Feeling Minnesota

My week of absence was due to a trip to Minnesota. To my chagrin, I was actually blown away by the twin cities. While I was there I made sure to scope out the local action and see what these cities were all about. It felt like Europe meets New York City, but in a much smaller scale. The people are so friendly and even though I continually got lost everywhere I went, I seemed to get my gumption and get back on trail. See, here in Cali, you have the mountains and the ocean as a navigational source but, there you have the Great Plains. I felt literally upside down and inside out. Towards the end I got the hang of it and what better to find your way around is to get lost.

First stop was the Mill District. Minnesota is known for milling. Pillsbury, Gold Medal, and all your favorite cereals as a kid come from this area. But, what I love best about it was how they kept the natural look of the city through their architecture. The old buildings were just modified with a little bit of modern and it was cool. Gold Medal Park was an urban dynasty that kissed the Mississippi River. It has so much character to it, the old with the new. It has a little bit of American history still holding on to it.

Mill City Museum

Guthrie Theater

Mississippi River. The view across the Guthrie and Museum

Other amazing Museums that I had the pleasure of seeing was the Walker Museum. While I was there I got to see the Richard Prince exhibition. It was absolutely amazing. The one thing about traveling to different places is given the opportunity to see such incredible art, amazing shopping, which I will get to, delicious food.

Walker Museum from the outside

Richard Prince

Richard Prince

Richard Prince

Richard Prince Images: Walkerart.Org

Sculpture Garden

During the times my sister was on business, my business was to get lost finding things to see. Along the journey I discovered the Frederick R. Weisman Art Museum at the University of Minnesota. The building was designed by legendary Frank Gehry. The collection was of early 20th century American and contemporary art. Here are a few of my favorites along the way.

Weisman Museum

various artist

There are many places to shop in the Twin Cities. Time was limited to get to everything and though, I wished that I could have done it all, sometimes all is just to impossible. I took heed to what the locals said to do for shopping and explored as much of the excitement as I possibly could. The first place that we ventured to was Uptown. Calhoun Square reminded me a lot like our good ole Melrose avenue, lower melrose. The have unique shops such as Luna, American Apparel and other little cute thrift stores and trendy spots. You can also take a stroll around Lake Calhoun and see the most amazing view of the city and spot some not so bad looking mansions around the lake.

We actually got a glance at Mall of America, but barely had enough time to really see because we were in the Nordstrom for so long. Is it big? It's ginormous. If you can fit a shark aquarium, mini Disneyland, and over 500 stores, than that is big. It was cool to see but we had other plans for our time at that was local boutiques. One section that I wish we got to see was Edina boutiques at the intersection of 50th and France but, time eluded us. This was the high end section and maybe with our spending was probably better to say yeah we did it but, really didn't.


Our next stop was to make sure that not only did we get in as much as possible but, it was important to see both cities as much as possible. So, we decided to go to St. Paul and do a little shopping. The popular spot is Grand Ave. Though you can't really walk the Street there was plenty of it to see. Along the way we hit a couple of cute vintage stores and continued on our journey. One of the stops was Up Six a vintage, retro, and furniture store. They had very cute picks to choose from. We chose an amazing leather jacket. Another cool store is LuLu around the corner. Check out Up Six online for other stores in the area.


Grand Avenue in St. Paul is great place to shop and see some amazing historical buildings Along Grand we stop by a very cute shop called Danish Bohemia where you can find the cutest items all Danish inspired. Inside Danish Bohemia is darling tea spot where you can get some amazing teas. The Northern Lights Tea Company, has the most amazing blends of teas. I am a huge fan of tea and had to get some for home. When Sandra, the owner, opened up the canisters the aroma of the teas just blew me away. I had to have them. She is very knowledgeable about the regions and what makes up that particular tea. All the teas are organic and are fair trade. So, at the same time your getting your favorite tea, you can feel good that you are contributing to something great, being Green. Another great shop was Karma. Karma was actually written up in Lucky magazine as one of the places to shop in the Twin Cities. My sister's Closet was a 2 story vintage store that had the cutest vintage clothing and contemporary clothing. You name it and she had it. What makes these boutiques so amazing is that they are located in the historical houses along the street. Check out some of my pix.