An Urban Hike in Minneapolis Minnesota…

We noticed the Bigboy Travel site also had a good self guided walking tour for Minneapolis Minnesota, the other city of the Twin Cities so we decided to check it out as well. St Paul, Minnesota is a large city but Minneapolis is about 50% larger and the buildings seem to be at least 50% taller. The downtown area had a feel to us similar to Chicago Illinois.

We parked the CRV and started our walk along the street feeling very small with the size of the skyscrapers in this city. Most impressive to us was one that was erected in 1992. The 776 foot tall Capella Tower which is one sleek looking building with its rounded top piece. It really stands out in the Minneapolis skyline. Also on this bright sunny day the many glass buildings reflected the buildings all around them adding to the beauty of the city.

Unique to Minneapolis is its extensive Skyway System which links more than 80 blocks with 8 miles of climate controlled pedestrian overpasses.  Like a “people subway” this system helps workers and shoppers in the downtown area with a way to get around in Minnesota’s very harsh winters.  This Skyway was once the largest in World! Now it is simply the largest in the United States! Impressive…

Another must stop for Sharon was to find the 8 foot tall bronze statue of the character Mary Richards from the Mary Tyler Moore show. As you may recall from that old TV sitcom show Mary Richards, a single woman, had moved to Minneapolis after being jilted by her boyfriend. She was hired as an associate producer of the station's "Six O'Clock News" by her lovable boss Lou Grant (Ed Asner),

The statue was in the Visitor’s Center and while we were there one of the staff told us that the Minnesota Vikings Football Team was having an open house in their new stadium! We abandoned the rest of our walking tour and hiked the mile or so over to the U.S. Bank Stadium, the new home for the Vikings. At a total project cost of $1.027 billion it certainly seems as if we Americans may have a whacked sense of priorities but the end result is a really cool stadium.

We stayed for a while and wandered around the stadium. We sat in a few of the seats and took in this billion dollar spectacle. However it didn’t take me too long to tire of the crowds in the stadium so we left to head back home thinking we might finish the walking tour another day…

NOTE: Yes!!!! We both got back great results from our tests at the Mayo so we are back on the road and will be casino hopping to North Dakota next…