Minneapolis 2019, Day 1

Hiiiiii it’s June and summer but this happened in May and here I am, la dee dah! This is going to be what I am calling the Summer of the Roadtrips 1.0. Mostly because I hope there are many more summers full of rummaging around (1.0!), also sort of because this was the official first roadtrip of a 2019 summer full of ’em (1.0! double meaning!). So hey, let’s dig in.

This year we skipped Chicago for Memorial Day weekend, and headed west to Minneapolis instead. The drive is about twice as long as going to Chicago, maybe why it’s been forever since we’ve attempted? But at any rate, it had been way too long.

So anyway: a few months ago in a moment of impulse I booked a Minneapolis airbnb for Memorial Day weekend, and it was official. We were headed back to the Twin Cities. Long road of farmland, here we come.

We drove to Eau Claire and stopped for lunch at The Classic Garage. Everyone was pretty appreciative to get out of the car for a spell.

Biggest salad evar, guys.

Also, a note? Poor Moosey was sick. High fever (over 103F and steady, as is his style since birth), lethargic, no appetite. He was sick Thursday, then Friday. Usually the nice thing about his high fevers is that he gets over his illness much faster than most people, but he was still dragging when we left for Minneapolis. He insisted he wasn’t hungry when we stopped for lunch but I ordered him a chocolate shake, hoping he’d be enticed by the sugar and would get some sort of cool relief. He did take a few sips (win!) but then stared at it dejectedly while he wilted away in the booth (lose…). Welp, I tried. Sorry, son.

Back on the road, dudes.

Thankfully it was only another hour-ish to Minneapolis from there. Our airbnb wasn’t ready for another few hours, so we decided to hit up a museum. The Firefighters Hall & Museum of Minneapolis was in the same neighborhood as our airbnb, so that seemed a no brainer.

There was a specific exhibit for the 35W bridge collapse, which was sobering to say the least.

(Also this side exhibit about fire boxes was fascinating, I had no idea that’s how you called a firehouse before telephones were commonplace. Heck, they still had them in the 1960s in places…)

(Pete’s favorite pastime is making weird faces and asking me to take a picture. Such a weird stage of boyhood we’re in with this kid…)

Eventually we bought way too much at the gift shop and dragged the kids out of there. Northeast Minneapolis, we are ready for ya.

I read up on this epic ice cream stop before leaving and we still had some time before check-in, so we made an ice cream stop. Minnesota Nice Cream did not do us wrong.

Moose rallied with plastic cone protectors. ANYTHING FOR ICE CREAM GUYS.

Side note: pretty sure it was vegan “ice cream”? The ice cream was not very creamy and there were vegan signs everywhere. VEGAN STUFF OMG HALP. Scott and I both sampled the kids’ cones and came to that conclusion, anyway. Maybe that’s the Wisconsin in us, highest of standards? But yo, still: the place was well worth a stop. Insane crazy toppings, pretty as a picture (there’s a reason they are considered Instagram Famous), and tasty. I mean if we are right and the soft serve is vegan, that’s only a bonus because hey we were being healthy, yay.

Look, a very sick and Motrin-ed-up Moose still ate food!

(In all honesty: he took some nibbles of bits and then pulled out the toasted marshmallows, and ate those. Then he was done and Scott and I shared the rest of his cone of goodness, germs be damned. It was Not Creamy But Still Good.)

We finished up our treat, then encountered some dancers in the beer garden next door (some Scandinavian group I was not super clear on but they danced and had sticks they whapped together and bells on their legs. Yeah, I dunno).

One thing I have to say about Minneapolis: it does not lack for beer gardens.

Bummed to find that the food truck name “Meat Sweats” has been already taken. Retirement plans, ruined.

Finally, we met our airnb, the upstairs of a duplex in the NE Arts District. Very Minneapolis: old-ish, comfy, with a 3-season porch. Those 3-season porches are very important in the mini apple.

Here: a tour, you are welcome.

Note the empty suitcase, which solely held TOYS. Moose was very adamant that his emergency vehicles make the trip. He lovingly unpacked them in the 3-season porch area and admittedy: they got a lot of use in there.

Also: I covet this plant. If you know what it is, please alert me. It’s some sort of Tradescantia. Help a sister out. I NEED IT.

After settling in at the airbnb and sending Scott off for some provisions (namely, some Minnesota CIDER (!!) and snacks from Sentyrz down the street), we settled in and enjoyed a drink while we debated several options for dinner (and I mean: we were on our phones for a good hour trying to narrow down our options nearby. This was a good neighborhood for FOOD and BEER and HIPSTER STUFF OF ALL KINDS). We finally settled on the nearby pizza joint run by a recent James Beard Award winner, called Young Joni.

We headed that way and then were informed that it had a 90-minute minimum waiting list, so… Okay that’s cool we’ll just explore a bit in our neighborhood, because Why Not. Now we have the time.

After a bit we stumbled upon Dangerous Man Brewing, which ended up being a lovely brewery that we will love forever and ever Amen. So many Lawrence vibes, folks. We popped in, found a rare free table, and settled in with some snacks and toys and beer until our table was ready for dinner.

Moose, poor thing: he was still not feeling 100% and tried to rally but honestly, he’s a little kid who was under the weather and it was past his bedtime and we still hadn’t had dinner. So he was Over All Of It, you guys. He hid under a chair with a Matchbox car and rage-ate a bag of fruit snacks.

Hang in there, dude. So: beers at this place are solid. Scott and I both loved ours and had a sample of another.

Also they have a wall of growlers and we found lots of places we knew, so that was a cool touch.

(Also I could not stop admiring this Hoya, she was huge and clearly very old and well loved.)

ANYWAY. We finally got texted that our table was ready for dinner, and I was really worried that Moose would lose it. To add to my anxiety: they seated us at a communal table, which we shared with three hipsters having dinner before a night out and two couples that appeared to both be on first dates. PERFECT.

But creepy knife-welding aside: Moose was fine. We ordered apps and pizza and had a great meal. He even ate a tiny slice of pizza, so: progress.

(Best cauliflower dish ever below. Will have to try to re-create based off online description of menu item. If you ever find yourself here GET THE CAULIFLOWER.)

And that’s it for Day 1, folks. After dinner it was insanely late (for people with kids, anyway) so we booked it right back to the airbnb, performed those bedtime routines, and it was lights out for all.

Day 2 coming at you soon, promise. Peace out, y’all.