BLOOMINGTON, MINN. — A Minnesota adventure can begin minutes from Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport — and keep travelers occupied as they the acclimate to the chilly northern winter.
Just from Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport, the is a good place to start, and you won’t even need a coat. The size of 78 football fields and seven Yankee Stadiums, the mall is built on the site of the former Metropolitan Stadium, where the Vikings and Twins played until 1981.
The old home plate is designated by a marker, and a red chair hangs on wall 522 feet across the full-sized Nickelodeon Universe amusement park to designate the Hall-of-Fame slugger Harmon Killebrew hit off the California Angels in 1967.
The mall’s Radisson Blu hotel is an indoctrinating way station worth checking out. The rug in its main lobby maps out the topography of Minnesota lakes. The carpet pattern in the ballrooms is fashioned after the Minnesota Twins jersey, and the hotels second-floor skybridge is modeled after the skyways in downtown Minneapolis. Even the hotel’s cocktail bar is made from recycled barn wood from rural Minnesota.
Love: St. Paul
Compared to the no-nonsense office-tower vibe of Minneapolis, St. Paul seems like a prettier, sweeter sister, a place USA Today named , cozy under a blanket of white.
St. Paul has stately architecture, a smorgasbord of skating ponds, a thriving music and arts scene and , a historic tugboat that doubles as a bed and breakfast on the Mississippi River.
Summit Avenue is a 4 1/2-mile Victorian residential promenade of mansions, brimming with American history, including the neighborhood where F. Scott Fitzgerald grew up and likely found inspiration for “The Great Gatsby.” The hilltop sentinel where the elegance begins is a Baroque -styled palace to God, , America’s national shrine to the apostle.
In addition to services, the cathedral is open to tours.
The , from Jan. 28 to Feb. 7, is the Mardi Gras of the northern Mississippi River, with parades, a royal court, ice and snow sculptures.
Minneapolis music
If music puts a song in your heart, you can fall in love with Minneapolis.
This is the city that gave the world Prince’s “Purple Rain” and Tiny Tim’s tulips and Soul Asylum’s “Runaway Train,” .
Check out the e in the downtown Warehouse District. Besides the music hall featured in Prince’s “1984” movie, First Avenue is a rock mecca. The outside of the building has a constellation of stars who’ve played there early in their careers over the hall’s 45-year history — Joe Cocker, U2, Eminem, Tina Turner, The Ramones, Depeche Mode, Bo Diddly and B.B. King, just to name a few.
There are great shows there almost every night, and just four blocks north is , which attracts its own battalion of starts and up-and-coming bands.
And about 15 minutes away, by taxi, in a neighborhood called Dinkytown, offers an eclectic variety of music, from Baroque to rockabilly, as well as vaudeville, dance troupes, live theater and film screenings.
Joey Bunch: 303-954-1174, jbunch@denverpost.com or @joeybunch
