Friday, September 25, 2009

Walker Art Center

Thanks to a tip from a friend we found out that Thursday nights you can visit the Walker Art Center for free! Thanks to sponsor Target, the Walker stays open until 9:00 on Thursdays and admission is free.

We visited this past Thursday as it was one of the last days for the exhibit "The Quick and the Dead" which was a show that featured various artists thoughts and interpretations on death and mortality. Interestingly enough, the exhibit was not extremely depressing. In fact, there were points that we were laughing a little.

We did make our way through the permanent exhibits as well and had the opportunity to walk through a new room featuring various types of pottery and clay sculpture.

It is busier in the Walker on Thursday nights due to it being free, but we still got around to everything we wanted to see in a little over an hour. We also make a stroll through the Sculpture Gardens, which are fun to see at night when they are all lit up.

We didn't see everything that is possible for you to see on a visit to the Walker. There are tours you can take and movies you can view but we skipped those for this visit. We are sure to return another time, especially on a free night like that!

On a side note - after the Walker we grabbed dinner at an awesome Thai restaurant back towards the U of M campus - True Thai on Franklin Street and I just had to mention them because the food was good and so was the service. Our original plan had been to hit up a date night special at another Thai restaurant that would've been closer - but they were closed due to road construction. Their loss, True Thai's gain!

Details:
Walker Art Center
1750 Hennepin Avenue
Minneapolis, MN 55403
http://www.walkerart.org/

True Thai
2627 E Franklin Ave
Minneapolis, MN 55406
http://www.truethairestaurant.com/

Monday, September 21, 2009

Mill City Farmers Market/Mill City Oktoberfest

This past weekend we visited the Mill City Farmers Market. It is a smaller scale Farmers Market than the big one we have in Minneapolis and it is run from May through October, every Saturday from 8am to 1pm. You do not need admission to the Mill City Museum to attend, it is held in the space between the Mill City Museum and the Guthrie Theatre.

Our reason for going this past Saturday was due to a special event they were sponsoring, their 2nd Annual Oktoberfest. Because Nate and I are both beer lovers, this was a can't miss event. We attended last year as well and really enjoyed ourselves. Four local MN breweries were offering free beer samples: The Herkimer Pub, Finnegans, Brau Brothers and Flat Earth Brewing Company. After we enjoyed some small samples from each place we wandered around the Farmers Market.

Honestly, this Farmers Market is my favorite. Some of the items are more expensive than at the bigger markets in town, but there are more organic offerings and unique items to be found. Our must have is this smoked trout that is unbelievable. We bought that along with a wheel of goat cheese and some pepper jelly to take home and make a little meal out of later this week!

In the Mill City Courtyard, more Oktoberfest activities were going on and again, you did not need museum admission to participate. They had a polka band, brats and beer for sale and many places to sit and relax. We shared a brat and each had a bottle of beer while listening to the music.

There are usually some sort of fun activities going on at the Mill City Farmers Market each week, Oktoberfest just interested us the most. The one downside to going - parking in nearby ramps is not cheap, they jack up the price in advance of the afternoon Twins game. However, with the Twins moving across town next year, perhaps this will become less of an issue. Other than the parking issue, I highly recommend the Mill City Farmers Market. We will be going on another day to actually explore the museum sometime and you can bet we'll review it here!

Details:
Mill City Farmers Market
http://www.millcityfarmersmarket.org/
Saturdays May through October
8:00 am to 1:00 pm
Cost - Free!

Thursday, September 17, 2009

Magical History Tour

We had a chance to experience being a "Human on a Stick" at the Minneapolis Segway tour over Labor Day weekend.

The "Magical History Tour" is sponsored by Mobile Entertainment, LLC. They started out offering Segway tours through the historic St. Anthony Falls area in Minneapolis in 2004. Now in addition to Minneapolis, this year they added St. Paul, where you can tour the famous Summit neighborhood and other popular Capital City sites. The idea is to give people a unique way to tour areas of Minneapolis and St. Paul and experience the world on a Segway in a way that is cheaper than buying your own!

My parents have had the opportunity to do both Minneapolis and St. Paul, and enjoyed it so much they invited my husband and I to join them sometime. We were eager to try it out! We arranged to go on the Minneapolis tour.

The first thing you do when you arrive is sign a waiver, while the Segway is a very safe form of transportation, you can never be too sure I suppose! You then get to choose a helmet and do a two minute demo on a Segway with one of the tour guides spotting you and giving you one on one instruction on how to ride. I took to it quite naturally actually, the concept is pretty simple, if you want to move forward, shift your weight forward. If you want to back up, you shift your weight back. You twist one side of the handlebars to turn.

After your demo, they gather the entire group for a 15-20 minute safety video. The first few minutes are cute, it involves the entire Segway staff introducing themselves and explaining where you're going to go. Then it moves into a safety video that was clearly more aimed at someone who had actually purchased a Segway for their own use. Granted, there were good tips in the video, but I felt it didn't need to be as long as it was.

After that they took us under the 3rd avenue bridge to practice for a bit on our assigned Segway. Nate and I were pros in no time and ready to go. My dad of course was a show off seeing as it was now his third time riding one and even caused one of the tour guides to go "oh by the way, please don't do this." We got a good laugh out of that though.

Finally they lead you out into the tour. We went down to the Stone Arch Bridge and across the river. The tour guide will stop at various historical points of interest and give a little spiel, and then you keep going. When you reach the Mill City Museum you are given a short break and they provide you with a snack and beverage. The tour continues along the river, back across the Plymouth Avenue bridge, down onto Boom Island, around by De La Salle high school and then back up to where the tour begins. It really is a unique way to see some of these sights.

You cover alot of ground and are much less tired than if you had walked that entire way! At the end of the tour they give you a free ticket to the Mill City Museum to be used anytime. You also receive discount coupons for three restaurants on the riverfront: Tuggs, Pracna on Main and Vic's. You do have to use them the same day as your tour. Finally, if you save your tour wristband you can take money off a future Segway tour, whether it is St. Paul or Minneapolis and there is no expiration.

The downside is that is about $85 a person. However, the tour lasts a good three hours and when you consider the cost of buying your own Segway, it's nothing! Plus, with all the freebees you end up with at the end, it also helps make it worthwhile. It is good fun for almost all ages, children must be 13 years old to ride. We had a mixed age group in our tour and everyone was able to ride and enjoy themselves. And we were quite a spectacle as we drove around, many others out enjoying a beautiful day were stopping and watching us!

We do highly recommend the Segway tour if you can swing the cash. If you have a group of 10 or more they will even do your own private tour.

Nate and I hope to do the St. Paul tour this spring, so we'll report back at that time!

Details:
Magical History Tour
952-888-9200
May through November, 7 days a week at 10:00 am or 3:00 pm
http://www.humanonastick.com/
$80 plus tax per person

Wednesday, September 16, 2009

Welcome!

Welcome to our blog! My husband and I are both in our late 20's and have resided in the Twin Cities area our entire life. In what has become a bit of an inside joke, we are starting this blog to rate and review fun outings, events, and entertaining things that our fine Metro area has to offer.

There are so many options out there for fun! Our goal is to try a variety of options. We'll have indoor and outdoor activities - let's face it, it's Minnesota, you have to be prepared for changing weather! We'll also make sure to include free activities in addition to ones that cost money. Then we'll come here and write all about it in hopes that we pass along good information to other Twin Cities residents or even people planning to visit Minnesota!

So come have fun with us!

~Nate and Beth
"The Fun Couple"