Sign in with Facebook"City of Waters" Top 5 Page for this destination Minneapolis by goodfish
Minneapolis Travel Guide: 921 reviews and 1,597 photos
After several years of covering our vacation spots, it occurred to me that it was time to write about the place I call home. Vacation for most of us means leaving town so it's easy to forget that your stomping grounds just might be a destination for other travelers? Duh! Anyway, I've been tucking the camera into my pocket whenever we trot off to do something fun, and looking at my city with the eyes of a visitor. My other half is amused - and thankfully long on patience as he does a lot of standing around while I'm playing Shutterbug!
Minneapolis credits its existence to the only waterfall on the Mississippi River: St. Anthony Falls provided the power for extensive lumber and grain milling in the 1800 and early 1900's. Flour production, specifically, became the predominant industry that fueled the growth of the prospering community and earned it the nickname "Mill City." While the great mills are a thing of the past, the riverfront near the falls has been revitalized and preserved as a popular recreational area and historical monument to this city's roots.
But water, water everywhere is what makes Minneapolis unique. In addition to the mighty Mississippi there are at least 22 lakes within the city proper, and too many to count if you add the inner and outer-ring suburbs and those of our twin city, St. Paul. Some of them are circled with biking/walking paths, some can be canoed, kayaked, sailed or have swimming beaches, still others are great angling spots, and the biggest of them provide all of the above.
I live in one of the fringe communities and count myself lucky to have the wide-open fields that remind me of my native Iowa plus the amenities of a metropolitan area all within shoutin' distance of the driveway. This upcoming winter (2012-13) I'll be doing quite a bit of updating on these pages to add new restaurants /things to do, edit some older tips, and replace some low-res photos with better versions as I acquire them so bear with me!
- Pros:Lots of things to do outdoors, inexpensive, diverse
- Cons:Long winters, sketchy public transit, not many activities for kids downtown
Reviews (77)
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Comments (25)
absolutely beautiful main picture - city of waters :) vibrant colours :)
Hi Norman! Gosh, thanks for that. I took that on the absolute last nice day of autumn last October, and used a vivid setting to give the leaves a little extra punch! :O)
great job! you're an artiste :)
I should probably do the same with my Portland page in terms of a complete revamp. Alas there areoy so many hours in the day.
Always the problem, isn't it? Then there there's all the periodic wiping of businesses closed, rechecking links....
And the fact that you are doing this is part of my misc forum question today!
Haha - I saw that! I'm needing to get after my Minneapolis stuff: old photos, need to check all the links, lots of stuff in the can....
Beautiful photo, Kate. It deserved to win.
Yes - I agree - what lovely Autumn colours!
Thank you, John. :O)
That's a really lovely pic Kate,you can say you have to be lucky and be in the right place at the right time, but you still have to "see" the pic and press the button at the right time, brilliant and beautiful.
Thank Paul. Coming from a REAL photographer, that's pretty special.
Congratulations! That's a brilliant picture!
Thanks Christine! Sometimes I get lucky and am in the right place at the right time. :)
Hey Kate!! Just wanted to let you know that the above photo won the Facebook cover photo contest! I'll be VTmailing you shortly for your shoe size and tshirt size - you're getting some VT swag goodies!!
Congrats!
Blakey
Blakey!! I'm delighted! Thank you SO much for that! I'll wear the swag with pride. Goodfish is on a mission to convert as many trippy folks to VT'ers as possible. Does Rudy have a VT doggie shirt? :O)
Yes, I have read on one of the cycling websites that Minneapolis has an outstanding (at least by American standards) system of bicycle routes. When I was growing up in Illinois I always had the impression that Minneapolis was a very near-by city, yet I have never been there except once to change trains on a trip from Winnipeg to Chicago.
I have been to the mall...it was on my disaterous trip home from the Iowa wedding and I got put down there and then the worst storm I have ever been in started and all the flights got cancelled and since the next Amsterdam flight was the next day I had a sleep and then went to the mall...what else could I do?...I still have my tickets somewhere
Wonderful pages on Minneapolis,now does the Martini Cocktail Bar serve red wine? The giant mall sounds scarey,how does one choose?
I have had a great time visiting today,thanks.