In August 2022, we spent five weeks staying in St. Cloud, Minnesota. St. Cloud is about 70-80 minutes to downtown Minneapolis (depending on traffic).  We decided to make the trek into the big city to explore it on a couple of days.

Downtown Minneapolis on Foot

On our first trip to Minneapolis, we purchased tickets to a Royals-Twins game at Target Field, and had just a few hours to explore the downtown area near the stadium.  We parked our Jeep at the Mill Ruins Park and then strolled along the Stone Arch bridge.  The bridge which is 2100 feet long and contains 23 arches, was used by the railroads from for decades to cross the Mississippi River and then converted to a biking/walking pathway in 1994.   A metal truss section was added as part of the lock and dams added to St. Anthony Falls in the 1950s and 1960s to permit barges to pass through the bridge.  We marveled at the falls and the other bridges in the area, all while listening to the not-so-wonderful sounds of the Central Avenue bridge construction in the background.   

Although I lived in Kansas City for many years and consider myself a Royals fan, I’ve lost track of the boys in blue the past few years.  We used to have the game on every night back in the 2013-2017 era when the Royals not just competitive, but World Series champs.  While I enjoyed my first trip to Target Field, the Royals notched another loss that day.   Oh well, there’s always next year, right?  

Minneapolis By Bike

On another day, we decided to explore Minneapolis on bike by riding a good chunk of the 51-mile Grand Rounds National Scenic Byway.   Our ride included most of the Mississippi River (9.2 miles), Downtown Riverfront (1.2) miles, Chain of Lakes (13.3 miles), and Minnehaha Byway (12.6 miles) districts.  We started at the Wabun picnic area in Minnehaha Falls Park because parking is free there.  The 167-acre park was one of the first in the United States – established in 1883.  The park features a vast network of trails, picnic areas, and a majestic 53-foot waterfall that is easily accessible to visitors. 

After viewing the Minnehaha Falls, we biked along the Mississippi River northward, jutted over to University of Minnesota (St. Paul side) to the Weisman Art Museum.  We neglected to realize that the art museum is closed on both Monday and Tuesdays so we were not able to visit the museum.   We tooled around the campus and then headed back across the river to not only see the amazing Stone Arch Bridge again, but ride through one of the arches (pretty cool!). 

We made our way northward along the trail towards Pryes Brewing, where we had a decent pepperoni pizza and beer.  Suprisingly, there aren’t a lot of breweries that are located directly on the Grand Rounds Scenic Byway, let alone one that serves food, but the place served its purpose. Then, Kasie used her GPS on her phone as we meandered through downtown by the Mary Tyler Moore Statue (700 Nicollet Mall) and Prince Mural (101 N 9th St) so that I could do some cheese touristy videos/photos.  Our next destination was the Sculpture Garden by the Walker Art museum.   We spent nearly an hour there (I could have spent MUCH more time there), marveling at Katharina Fritsch’s big blue rooster, Claes Oldenburg’s Spoonbridge and Cherry, and other works of art.  Of course, we had to get a photo in front of Robert Indiana’s LOVE sign.  To complete the loop, we biked by the some of the chain of lakes (Lake of the Isles, Bde Maka Ska, and Lake Harriet) and then met up with the Minnehaha Parkway (which goes by both Lake Hiawatha and Lake Nakomis) before reaching Minnehaha Falls park. 

Minneapolis is one the most bike-friendly cities that we’ve encountered to date. The city’s investment in the trail system makes is relatively easy to explore the city. Even though Minneapolis is a big city, the vehicles were courteous to bikers along our route. It’s definitely a city that we would like to go back to and explore in greater detail.