Jen

Ahhhhh, doesn't this just look lovely? Like a beautiful autumn day. . .




Yeah right! It was freezing here. Here being up in Minneapolis and St Paul this past weekend. Matt and I braved a snowstorm and over 9 hours of drive time to get all the way up there. As you can see, the snow didn't even touch Minneapolis, even more specifically, the sculpture garden of the Walker Art Center. It only managed to follow the near exact route we took. Go figure.

It has been nearly 20 years since I had been in Minneapolis/St. Paul. I can't remember the exact things I did while on the trip. I do remember walking in the skyway - basically all those above ground bridges that carry people from building to building, probably to keep them out of the cold - and also visiting the Minnesota Science Museum. The only proof I have of that visit is a couple random pictures of nothing in particular and a t-shirt (that I still have and that still fits) with a screen print of a triceratops, which happened to be my favorite dinosaur.

As an adult, Matt and I had to cram the best of two cities into a day in a half, which is barely enough time to spend anywhere remotely interesting. The first half of our day, we spent in Minneapolis - checking out Nicolette Mall - only because it was near our chosen breakfast spot - and then headed to the Walker Art Center. I've basically heard through the art world that this is one of the best museums in the Midwest and well, that is actually not in Chicago. The spoon above is called "Spoonbridge and Cherry" by Oldenberg and van Bruggen, in the free adjoining sculpture garden, that also has a small conservatory as well. The below image is from this giant walk-in, cave-like installation which consists of cardboard, plywood, foil and duct tape.


Next we headed to St. Paul, and spent a small amount of time at Rice Park, where you can find all of the Peanuts characters cast in bronze. Rice Park is really beutiful, and I can only image how nice it is in the summer.


Of course, we had to stop by the Minnesota Science Museum, just so I could revisit a familiar, uh, face. Or skeleton. Whatever. Here is me and my friend the triceratops.


Here is Matt and fun with video.


It was a fun trip, but man, it was too short!