Our lives as travelers are full of questions. Should we move back east or stay out west? Should we head south or can we handle a northern season change? When living in the middle of the country, which cardinal direction should we choose, when we have a free day to explore? It just so happens that we chose north this time.
Chrysa and I always keep our eyes peeled for a new park to check out. Doing this really paid off while we were living in South Dakota. We reveled exploring Custer State Park with its impressive peaks and epic hiking trails. Ever diligent, Chrysa found a new park to examine, while on Facebook. My trail loving wife subscribes to the Trail & Ultra Runners page, and ran across a posting concerning Minnehaha Falls Park, in beautiful Minneapolis. It was pretty clear that this was a place we had to check out. So… North it was.
We arrived after a couple of hours, lucked out on parking, quickly ate our PB&J sandwiches, and began exploring Minnehaha Park. We had initially planned on running the park (we did find it on a running Facebook page after all) but that wasn’t in the cards. We had both given blood the day before (double red for me) and were pretty wiped out. This was going to be a nice walk, hand in hand, surrounded by an oasis in a wonderful urban city.
We spent a wonderful afternoon exploring; the house of the “Father of Minneapolis”, a beautiful waterfall, a formal garden, and miles of well kept walking/hiking paths. The weather was warm, the sites were beautiful, and we couldn’t have asked for a nicer time.
As everyone knows…Chrysa and I are Yankees from the northeast. For whatever reason we both found it fascinating that we were right on the banks of the Mississippi River, so close to our native lands. I joked that it would be funny if we could find a bridge, cross and take a pic, and claim that we had come east again. We never did find a bridge to cross, but Chrysa got to touch the waters of the Mississippi, something she had never done before.
The Mississippi
Waterfall viewing and river touching really works up an appetite and before long we were starving. Chrysa and I have only ever had GREAT meals in Minneapolis, and were keen to keep this streak going. Fortunately Chrysa found the Northbound Smokehouse and Brewpub. We really can’t speak highly enough about this joint. It’s located in a cute neighborhood very near the park, it’s local, and they make everything in house. You really can’t go wrong! Having worked up an appetite, we started with the poutine fries, awesome! For dinner I got the 18 hour porketta sandwich, and Chrysa got the smoked Reuben, which she described as the best she has ever had. The beer was also great! So good in fact that we took a growler of the porter home. We honestly could have stayed the whole evening, but alas, we had to head home.
THE Reuben
Heading north (and almost east of the Mississippi) really worked out for us. Who knows what direction we will choose to go next? I hear the Iowa State Fair is going on in Des Moines… maybe south next time.
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