{"id":9247,"date":"2019-08-11T20:10:22","date_gmt":"2019-08-12T01:10:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.anniee.net\/?page_id=9247"},"modified":"2025-06-21T08:00:33","modified_gmt":"2025-06-21T13:00:33","slug":"travelogue-minneapolis","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.anniee.net\/?page_id=9247","title":{"rendered":"Travelogue: Minneapolis"},"content":{"rendered":"

July 2019<\/em><\/strong>
\nWhere We Stayed:\u00a0 The Hewing<\/em><\/p>\n

I came to the realization that I had never visited Minneapolis as an adult.\u00a0 I went to Minneapolis when I was ten years old to see the Mall of America.\u00a0 And then I drove through while on a roadtrip back in ’09.\u00a0 So I never really experienced the city!\u00a0 I wanted that to change because a) it’s only 4.5 hours away, b) it’s a major Midwestern city, and c) everyone and their uncle seems to love it.<\/p>\n

Well, I loved it. HOWEVER, we had some weather issues on this long-weekend trip.\u00a0 It was 100+ degrees on Friday, when we departed.\u00a0 What on earth can you do in 100+ degree weather except stay indoors with strong air-conditioning?\u00a0 So yes. We did it. We went to the Mall of America<\/a>! It was enormous (duh) and overwhelming and the parking structure was just as I remembered it from my childhood.\u00a0 Isn’t it weird what sticks in our memory?\u00a0 I remember the damn parking structure and how level one was the Lobster Level.<\/p>\n

I had a cone at Dairy Queen, went to Barnes and Noble, and visited the Crayola Experience’s gift shop (so cute and colorful!).\u00a0 That was pretty much the extent of my time at the MOA.<\/p>\n

We drove to our hotel, the Hewing<\/a>.\u00a0 It’s a gorgeous hotel that reminded me a lot of the Kimpton Journeyman or Iron Horse hotels in Milwaukee.\u00a0 The Hewing was once a warehouse that also served as a farm implement showroom.\u00a0 How Midwest, right?\u00a0 But it’s a gorgeous space and I’m glad it was able to be refurbished into something new!\u00a0 One thing to note — the hotel is across the street from a strip club and there are multiple sex shops (Sex World!) in the neighborhood.\u00a0 Don’t let that dissuade you from staying at the Hewing!\u00a0 It really is a great area with lots of restaurants and shopping.<\/p>\n

We had dinner at a pizza place that was a few blocks away.\u00a0 I don’t even remember the name of it because it was so bad.\u00a0 But we didn’t know — and we didn’t want to walk far in the ONE HUNDRED DEGREE HEAT.\u00a0 Ya know.<\/p>\n

The next day I got up early and walked to a donut shop to meet up with my friend Beth.\u00a0 I went to graduate school with Beth and she’s now a kickass OB\/GYN in St. Paul.\u00a0 We don’t get to see each other enough (thanks, distance!) and jumped at the chance to catch up over coffee and donuts at Angel Food Bakery<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The weather was a real pill though.\u00a0 The heat was gone but the RAIN arrived! Torrential rain, thunderstorms, skies that were DARK at 8am. Sigh. It just wasn’t my weekend for good weather. The rain put a damper on some of the things I had planned (mini golf at the Walker Sculpture Garden, for example).<\/p>\n

Mom and I waited around our hotel until mid-afternoon, when the rain finally let up.\u00a0 Then we headed out to explore.\u00a0 We visited some murals (duh).\u00a0 We did a little shopping.\u00a0 We went out for lunch at Red Cow<\/a> for burgers.\u00a0 We tried to go for drinks on the rooftop bar of the Hewing, but it was\u00a0crowded<\/em> to the max and we felt underdressed and overaged (for real, I think the average age of everyone in the bar was 24!).<\/p>\n

The next morning we had a very early breakfast at the hotel, stopped at the beautiful Walker Sculpture Garden<\/a>, and then made the 4.5 hour drive home.\u00a0 I think the driving time is the worst thing about going to Minneapolis.\u00a0 But it’s a gorgeous city, full of shopping, restaurants, culture, diversity, and Midwest Nice. Add it to your to-visit list. The Midwest is so much more<\/em> than “fly over country” — and trying to open people’s eyes to that fact is a hill that I will die on!<\/p>\n

Other stray observations:<\/p>\n