go outside to the Northern(?) trail because of the cold, but during the summers it's a great place to get a long walk in. There are fields for the moose, camals, Zebras, Horses, and you can watch the prairie dogs run around their little hills. They are so cute. During the summer there is a petting zoo, a farm exhibit, and a butterfly house definately worth seeing. We ended our trip to the zoo with a stop at Discovery Bay. Discovery bay is a new addition to the zoo. It's mainly aimed at teaching kids about marine life. There's a tank full of rays and live coral that you can touch. The east wall is actually an aquarium for the dolphins, and you can go upstairs to see a dolphin show that goes 4 times a day. We played with some games and got ready to go home. Maybe it's just me that feels this way, but the zoo is not just family fun. I'll go out there with just my friends on a nice day.

Como zoo is located near Midway. Midway is an area of St. Paul that is half way between downtown St. Paul and downtown Minneapolis. This is a more quiet area with winding roads that wrap around public ponds and parks. (Midway is also home to the Minnesota State Fair.) A group of friends and I decided to go on a warm spring Saturday afternoon. Because we've seen the traffic over there on days like these we planned ahead and left early leaving us plenty of time to find a good parking spot. There are only a few small sized parking lots, and they're almost always full so we drove around untill we found a good parking spot about a quarter of a mile away from the zoo entrance. We were right next to a play ground with picknick tables so it turned out to be a convenient spot and worth the walk. Zoo reminds me of an old fashioned zoo with bare cement cages with steel bars. There are a few animal cages like that. I can't believe the animals are happy to live like that. The zoo is mainly out doors with several buildings for different types of animals; The fish house, the guerilla house, etc. in the middle of these buildings there is a medium sized pool for the seals, and it has a big rock island in the middle for climbing. This used to be my favorite as a kid because you can feed the seals dixie cups of raw fish for a dollar. The polar bear exhibit is another favorite of mine because everytime I go there he is always doing the same thing. He jumps into the pool, swims in an arc, pushes off the great big window (you can watch from indoors or outdoors.), jumps out, runs to the far side of the cage and repeats. I've watched this bear do the same thing for years. I liked the fact that we were mostly out doors, watching the animals. I don't like how the habitat they're in isn't very roomy or have much variety in it. The zebra pens are just that. There's only a small field and a feeding trough in the midle. But because the zoo is free and works mostly on donations, I'm sure it's the best they can do. Although it's not as nice as the Minnesota Zoo, You can spend an entire day here and it's located in a really convenient spot with other things to do in the park. Usually, no matter what time of the year it is, there is some kind of carnivle or event taking place in the park next door.

I think of the Roy Wilkins as the little brother of the City/River centre. It's nestled in between the St. Paul Ordway and the River Center (a much larger concert/hockey venue). This is a place where you have to park at a nearby ramp and try to find it by walking, since it really is "nestled" in between these buildings.

There's nothing very special about this place, except that it's so small that it is impossible to have a bad seat in the place. No matter where you are, you aren't far from the stage, which is something I like. The seats are old, most of them are somewhat broken, and I always (no matter how often I go)get a seat where someone spilled beer or soda all over it, but most concerts you don't do any sitting down, anyway. I think of it as an ugly building (on the inside), completely different to the venues I've been to in Minneapolis, Detroit, Cleveland, Moline, etc., but if you're there for the music you probably won't care what the room you're in looks like.

The floor/general admission area is separated from the upstairs seated area without stairs, and there are lots of staff to make sure you are where you're supposed to be, so there is no sneaking down to general admission.

Over all, I like this place. The bands I've seen play here are, generally, the ones that are just starting to make it popular or prefer a much smaller crowd. I've seen Cranberries, Limp Bizkit, Stone Temple Pilots, Cold, and Soul Coughing here, and really enjoyed the shows, so I would recomend checking this place out if you get the chance.

I was born in the desert and lived there for 10 years, and I still love the weather. I also hear a lot of people complain about the weather, and they're usually the ones that sit in their houses and refuse to go out because it's a little hot or there's snow on the ground. Wimps!

Minnesota must be mostly known for it's winters. The snow can get 3 feet high and the temperatures can drop to about -20 (ferenheit), but that's really only a few times during the season. If you wear the appropiate clothing you can have a really good time in our winter wonderlands. When the 10,000 lakes freeze over there is down hill skiing, snow shoeing, ice skating, cross country skiing, sledding, tubing, snow mobiling, ice fishing and all sorts of other things to make you have fun in the snow. If snow isn't your thing there are indoor activities as well, so there is no excuse for letting the winter get you down.

By June the summer season is in full swing, and I don't think I have to even start listing the outdoor activities that are available to everyone, except it would really be a shame if you didn't go out and get involved in all the beauty that this land of lakes has to offer. Dark green forests hug the shores of lakes speckled with fishing boats. Limestone cliffs have been carved by the Mississippi river making a beautiful drive down peaceful highways, just outside the Twin Cities. Such beauty doesn't come without a price, though. Mosquitos (the state pest) are inescapable so make sure to not be without repellant, and humidity can make you feel sticky and wet as soon as you walk out the door. But you can easily get away from the heat since almost every building is air conditioned.

Spring and Fall are my favorite parts of the year because there's hardly any humidity and the temperatures aren't too high or low. If you're visiting Minnesota this is the time to do it, in my opinion.

Happy trails!