doctoral candidate in rhetoric and scientific and technical communication
exploration minnesota
Over at his blog, Connor lists 72 items he’d like to do in Minnesota before 2010. I’m here for at least the next four years, and I’d like to accomplish many of the items on his list (and I’m sure more will be added during the next four years).
- Take a Summit Brewing Co. tour (I’ve heard the brewery tours are awesome)
- Try a Jucy Lucy
- Take the Schell Brewery Tour
- Go to a Timberwolves game
- Go to a Wild Game (love hockey!)
- Go to a Gopher hockey game
- Go to a Gopher football game (I may not be a football fan, but I should go to at least one game)
- Go to a Vikings game
- Visit the Minnesota History Center
- Go to a Gopher basketball game
- Visit the North Shore
- Photograph eagles by Lake Pepin
- Visit the Russian Art Museum
- Go to a Saints game
- Go to a Lynx game
- See a show at the Guthrie
- Photograph the Grand Rounds
- Go to a Twins game
- Visit James J. Hill House
- The Grand Meander
- St. Paul Winter Carnival
- Wabasha Street Caves
- Pavek Museum of Broadcasting
- A concert at the the state fair
- Mill City Farmers Market
- Minnesota Zoo
- Make lefse
- Schaar’s Bluff
- Tour the state capitol
- Go to the Walker Art Center
- Renaissance Festival (did this!)
- Mill City Museum (did this!)
- History Museum
- Bell Natural History Museum
- GLBT Pride Festival
- Cinco de Mayo in St. Paul
- Saint Patties day in St. Paul
- Beach Bash
- Minnesota Orchestra
- Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra
- Fort Snelling
- Paddleboat on the Mississippi
- Minnesota Opera
- Visit Duluth (did this)
- Science Museum of Minnesota
- Visit the Kensington Runestone
- Holidazzle
- Visit the Boundary Waters
- Jay Cooke State Park
- Gooseberry Falls
- Two Harbors
- F. Scott Fitzgerald’s house
- Visit International Falls and Voyageurs National Park
- Traverse both the Minneapolis and St. Paul skyways
- Visit Lake Itasca, the headwaters of the Mississippi River
I’ll add new items as they come up.
Ok, you must go to the Hennepin Historical Museum. I wandered in there on a rainy day when I lived a few blocks away and discovered that their permanent collection mainly consisted of an entire room of bicycle historical artifacts (really cool stories about grad students at the U camping on the banks of Lake Calhoun and riding their bikes into class) and an entire room of toys. There a young man donated his entire collection of Star Wars action figures, droid factories, everything. They lovingly exhibit all of it in an enormous wall cabinet. There is also a little nook where you can sit on a carpeted ledge and play checkers in the sunlight.
The other one that is imperative is Itasca. Greatest park. I spent 2 Septembers up there early in college (before the semester conversion in 1999) working at the hostel that is a few steps from the swimming beach. One of my favorite places in the world. Parts are well annotated like a forest museum or something, and other parts are completely wild.
I need to go to the MN History Center one of these days because I have heard that my grandmother lived on East Hennepin in her youth and my grandfather lived as a student somewhere on Como, and I’m sorta curious whether I can find out exactly where they lived, since I’m constantly driving and walking through that area.