I know it’s been awhile since I wrote last. Summer came to an end and it was time for fantasy football season. I become a little obsessed during football season. It’s not without reward however. Over the past four years, I’ve played in two money leagues each year and finished in first place twice, second place four times and third place once. That means I’ve finished in the top 3 seven times in eight opportunities. I'm not bragging, just justifying my obsession...
Anyways, I started this blog with the intention of keeping up with it; at least on a weekly basis. So please forgive my absence. I did do some traveling during football season. I made two trips up to Minnesota to visit family; one in September and one over the Christmas holiday. For the purposes of this blog, I’ll focus on the Christmas trip since I pretty much stayed in the same place, did the same things and saw the same people on both trips.
I grew up in Minnesota. I had a good childhood with good schools and year round sports. Minnesota is a scenic state with good people. I’ve travelled through over 30 of our 50 states and I can honestly say that Minneapolis is one of the cleaner cities I’ve visited.
Minnesota's motto is the "land of 10,000 lakes" and believe me there are a bunch of them. Some of the inner city lakes are extremely nice; Lake Nokomis, Lake Harriet and the largest of the three, Lake Calhoun. What's really nice is each of these three lakes has a sidewalk that goes all around the entire lake and it’s nice to take an evening or weekend stroll around any one of them and watch all the people.
These days, when I travel to Minneapolis, I try to stay near the Mall of America. It's just convenient and it's a nice area. The past few times, I’ve stayed at Country Inn and Suites, located directly across the street from the mall. This is great if you only came to see the mall and didn’t rent a car. You can literally walk across the street to get to the mall and adjacent to the hotel is a TGI Friday’s. There are more and less expensive options, but they really don’t get any more convenient than this.
I’ll let you in on a secret when it comes to renting a car in Minneapolis. There are rental agencies located right at the airport (MSP), but unlike places such as Orlando or Los Angeles, your car selection is limited. After years of frustration and one time getting stuck in a Subaru Outback of all things, I searched and found a local car dealer that rents to visitors in addition to their service customers.
If you’re planning to visit Minneapolis, search for Walser Car Rental on the Internet and you’ll find a website that allows you to rent the exact car you want. You no longer have to put up with the term “or similar” when renting a car. You will pick the exact car you want to drive. Walser has BMW, Mercedes, Buick, Cadillac and a number of more affordable options as well. They are off the airport property, but they'll pick you up and drop you off. I’ve used them twice now to rent a BMW 535xi and it’s really the way to go.
When I'm in Minnesota, I always take a trip over to the Mall of America and this trip was no different. It was two days before Christmas so the mall was especially crowded, but I got there right when they opened and it was great until the afternoon. Other times of the year, it’s not bad at all, but at Christmas it can be amazingly busy, just like any mall near your home might be.
If you’ve never been to the Mall of America and you enjoy shopping, you’re missing out on one of those things you should do before you die. Breezing through, it’s a full day experience. For a heavy shopper, it could take two full days. I’m not a heavy shopper, but there’s enough variety to keep my interest and there are things you just don’t find elsewhere.
Being from Minnesota, I always stop into the Vikings Locker Room store and see what’s new. In other parts of the mall, you’re likely to see Green Bay Packers items and foam cheese heads. As a former season ticket holder, I always viewed the rivalry with the Packers a friendly one.
If you have your kids with you, they’re going to want to go through Nickelodeon Universe, which is the indoor theme park complete with a roller coaster, a log flume and other rides and games. As a good example of the kind of things you’ll find at the mall and likely nowhere else, I came across a Peep’s store while I was there.
Up on the fourth level, there’s a large movie theater complex. Down on first level in what they call the rotunda, there’s almost always something going on. There have been exhibitions, fashion shows, kids events, sports figures and celebrity appearances to name a few of the things you might find happening.
Probably my favorite aspect of the mall is the number of bars and restaurants located throughout. In addition to numerous food courts, there’s Twin Cities Diner, Rain Forest Café, Bubba Gump Shrimp Company, Ruby Tuesday, Buffalo Wild Wings, Hooters, Famous Dave’s BBQ, Tony Roma’s and many, many others. One of my personal favorites; Tucci Bennuch. Tucci Bennuch is an Italian restaurant located on first floor and my favorite dish there is the baked spaghetti.
No matter how you spend your time, there’s a lot to see and do.
I didn’t make it into downtown Minneapolis or St Paul on this trip, nor did I get a chance to visit any of the more scenic places such as lakes, Minnehaha Falls, Taylor’s Falls, the Redwing area or the north shore of Lake Superior. I’ve traveled throughout Minnesota and believe me, there are some nice areas where you can get away from people and enjoy the quiet of the outdoors. Hopefully I’ll make it back there in the future and be able to share some of those things with you. It's on my bucket list.
One more place that I’d like to tell you about is Joe Senser’s Sports Bar in Bloomington. It’s a few miles down the freeway from the Mall of America and funny enough, it’s actually right next door to the Walser car dealer where I pick up my rental car. If you are someone who enjoys a good sports bar, I’d recommend a stop at Senser’s. I don’t come across too many sports bars that I think are done well, but this is one of them. The interior is laid out nicely with two large bars, tables and very large projection screens which line the walls around the entire interior. The food is good and the portions are large.
I always enjoy visiting Minnesota, especially in the summer time. The weather during this trip wasn’t bad at all for being the last part of December. Daytime temps were abnormally high, between the upper 30’s to mid 40’s and there was no snow on the ground. If you’re reading this and thinking you might want to visit at Christmas time, plan on snow, daytime highs in the teens and night time lows around zero. It's cold. Then again, you’re going to go from your heated hotel, to your heated car, then into the heated mall, so maybe it’s not such a big deal...
That being said.... for me, there's nothing like the beach...
