Speed touring should be an Olympic sport, we are getting very good at it.  It’s what you do when you don’t have a lot of time and want to get a feel for a city.  My son lives in Minneapolis, been here a little over a year and this is our first visit.  When asked what he wanted to show us about “his” city, he kind of shrugged.  So our first action was to google “Top 10 things to do” and then the goal was to do what we could in an afternoon.

First stop was Matt’s Bar, just after noon to taste a “Jucy Lucy”  misspelled by accident back in the day, the Lucy is a hamburger with the cheese on the inside.  There is a dispute as to where it originated, but Matt’s is the front runner for the title.  We learned there is a technique to eating a Jucy Lucy, it’s kind of a bite/slurp move, if you don’t do that, you will end up with cheese all over your shirt.  Of course, it took us a few bites to figure out the method, so we were all cheesed before we got it right.

Next stop was the Mill City Museum, and here was where it was time to slow down.  This is a must see for anyone stopping in to Minneapolis.  The museum celebrates the history of the city as the world’s largest flour milling community.  Back when the city was being formed, the water from the Mississippi was used to run the mills; the predecessors to General Mills were the first to build the mills, explosions, labor issues, the Depression, the recovery, all played a part in the history of flour milling.  The building was abandoned in 1965; destroyed by fire in 1991 and reclaimed in the early 2000’s for the purpose of the museum.  It was awesome!  Truly one of the best museums we have been to, I would recommend it to anyone.  The architecture, the displays, even the movie, all well worth it.

From here we went on over to Minnehaha Park and walked the greenbelt.  The park is huge, there are stairs down to the water; the falls and the autumn leaves were beautiful in the rain today.  Next stop, back to Uptown to the Sculpture Garden.

The Sculpture Garden is all installation art, combining the big open spaces and greenness of the city with the cultural scene.  A beautiful area to just walk and explore.

By five o’clock, we were pooped, we had checked off several of the “to-do’s” on the Top 10 lists; criss-crossed the city and thoroughly enjoyed our day of speed touring one of the coolest cities in America, AND got to spend the day with my son.  I can’t wait to come back.