Mary Tyler Moore. Flour mills. Mall of America. While not necessarily in that order, these are three of the noteworthy things we found in Minneapolis. Mary Tyler Moore’s statue is on a downtown corner, and while it doesn’t look very much like her, everyone who watched her show recognizes her hat being thrown into the air. The plaque denoting her table is in our hotel, now The Marquette Hilton. It is part of a shopping center, and Mary Tyler Moore is shown sitting at this table in the opening scenes of her TV show.
At one time, Minneapolis was known as the Flour Mill Capital of the World. We were surprised, walking down to the Mississippi River for the 4th of July fireworks, to see the two Gold Medal and Pillsbury flour signs on buildings. The fireworks were really neat, lasting abut 30 minutes. You can see the food trucks in the photo before the fireworks…notice that one is a “cheese curds” truck. We found lots of cheese curds in Seattle and Canada, and now here in the Midwest, known for its cheese production, of course.
The last photos are from the Mall of America, where the entire middle of the mall is an amusement park. It is the largest mall in the US, with an area of 4.8 million square feet, big enough to fit seven Yankee Stadiums inside! It has almost every retail store we could think of, with some brands having multiple stores in the mall. Restaurants take up most of the third floor. We have noticed that the world’s food is getting better and better. When we started traveling about 15 years ago, regions were known for certain foods, and attempts at other cuisines were not very successful. But we had dinner at Laredo Cantina at the mall, and the fajitas were as good as any in Southern California, spicy and flavorful. We don’t know if you can read it, but the last photo, a Caribou Coffee location, says “Life is short. Stay awake for it.” It took a good portion of the day to walk all of the floors, even though we didn’t stop in very many stores. Quite the experience.
The other notable thing about Minneapolis is its many pedestrian bridges over the streets. You can walk quite a distance between buildings and over streets without ever going outside. It undoubtedly helps during the cold winters! Minneapolis has a lovely and thriving downtown, with lots happening…a new favorite city (at least in summer).
