Day 126 & 127 - Minneapolis, MN

We stayed in the Embassy Suites in Downtown Minneapolis which turned out to be a really nice 'budget' hotel. This has now turned into one of our preferred budget brands as the rooms are large, spacious and with a kitchenette, the 'free' breakfasts include an omelette station where a chef cooks them made to order and in the evening, there is a 2 hour period where drinks and snacks are free. The only downside is that you usually have to pay for parking.

We kicked off our Sunday morning with breakfast in the hotel before strolling around downtown in search of the nearest tram stop. I didn't feel as comfortable in downtown Minneapolis as I have in other big cities. There seemed to be groups of people loitering around street corners and whilst I didn't see them doing anything criminal or even approach tourists, it just made me feel uncomfortable. The loiterers were not homeless, many of them seemed to be bored teenagers and young adults. We decided to avoid walking around at night just in case and even during the day we stuck to the main roads where the majority of the tourists were located. Had we been in Minneapolis a little longer, we might have tried to use the sky walks to get around town to avoid hitting the streets. These indoor walkways connected to buildings allow you to walk around the majority of the city without having to step outside - a must when the harsh winter weather hits.

We picked up the tram and headed to one of the star attractions of Minneapolis (according to TripAdvisor), the Mall of America. It claims to be the largest mall in America and contains the the largest indoor amusement park in the United States. There are also 2 mini golf courses, an aquarium, a cinema, and over 500 stores. It was huge! We spent a good half day walking around trying to get over the scale.

The mall stands on the site which was once the Metropolitan Stadium, the Twin's previous home ground before moving to Target Stadium. We found this out when we spotted a random red seat on the wall in the amusement park. It turns out that the seat commemorates the longest home run ever in the stadium and the seat is located in the exact location where the ball landed.

We caught the tram back to our hotel where after a quick change, we met up with Eric and Cheryl. We'd only met Eric the day before at the baseball game yet he and his wife Cheryl were kind enough to drive us around Saint Paul providing us with a guided tour. The tour was awesome. We learnt a lot from them about this city and both agreed at the end of the day that we preferred it to Minneapolis. The tour took us to Nicollet Island, a small island in the river Mississippi River where we felt like we were miles away from a big city rather than in it. We then went around the university seeing the large fraternity and sorority mansions with the Greek letters on the side. We saw huge mansion houses, beautiful churches and the cathedral and Capitol building before parking downtown Saint Paul for a view of the river as the sun was setting. We had a fantastic meal together in the Great Waters Brewing Company before heading back to the hotel.

It was truly a unique experience and very kind of Eric and Cheryl to organise the trip for us.

The next day, inspired by some of the sites we had seen the day before with Eric and Cheryl, we headed back over the river to Saint Paul and spent a little more time exploring during the day before hitting the road for our next destination.