North Dakota - Day 1 (Minneapolis, MN)

Our vacation this summer was quite different than all of our past summer vacations...

First off, this would be our first big "family" vacation...without the family. We may have trips in our future that include the kids, but we decided early on, that once all of the kids had graduated from high school, the family vacations would come to an end. Let me say, this wasn't easy for me. 

Second, we didn't know WHERE we were heading for vacation until the month before we left! This is NOT the norm for us. We usually know the WHERE & WHEN by the first of the year and I typically have hotels and full itinerary planned by 2 months before we leave. 

The only thing that was set in stone for this vacation - we were going to be in Minneapolis on July 9th for a Cubs/Twins game. 

Our initial agenda took us from Minneapolis to Duluth then into the Upper Peninsula of Michigan for the remainder of our vacation. As we planned, we changed our plans, replacing the UP with northern Minnesota, North Dakota and ending in South Dakota. More planning meant more changes and South Dakota got scrapped from our itinerary.  The more I researched, the more things I found for us to do in North Dakota! This was our final decision and we started our day to day planning. 

Here we are, hitting the road for Minneapolis, the morning of the 9th. 

An empty back seat 😥

A huge round-a-bout in the middle of nowhere! 

We drove straight to Minneapolis/St Paul - we had a few stops planned in the Capital City before heading to the ball game that evening. 

What a beautiful day! 

Once in the city, we stopped at the Capital Building to walk around and get some pictures. We decided to make a quick trip inside to see the rotunda - it was beautiful! Well worth the extra time!

Our next stop was Rice Park & Landmark Plaza to see the Peanuts Sculptures. 

Minnehaha Falls, located in Minnehaha Regional Park, was our next stop. Minnehaha was a fictional Dakota Native American who was the lover of the Ojibwe warrior, Hiawatha. Both of these fictional characters were made famous by the writer, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, in his poem, "The Song of Hiawatha". While researching and looking for stops to make during our time in Minneapolis, the Falls came up as "the most photographed site in Minnesota". Sadly, I didn't read anything further about the park or the story of Minnehaha/Hiawatha. If I had (before our trip), I would've added a 2 minute detour to see the Hiawatha / Minnehaha statue that was just a few hundred feet upriver (see the picture below, borrowed from Google).

One of the social media pages I follow lists Oddities that people find across America. Matt & I love stuff like this! It gives us quick stops to break up the drive and we come across some quirky things too! You will be seeing a lot of these oddities this trip! 

The World's Largest Raspberry, located in Hopkins. 

Our last stop for the day (before finding the hotel and heading to the game) was Minneapolis Sculpture Garden. We were there to see Spoonbridge & Cherry. This fountain sculpture was designed by Claes Oldenburg and his wife, Coosje van Bruggen. 

Once in the park, we walked over the Irene Hixon Whitney Bridge (part of the Loring Greenway, going over I-94) and back again to walk through the park. 

From the bridge, we walked to a few of the closer sculptures. We knew we were running tight on time and it was pretty hot, so we opted for the few sculptures close by and then headed to our hotel.

We were fortunate to locate a downtown hotel for a great price! We were able to park in the hotel lot for the night and walk to Target Field for the game. It worked out great! Here's the view from our hotel room.

We got ready for the game and headed out, on foot, a few blocks to the stadium. We got there just before the gates opened. Worked out wonderfully! We walked around the park (thanks to the fact that our seats were all the way across the park!). 

Our seats for the night. Great seats - really close to the action (as you can see in the TV pictures below). However, we discussed the game and our seats on our drive the next day and we both agreed that we like the seats that are in the upper decks - feels like you have a better perspective of the whole field/game and see the ball better. 

This pop fly played out right in front of us. Sadly, it was caught by Castro (who now, ironically, is a Cub!).

We didn't get to fly our W Flag at this game. We lost the game 4-2. This is the recap of the game. We loved our time visiting Target Field - another ballpark marked off, on our quest for 30! We will have to go back again and hopefully fly the W flag!

Our first travel day is done! Tomorrow we head north into Duluth and International Falls. We are looking forward to less traffic and more open road!

Favorites From Day 1:

Matt: Accomplishing everything on our Minneapolis "to see" list. Didn't think we'd have that much time in our day! Overall favorite stop - Sculpture Garden

Becki: Sculpture Garden, Walking to/from Target Field (hotel was so close!)