minneapolis!

A couple weeks ago, prior to purchasing plane tickets to visit Minnesota, temperatures there were in the single digits or even below zero. It was sunny and in the 70s and 80s here. Yet for some reason, we still elected to trade this:

for this:

And it was totally worth it! We started off our adventure in Minneapolis with a quick trip to Minnehaha Falls. As you can see, it was frozen, but it was still a nice sight to see. It is normally quite lovely to walk around the park, and you can even walk down to the falls, but understandably impossible to do so in the winter.

Later that evening, I took Drew to one of my favorite places: the Big 10. The place is known for its toasted subs, and it did not disappoint. I was also really excited to see cheese curds on the menu, and they tasted just like the ones at the MN State Fair. During my first year at the U, I lived a couple blocks from the Big 10 and I used to stop by all the time and get a sub to go. Later, when I moved off campus, I would stop in with friends for happy hour and to watch Twins games. And, when we didn't feel like stopping in, my roommate and I would call for delivery.

I lived in Centennial Hall, on the East Bank. Centennial was one of four dorms in the superblock (Territorial, Pioneer, and Frontier). This is where I met my future roommates, whom I lived with when we moved out of the dorms and off campus.

After dinner and a visit to my former dorm, we went to check out TCF Stadium, home of the Golden Gophers. I couldn't see much, but it looked cool. Sadly, the Twins and the Gophers both got new stadiums soon after I moved to California. And it looks like the Vikings might follow suit too.

The next day, Drew and I went to visit the old house that I lived in with 2 other roommates. We affectionately dubbed it "the Pink Pad." It was the first place I lived in that wasn't my parents' house and wasn't a dorm. It was within walking distance of the U, but far enough away so it felt like we were truly living off campus.

Between graduating from the U and entering grad school, I took a year and a half off to work and just hang out. Everyday, I walked to work at 6:30 in the morning. It was really quiet and peaceful, and one of my favorite memories is walking to work right after it snowed the previous night. There was nothing better than being outside when everyone was still sleeping, walking through the freshly fallen snow.

A trip to the U would not be complete without a jaunt around Dinkytown, named for the "dinkys," or the rail cars and trolleys prevalent in the area back in the day. Drew always lets out a chuckle whenever I talk about Dinkytown, so I had to finally take him there.

Dinkytown is one of the many neighborhoods surrounding the U. It contains quite a few shops, coffee shops, bars, and restaurants. One of the most well known is Annie's Parlour. Annie's is famous for its milkshakes, and rightly so. They are thick and creamy, and big enough to share- but you won't want to. We decided to be sensible and share the hot fudge milkshake.

Other shots of Dinkytown:

We didn't really walk around campus (too cold for that, so we'll save that for another trip), but we saw a little bit.

It was really pretty with all the snow.

We also stopped by the Metrodome, which was looking a bit deflated because the snow fell through the roof. I snapped a few pictures because I realized that it might be the last time I see it.

Later that night we went ice skating at the Depot, which was a former train station. We hadn't been skating in years, but somewhere we managed to stay on our feet. The Depot was a nice, big, beautiful place to skate. And it serves up mini donuts!

It began to snow on the walk back to our hotel. And it was lovely and beautiful.

I don't have any photos, but we did make our way to the Mall of America. (a trip to the cities would be incomplete without it) We went to the Mall of America on the same day that we toured Target Field and the same day that we stopped by the Metrodome. This is appropriate, if you think about it. The Twins now play at Target Field, and before that, they played at the Metrodome. Before the Metrodome, they played at Metropolitan Stadium, which was where the Mall of America now stands.

We wrapped up our trip to Minnesota with some visits to see both sides of my family. On Christmas Eve, we met my grandparents, an aunt, uncle, and cousins for lunch. I hadn't seen them in quite some time, and they had never met Drew. We had a great time catching up and it was good to see everyone. Later that day, we went to a Christmas Eve get together with my mom's side of the family. Drew had met many of them at a family reunion last summer, but he got to meet many of my cousins and my grandma.

I'm happy to say that Drew survived his first trip to Minnesota in the winter. He made many jokes about the cold and snow, but he was a good sport. I leave you with one of my favorite jokes (or rather, the one I can remember): Upon seeing a sign for Mound, MN, Drew says "What is that a mound of? A mound of snow?" Har har. Okay, maybe you had to be there.

this is twins territory

For nearly my entire lifetime, and as long as I can remember, the Minnesota Twins played inside the Metrodome. They shared the space with the U of M football team and the Vikings. I have attended several Twins games in the dome, and I have marched there with the U of M marching band. The dome seemed perfectly adequate, mainly because I had nothing to compare it to. It wasn't until I went to a bowl game and marched in an outdoor stadium that I wished the U had its own stadium to call home. And it wasn't until I went to an Angels game that I wondered what it would have been like to watch the Twins play outside, at home.

Last April was the Minnesota Twins' inaugural season at Target Field. Thanks to Facebook, I got to see several of my friends' photos of the new ball park. Judging by all the photos, it seemed that everyone in Minnesota was at Target Field at some point during baseball season. And this made me really jealous. I'm as excited about the new field as any other Twins fan, but I was bummed to miss the inaugural season.

So I was very excited to check out the new field on this trip to Minnesota. But seeing as how it wasn't baseball season, I wasn't expecting to see much. On our first day in Minneapolis, Drew and I wandered over to Target Field to have a look. I snapped pictures and tried my hardest to see what I could see through the gates. At some point, the baseball stars were aligned because at some point when I peered through the gate, a tour group happened to be walking by. I didn't know it was a tour group until they called out to us and told us to take the tour. A tour! I had no idea such a thing was possible! So, due to a sheer stroke of luck and good timing, Drew and I returned the next day for a tour of Target Field.

This is where it all begins:

I have seen so many photos just like this on Facebook, and now I have one of my own!

Our first stop was for a photo break. There were only 6 of us on the tour, us and a family of 4. (tip: if you go on the tour, don't go in the summer. our tour guides said that there can be as many as 100 people on a tour in the summer and winter is the best time to go)

Our tour lead us around Target Field, deep into the underbelly. We got to see the Metropolitan Club and the Legends Club, two clubs accessible only to season ticket holders. The Legends Club pays tribute to a few legendary Twins players, including Rod Carew, Harmon Killebrew, and Kirby Puckett. Below is a giant wood carving of Puckett:

And one of about four memorabilia cases:
We also saw a few event suites and the press box:

Another tribute to some Twins legends (the numbers in the middle of the frame, not the Budweiser sign):

We learned that the artist, Ray Barton, who created this Minnie & Paul logo in 1961 earned $15 and then later a $25 bonus. I guess that back in the day, people in Minneapolis and St. Paul rarely crossed the Mississippi River to visit the other city. It was feared that if the Twins field was built in St. Paul, then people from Minneapolis wouldn't go to any games, and vice versa. I think this logo might have been developed as a marketing tool. It shows Minnie & Paul shaking hands over the river that divides them, but joined by the bridge that unites them. When a Twins player hits a home run, Minnie & Paul light up and greet one another.

Here we are from upper deck in left field:
A nice view of downtown Minneapolis in the background:

Our tour continued with a visit to the Visitors Clubhouse. We weren't able to see the Twins Clubhouse because it is still in use by the players. I, of course, would have had no problem with the possibility of running into a certain catcher that wears the number 7.

We are told that the visitor clubhouse is quite similar to the Twins Clubhouse, except a bit smaller. There is a weight room and a kitchen where players can get ballpark food cooked to order. They can even send the kitchen staff out to fetch non-ballpark food, like subs from Jimmy John's.

Our next stop was a visit to the Visitor Dugout:
And then a visit to the Twins Clubhouse:

And that pretty much ends our tour of Target Field. It was a great tour, and I definitely recommend it. There is no Twins Museum, so many of the things that would be in such a museum (memorabilia, artwork, paintings, etc) are sprinkled throughout the ball park (some of which is accessible to the public and some of which is not).

I snapped lots of photos outside. The best thing about visiting in the winter is that there's no competition for photos and no strangers to wander into the frame. Along the walk up to the field are pennants of several former Twins players. Here are a few of my favorites:

Kirby Puckett and Kent Hrbek are like Joe Mauer and Justin Morneau of the 1980s and 1990s. I was a fan of both players, but I leaned a little more towards Hrbek.

Below are nine renditions of baseball bats. During the games, one lights up for each inning played.
There were many statues of former Twins players, all covered with snow, like this one of Rod Carew:

And Kirby Puckett:

I didn't let the snow stop me from having a seat in the Golden Glove. Our tour guide said that now would not be a good time to lick the Golden Glove, but really, is there ever a good time to lick it?

I waded through the snow for this picture. It certainly resembles a certain catcher, doesn't it?

These flags line the field, extending into downtown Minneapolis:

We made a quick visit to the gift shop for a license plate holder. Here I am with the Twins mascots.

I came home with a Twins decal, a license plate holder, and a homer hanky, but my favorite Twins souvenir is this 1987 Wheaties box given to me posthumously by my grandpa.

snow, and lots of it

It is with great pride that I announce that Drew and I were in Rochester, MN, my hometown, when it broke its previous record for the most snow in December. Congratulations, Rochester, I knew you had it in you. And to think, you still have a couple more days to completely obliterate the 2000 record of 35.3 inches. In case being in Rochester during the snowiest December on record doesn't impress you, let me tell you that of the five snowiest Decembers, I have now been in Rochester for 3 of them: 2010 (37.8 inches and counting), 2000 (35.3), and 1996 (30.2). Surely this is an event worthy of commemoration, like on a t-shirt or a certificate that I hang on my refrigerator. It could say "I survived 3 of the 5 snowiest Decembers in Rochester, MN." Wait, that didn't come out right (sounds like I died the other 2 times). What I mean is "I was in Rochester, MN for 3 of the 5 snowiest Decembers, and I survived." There, that sounds better.

Drew has survived his first trip to Minnesota in the winter, surely a feat worth commemorating. The daytime temperature was in the teens when we arrived, but then it warmed up to the twenties. We saw lots and lots of snow, which is to be expected when you're hometown is busy breaking records.

We spent the first few days of our trip in Rochester, where I showed Drew around. The city is expanding, but it has still retained its familiarity. There are many new restaurants sprouting up, but many of my favorites remain. We went to Mr. Pizza, a locally owned restaurant that my friends and I frequented many times for lunch while in high school. And we went to John Hardy's Bar-B-Q, another favorite. If it sounds strange that I was excited for us to eat at John Hardy's even though we're both vegetarians, well then, you haven't had the Jo-Jo potatoes, have you? Try them, and you'll see why the place is on my must-eat list every time I go home.

We also got pie at Baker's Square, a place that became a post-football/basketball/hockey game staple while I was in high school. I was in the marching band (colorguard) during football season and the pep band during basketball & hockey season, and after practically every game, my goody-two-shoe friends and I would gorge on the pie and mozzarella sticks at Baker's Square. In case you're wondering, I have had nearly every single variety of pie on the menu (I don't like meringue, so I skipped the lemon meringue), and I recommend them all.

A trip to Rochester wouldn't be complete without a trip to the Mayo Clinic. Without the clinic, I'm not sure there would be a downtown Rochester (or a Rochester, for that matter). The clinic is comprised of many, many buildings, and it includes Methodist Hospital and St. Mary's Hospital. Not surprisingly, everyone knows someone who works at the clinic. The buildings themselves aren't too interesting, but the Plummer Building (below) might be the most interesting and the most recognized.

There is also the Gonda Building, which was built about 5 years ago.

I worked a few summers at the Mayo Clinic while I was going to college in Rochester. I worked in the medical records department the first 2 summers, and I worked in the cardiology department during the third. (funny story: for the first summer, I was offered a job as a surgeon's assistant, if I remember correctly. Well, it was something in surgery. I put down that I was planning to be pre-med, and my application was misread. They thought I was a college graduate, not a high school graduate.) So, in the cardiology department, I was basically a go-fer. I picked stuff up and dropped stuff off for cardiology. There wasn't a whole lot of supervision, and nobody appeared to care about what I was doing as long as I picked stuff up and dropped stuff off. There was another go-fer, and we became good friends. When we weren't being paged, we wandered around the clinic, visiting all of our friends who worked for the summer in other departments. And we hung out a lot at the Barnes & Noble downtown (formerly the Chateau Theatre, and beautiful inside- not sure why I didn't snap indoor pics. oh well).

The first part of the trip in Rochester was loads of fun. We had fun eating, introducing my parents to vegetarian cooking, bowling, and chilling out at home. And I got to introduce Drew to my Mom & Dad's dogs. Here is Rosie:
And Ginger:
And together:
Here we are, modeling our Christmas presents given to each other:
In case you're wondering, my Twins shirt has a 7 on the back and says 'Mauer.' Stay tuned for the Minneapolis part of the trip.