Minneapolis Trip Report
I had a great time in Minneapolis this weekend, and wanted to share a trip report for those of you that love to travel. Or for those of you who just enjoy hearing about other people’s travels. 🙂
Thursday, October 19
We landed at Minneapolis terminal 2, which is probably one of the nicest, cleanest airports I’ve ever been to. And I’ve been to a few, to include other countries. It actually ranks number 7 in Travel and Leisure’s 2017 top 10 best domestic airports.
We picked up a rental car and headed over to the Mall of America, which is super close to the airport, to meet up with family and get something to eat. No, I don’t have family there, it just so happened that our cousin was in town for work. She lives in Texas, so my uncle and his wife helped her drive to save a little money. This was a welcome and completely random surprise.
We ate at Bubba Gump’s Shrimp Company, which wasn’t a new experience for us, but it was convenient and the food is good for a chain restaurant. We walked around the mall for a bit, a sort of preview before a full day of shopping scheduled for Saturday, and decided to experience Fly Over America. If you’ve experienced Soarin’ at Disney, it’s a similar but better experience in my opinion. You move more and fly over more locations, but the screen is slightly less crisp than Soarin’.
On the topic of food
Because I experienced a death in my family a week prior to my trip, I was unable to complete my usual pre-trip research. So, I was very disappointed to find out that Minneapolis is not a foodie town. If you’re into college student cuisine like burgers, fries, and pizza, then the twin cities has you covered. However, we did get lucky in that our hotel was a stone’s throw away from an authentic Chinese restaurant called The Tea House, and it was delicious.
Friday, October 20
We took a VIP tour of Paisley Park, which was cool. You can read more about my experience here.
We also took a Segway tour which was really fun. You can read more about that experience here.
The Palace Theatre
We ended a very long and busy day by attending a Trombone Shorty and Orleans Avenue show. Now I know some of you are asking ‘why the heck are you so obsessed with TSOA?’ And I should probably answer by sayin’ mind ya business, but I’ll take a minute to explain. 🙂
A.) I love music. I love live music even more. And TSOA gives one of the best live shows I’ve ever seen, hands down.
B.) They have a proven track record with me, so I know I’ll get my money’s worth.
C.) I’ve never seen them perform the same set twice, and here’s why. They’re real musicians, with real talent, who play real instruments. Which means they can be spontaneous and not miss a beat. One of the reasons they play so well together is they rehearse in the dark. True story.
So back to you nosy people, here’s the method to my madness. When TSOA go on tour, I check the locations. If I see a city I’ve never been to that I may want to visit, I research the venue. If I like the venue (I prefer smaller ones), and tickets are available, I’ll start researching and planning a vacation around that location. So y’all can relax, I’m not stalking Trombone Shorty. Those of you who know me know I do take other vacations that don’t revolve around TSOA shows.
The Opening Act
I have a story for you (don’t I always?). Let me set the scene. The Palace Theatre, located in St. Paul, is an old movie theatre that’s been transformed into a music venue by First Avenue. Yes, the same First Avenue that Prince made famous in the movie Purple Rain. The chairs have been removed from main floor to accommodate general admission crowds, but most of the original movie theatre seats remain on the balcony level. Honestly, its a little rough around the edges, but to be fair, the building has been around since 1916. Had it not been purchased by First Avenue, it probably would’ve been condemned. And it’s clear they’re still in the process of rehabbing it.
Like I mentioned before, I wasn’t able to do my pre-trip research, so I wasn’t familiar with the opening act, Vintage Trouble. This high energy, four-man band out of LA is fronted by a brother with a classic style and some old-school swagger. I hate to confine artists to a particular genre (cause good music is good music), so I’ll just say their sound is infused with healthy doses of blues, rock, and gospel. It turns out, it didn’t matter that I hadn’t done my homework, because I had the opportunity to become acquainted with the aforementioned brother in a sort of personal and rather awkward way.
Apparently, the lead singer, Ty Taylor, likes to get out into the crowd. So there I am in the balcony, minding my business, in the front row of the center section, in an aisle seat. Ty’s singing Run Like the River, which is a fast paced catchy tune, and suddenly he climbs over a speaker and jumps down into the crowd. And a poor security guy quickly follows suit, looking surprised and quite frankly, a little panicked. Clearly he hadn’t done his research either. 😊
Ty disappears beneath the balcony, where I can no longer see him, and, minutes later, he pops up in the corner of the balcony level. Then suddenly he’s standing right next to me. And although I’m enjoying the music, clapping my hands and tapping my feet, I’m sitting down. Because I’d literally been on my feet all day, in a pair of Converse. In case you’re unaware, Converse are not all-day-walking-and-on-your-feet kind of shoes. And, we’d just finished our only meal of the day about ten minutes before walking into the show. My point being, I was sitting down so I could try to conserve what little energy I had left for TSOA.
Back to Ty, who’s standing to my left, singing his behind off. The security dude is behind him, sweating, and looking stressed. And there I am, sitting down, looking off in the opposite direction because I’m blinded by the spotlight, and feeling uncomfortable because I’m not in show business. I’m expecting him to sing a few verses and move on, but nooo. He’s waiting for me to get up, which was I completely oblivious to because I’m feeling embarrassed as hell and trying to find my happy place as I wait for him to leave.
He starts motioning for me to get up, and in my tired mind, I’m thinking ‘like hell I’m getting up, I paid good money for this seat!’ I’ll give you a few minutes to finish laughing, especially those of you who know me, because I know you can probably imagine the look I had on my face. 🙂 If you’re reading this Ty, I hope you didn’t take it personal, we’d had a busy day and I was one tired chick.
I did finally got out of his way, and he stood in the middle of our row and sang for a minute. Then he made his way back down to the lower level, and crowd surfed back to the stage.
I trolled the internet to see if anyone captured this super embarrassing moment and posted it on the internet for all of eternity, and I’m happy to say I couldn’t find it. However I did find a clip of him crowd surfing, shot from the floor, and you can see me up in the balcony (still standing and clapping).
For you visual people, here’s a Youtube clip that’ll give you an example of Ty Taylor’s typical crowd antics.
Saturday, October 21
I mostly avoid touristy stuff when I’m on vacation, but I purposefully had Mall of America (MOA) on my radar. I’d stopped there nearly twenty years ago on my way to Minot Air Force Base, North Dakota and always wanted to go back when I had more time to explore.
Let me preface what I’m about to say with I hate shopping. I have to be in the mood, and the mood doesn’t strike often. My sister, however, LOVES TO SHOP. We spent nine hours in this place, exploring all four floors, and I actually enjoyed it. So much so I had to buy another suit case just to bring everything home. There were enough unique stores that made it worth our while, but even the chain stores carried merchandise that was different than we could get in Nashville.
Unlike shopping in Nashville at say Opry Mills, for example, the large crowds of people felt very manageable. I never once felt like I wanted to throttle someone’s rude, unsupervised teen, or scream MOOOOOVE at a herd of people moving slower than dial-up internet access and blocking the entire walkway.
Here are a few fun facts about the MOA:
- It has its own zip code (55425)
- It has more than 500 stores, and I feel like we went into almost every one of them.
- It also has an aquarium, a movie theatre, a wedding chapel, a comedy club, an amusement park with 27 rides, and an 18 hole putt putt golf course.
- The only things that provide heat to the common areas (except for the entrances) are the skylights, light fixtures, and body heat from the shoppers. Those things combined are so effective that they have to turn on the AC in the winter (in sub below temps) to keep the mall at a comfortable shopping temperature.
- The average shopping spree for a tourist per trip is $162. I can confirm that me and my sister spent much, much more than that.
- Tax. Free. Shopping. (*shoes and clothes only)
Overall I give Minneapolis two thumbs up. If you plan to visit, I recommend going when it’s warm so you can really enjoy and appreciate all the green space they have to offer. If you’re the outdoorsy type you’ll love it. They have bike lanes and paths for waking and jogging, and the river runs right through the city. We were fortunate that they were experiencing unseasonably warm weather, and with the leaves turning the city was absolutely beautiful.
Until the next trip,
Angela