Post by mainstreet on May 28, 2019 18:36:17 GMT
This past weekend I went to Minnesota. In the interest of not repeating myself a bunch of times, I'll provide a description.
While last year's vacation write-up went day-by-day, I'm going to break this up more topically this time. This won't be nearly as detailed, overall. Most of the trip was sports and food. I went to a couple of other places as well and they will get sections here.
Minnesota Twins Baseball at Target Field
I attended two Twins games at Target Field. Since the Twins are a very good team, and their opponents (the White Sox) were... not, the Twins easily claimed wins both games I watched. The atmosphere was solid and the ballpark felt like an actual ballpark. But nothing really stood out to me for being a great park. It was average for me. TC keeping score while also managing to follow other games around the league on his phone was actually impressive.
The updated complete ranking, in order: Petco, AT&T, Safeco, Coors, Dodger, Target, Angel, Citizens Bank, Yankee, Chase, Citi, O.co, with that middle group being all very close to each other.
Minnesota United Soccer at Allianz Field
I wasn't really expecting much from an MLS game. Perhaps I should've expected more. The stadium itself was pretty nice, I admired a lot of the details, and the standing supporters section on one side -- the "Wonder Wall". And in fact, that Wonder Wall, and the crowd in general, was really an impressive atmosphere. I was blown away by how into it the crowd was. I felt like I could've very easily been in England or Germany. It was heartening to see, really, and the Loons have definitely shot up to be one of my handful of favorite teams in MLS (such as it is). Loons beat Dynamo 1-0 and the match was very well fought on both sides. I had a great time, and overall I consider this the high point of the trip.
Light Rail/Metro
The light rail system is overall solid. The system is very similar to San Diego's, but I appreciated the increased frequency to 10 minutes. Basically everyone was tried to take the Metro after the United game, and it took me quite some time to board. TC actually ran to his apartment instead of waiting for a train with me. He got to the apartment just before the train I eventually boarded pulled up to that station. They probably should've had a few more trains ready to go.
The Mall of America
It was... a mall. I know it gets a lot of hype for being big, but ultimately it is still a mall. TC and I spent quite a bit of time walking all of it. The theme park in the middle was unique, I'll grant, and I did get a few pictures of the two remaining pieces of Metropolitan Stadium still there. The other thing of note was the fact that the same establishment would show up in multiple locations in the mall at times. And I don't just mean one store with multiple floors (though that was also the case for some department stores). But there really isn't that much to say here.
Minnesota State Capitol
TC and I tagged along with a middle school field trip group while they toured the capitol. We got to learn some of the quirks of the state system. I can appreciate limiting oral arguments in the state Supreme Court to just one hour (total). The capitol also has a large dome. I appreciated the climate protesters present in the dome as well, though I didn't interact with them. If you were there on Friday, May 25, I did appreciate you and do thank you, even though I didn't join in.
Food
Minnesota is famous for the "Juicy Lucy" burger -- the cheese is melted in the middle. I had both of the claimed "originals" -- Matt's Bar and the 5-8 Club. Honestly, you can't go wrong here. They're both quite delicious. I happened to like 5-8's marginally better simply because the cheese at Matt's melts to the point where it just runs out if you're not holding it upright, and the 5-8 burger is a bit slower and the cheese can be scooped back into it. But they were both great burgers.
At Target Field I tried Pizza Luce. It was very good pizza, but pizza is still ultimately pizza -- not huge differences in quality per se. To my fellow San Diegans, I'll say this pizza reminded me of Oggi's. Definitely worth getting if you're in MN.
The major fast food location of the midwest is Culver's. Their burgers are good. I got introduced to cheese curds. These were also good. I also got a decent but a bit overpriced chicken sandwich from Portillo's.
Revival in St. Paul is a good chicken restaurant but a bit pricey for the amount of food you get. I left still hungry.
Best budget option for eating downtown is Sal's on Fifth -- I had a great chicken parm sub there, and the fries are as good as Rally's. But tell them to hold the lettuce -- that one made no sense.
Downtown has quite a few restaurants that are good and overall the downtown eating experience was pretty nice. Had quite a few meals with TC and a couple on my own. Was fun.
The AC Marriott Minneapolis
Not the hotel to use if you're a klutz like me. I really gouged my toe on the sharp corners of the fridge. I was also less than pleased with housekeeping assuming stuff was trash that was not, in fact, trash. But the space was large enough and comfortable enough for me. Overall it was okay.
Air Travel
I don't really have a whole lot to say about Delta that wasn't covered last time. I like flying Delta a lot better than I do Southwest or American. Having a flight attendant fail to show up to MSP on time, causing our takeoff to be delayed, was annoying. MSP overall was a fairly annoying airport design. It's similar to Chicago's O'Hare airport and everything's really stretched out. The sandwich I bought was terrible.
While last year's vacation write-up went day-by-day, I'm going to break this up more topically this time. This won't be nearly as detailed, overall. Most of the trip was sports and food. I went to a couple of other places as well and they will get sections here.
Minnesota Twins Baseball at Target Field
I attended two Twins games at Target Field. Since the Twins are a very good team, and their opponents (the White Sox) were... not, the Twins easily claimed wins both games I watched. The atmosphere was solid and the ballpark felt like an actual ballpark. But nothing really stood out to me for being a great park. It was average for me. TC keeping score while also managing to follow other games around the league on his phone was actually impressive.
The updated complete ranking, in order: Petco, AT&T, Safeco, Coors, Dodger, Target, Angel, Citizens Bank, Yankee, Chase, Citi, O.co, with that middle group being all very close to each other.
Minnesota United Soccer at Allianz Field
I wasn't really expecting much from an MLS game. Perhaps I should've expected more. The stadium itself was pretty nice, I admired a lot of the details, and the standing supporters section on one side -- the "Wonder Wall". And in fact, that Wonder Wall, and the crowd in general, was really an impressive atmosphere. I was blown away by how into it the crowd was. I felt like I could've very easily been in England or Germany. It was heartening to see, really, and the Loons have definitely shot up to be one of my handful of favorite teams in MLS (such as it is). Loons beat Dynamo 1-0 and the match was very well fought on both sides. I had a great time, and overall I consider this the high point of the trip.
Light Rail/Metro
The light rail system is overall solid. The system is very similar to San Diego's, but I appreciated the increased frequency to 10 minutes. Basically everyone was tried to take the Metro after the United game, and it took me quite some time to board. TC actually ran to his apartment instead of waiting for a train with me. He got to the apartment just before the train I eventually boarded pulled up to that station. They probably should've had a few more trains ready to go.
The Mall of America
It was... a mall. I know it gets a lot of hype for being big, but ultimately it is still a mall. TC and I spent quite a bit of time walking all of it. The theme park in the middle was unique, I'll grant, and I did get a few pictures of the two remaining pieces of Metropolitan Stadium still there. The other thing of note was the fact that the same establishment would show up in multiple locations in the mall at times. And I don't just mean one store with multiple floors (though that was also the case for some department stores). But there really isn't that much to say here.
Minnesota State Capitol
TC and I tagged along with a middle school field trip group while they toured the capitol. We got to learn some of the quirks of the state system. I can appreciate limiting oral arguments in the state Supreme Court to just one hour (total). The capitol also has a large dome. I appreciated the climate protesters present in the dome as well, though I didn't interact with them. If you were there on Friday, May 25, I did appreciate you and do thank you, even though I didn't join in.
Food
Minnesota is famous for the "Juicy Lucy" burger -- the cheese is melted in the middle. I had both of the claimed "originals" -- Matt's Bar and the 5-8 Club. Honestly, you can't go wrong here. They're both quite delicious. I happened to like 5-8's marginally better simply because the cheese at Matt's melts to the point where it just runs out if you're not holding it upright, and the 5-8 burger is a bit slower and the cheese can be scooped back into it. But they were both great burgers.
At Target Field I tried Pizza Luce. It was very good pizza, but pizza is still ultimately pizza -- not huge differences in quality per se. To my fellow San Diegans, I'll say this pizza reminded me of Oggi's. Definitely worth getting if you're in MN.
The major fast food location of the midwest is Culver's. Their burgers are good. I got introduced to cheese curds. These were also good. I also got a decent but a bit overpriced chicken sandwich from Portillo's.
Revival in St. Paul is a good chicken restaurant but a bit pricey for the amount of food you get. I left still hungry.
Best budget option for eating downtown is Sal's on Fifth -- I had a great chicken parm sub there, and the fries are as good as Rally's. But tell them to hold the lettuce -- that one made no sense.
Downtown has quite a few restaurants that are good and overall the downtown eating experience was pretty nice. Had quite a few meals with TC and a couple on my own. Was fun.
The AC Marriott Minneapolis
Not the hotel to use if you're a klutz like me. I really gouged my toe on the sharp corners of the fridge. I was also less than pleased with housekeeping assuming stuff was trash that was not, in fact, trash. But the space was large enough and comfortable enough for me. Overall it was okay.
Air Travel
I don't really have a whole lot to say about Delta that wasn't covered last time. I like flying Delta a lot better than I do Southwest or American. Having a flight attendant fail to show up to MSP on time, causing our takeoff to be delayed, was annoying. MSP overall was a fairly annoying airport design. It's similar to Chicago's O'Hare airport and everything's really stretched out. The sandwich I bought was terrible.