Minneapolis

I have no real vested interest in crossing every US state off my list, and to be honest, I thought Minnesota was one that would remain unvisited aside from the occasional layover in MSP. That changed when my sister and her partner decided to move to Minneapolis this summer, and I requested an employee pass flight through work to head up and hang out with them in mid-October, curious to see why they chose this city.

They had told me it's one of (if not the) best cities for trans people in the US, and that the biking infrastructure was incredible. I'll rave more about the bike lanes in my day-to-day breakdown, but I was also so happy how much progressive signage was everywhere, especially anti-ICE sentiments, both in shops and at residential houses. The whole vibe unexpectedly reminded me a bit of Portland, Oregon.

It's definitely more a quality-of-life city than a tourist city, but there is more than enough to do to fill a long weekend as a first-time visitor. As a note, my sister and her partner sold their car as soon as they moved, so we were reliant on public transit and bikes for my visit. It wasn't an issue on this trip, but you could fit more in and go further afield if you do have a car.

Day 1

Bde Maka Ska, Biking, Brewery, BnB, & Stone Arch Bridge

I landed very early on a Friday, around 8:30 AM, and found my sister at the airport's light rail station to head into the city. She bought me a Go card with money loaded on it to get around for the weekend, which was really nice, and you just have to tap it before boarding any buses or trains. $2 will cover you for all rides and transfers in a 2 1/2 hour window.

We were headed to their apartment in Uptown, but the train from the airport takes you downtown first where you transfer at the Bob Dylan mural.

Uptown is actually south of downtown, and the area is super cute and walkable. Lots of residential houses and nice brick apartments with cafes, bakeries, and shops all within a few blocks.

After dropping off my bags, we started off with breakfast at Gigi's nearby where I had a snickerdoodle latte and an egg and cheddar biscuit sandwich with veggie sausage, then walked a few blocks to their nearest lake, Bde Maka Ska.

We took a nice stroll from the pier to the beach, then stopped for a coffee at the 90s-tech themed Thesis cafe before picking up bicycles at their house to go for a ride.

They had an e-bike for me to borrow, and my sister was already very familiar with the bike paths, so she led the way to the brewery I wanted to visit. I'd already seen how nicely bike paths were separated from the main road while we were walking around, but then we veered off onto the completely isolated bike highway, and that was really awesome!

The whole road is for bikes and pedestrians only, stretches east and west across the city, and runs below underpasses where the car roads are. There's even a community garden, soccer field, and bike shop along the way, along with tons of murals under all the bridges.

That was so peaceful to ride on, and then we pulled off at our "exit" onto even more pretty bike paths that ran beside trees and the train tracks. It felt super safe biking through the city this way and let us enjoy the great fall weather too. (This was the chilliest day of my visit in the 50s, so I was a little more bundled up, but the next three days were all mid-60s.)

The brewery we hit up was called Modist, and I had a hazy mango vanilla double IPA followed by their pickle lager. Both were decent, and I liked the space. I'd have hit up more breweries if I wasn't the only one of us interested in alcohol, but most of the breweries and restaurants do have THC drinks as well for non-drinkers.

Seb was done with work by the time we got back and joined us to head downtown and check into my Air BnB for the weekend. Their place is a little small and they'd just moved in when I booked the trip, so it was easier for them if I stayed elsewhere. Honestly, my BnB was one of the highlights of my whole visit, so I did not end up with complaints.

If you get a chance to stay at 300 Clifton, this gorgeous 1887 mansion on a quiet street full of estates, do it. I only paid $395 total for three nights in a room with a shared bathroom, and it was incredible.

Reception was in the carriage house, which also has a pool table, pinball machine, and arcade game plus rooms of its own and a community kitchen upstairs.

I was offered welcome wine to drink while being given the house tour.

The main house was like stepping into a portal to the past.

I was on the third floor, and although the bathroom up there was shared with two other rooms, I only ever waited on a shower once during my stay.

Along with all of this, there's a koi pond in the garden and free fish food in a machine beside it to feed them and the ducks.

There are also two cats on the property. We only met Casper, but he was the best host ever, climbing into all of our laps and coming running with little meows when I got back at night and called for him. 10/10, incredible hospitality.

The house is supposedly haunted, and they also offer use of their onsite hot tub or spooky movie theater at an extra charge (I had neither the time nor spare cash to use those).

Once we finished enthusing over my BnB and getting acquainted with Casper, we headed to dinner at Stray Dog. I'm a vegetarian and Em and Seb both vegans, so I had made a list of veggie and vegan friendly places I wanted to try, about half of which they'd already been to. Stray Dog was lower on my list, but omg, it was so worth it!

Totally decorated for Halloween inside and with plenty of dog-themed decor otherwise, plus so many veg and vegan options available. I love trying local dishes when possible, so I got the vegetarian version of the Minnesota tater tot hotdish, a delicious slop of tater tots, brussel sprouts, cheese, vegan pork, mushroom bechamel, and truffle oil. My 3rd best meal of the trip (which really says something about how good my top two were since I loved this). I also tried the pistachio ale from the local Indeed Brewing, and now Indeed is on my must-visit list for next time because it was an incredible beer.

We ended the night by walking along the river to see gorgeous skyline views, then crossing the landmark Stone Arch Bridge. Since I had been up for about 17 hours at this point, we decided to postpone the speakeasy I wanted to see and call it an early night. I was in bed by 9 and it was much needed.

Day 2

Como Park, Weisman Art Museum, & Nightlife

Of course, I was up at 5:45 the next morning, which I think was less a time zone issue than my sleep schedule being messed up because I'd gotten up at 4 AM (3 AM MSP time) to catch my flight the day before. Since I couldn't get back to bed, I took a shower, had a coffee downstairs, and read until 8-9 when Em and Seb came to meet me.

The focus of the day was St. Paul, so we caught a combo of buses and trains east and started off with brunch at J. Selby's vegan restaurant. I had a salted caramel and peanut butter shake along with the ramen on their specials board. I thought my own meal was just okay and wish I had tried the crunchwrap off the regular menu instead, but I did love the buffalo cauliflower that Seb got to share with the table.

There was a shuttle from nearby that went straight to the Como Zoo and Conservatory, so we caught that and had an awesome day there. I would definitely plan for 3-4 hours, because we spent at least that. And although they accept donations, the whole place is free!

The outside is already scenic with the glass building and a historic carousel. The inside is mostly the conservatory, aside from a separate rainforest section with animals (frogs, tortoises, birds, a sloth). The zoo is located out back and has flamingos, cougars, tigers, giraffes, arctic foxes (!!!), buffalo, gorillas, lots of monkeys, zebras, an aquarium with penguins and puffins, and more.

I bought myself a cute monkey in the gift shop to add to my plushie menagerie, then we walked through the conservatory which was beautiful.

There's also another area out back with a Japanese garden and bonsai exhibit. Really fantastic place overall!

Our next stop was the Weisman Art Museum on the university campus (also free), which we had about an hour to see before closing. Along with a lot of thought-provoking paintings, there were some cool interactive exhibits like an old apartment hallway where putting your ear to each door would play audio from inside.

We were cutting it close on time to get to our 7 PM drag show, so when we ran into Hard Times Cafe after crossing the bridge back into Minneapolis, we decided to just have dinner there since it had been on my list. This was so punk rock, I wanted to be there sobering up at 1 AM with a black coffee and a smoke. Cash only, all vegetarian, old punk clientele, punk music, cigarettes sold behind the counter. I had a seitan reuben and iced miele. Food was just decent but grunge vibes immaculate.

From there, we caught a bus back to my BnB to drop off our day bags and walk to Roxy's Cabaret for their Saturday night drag show. The event space was like its own theater, and the show was in a small side room with tables, a bar, and the stage.

Definitely more of an intimate setting with wait staff for food and drinks and a decent amount of crowd interaction. I like that the main cast is older queens as well, and Nina D'Angelo and Monica West were both great, but I was disappointed that Bebe from Drag Race was not there despite being billed as one of the headliners. Julia Starr was the replacement though and put on an excellent show.

We made one more stop afterwards at Volstead's Emporium, a speakeasy closer to Uptown. I'd recommend a reservation because it was packed, and our res was the only reason we were seated so quickly. The entrance is in an alley out back, but it wasn't hard to figure out which door based on the line outside. They put us in a cute booth with curtains near the bar, and our waiter sometimes would pop in through the mirror in the wall to check on us. There was also a stage with musical performers, and the whole vibe was very 20s.

Day 3

Mall of America & Minnehaha Falla

We started off our day with brunch at Reverie, which was where we'd intended to have dinner the night before until we realized we were tight on time. It's a cute, bright vegan cafe with a very pretty patio, and my witchy bitch latte (rosemary and peppercorn) and benedict were both great. I'd love to come back and try their dinner menu and draft list another time.

Next up was a train to the Mall of America. I had been told this was underwhelming. That it really is just a big mall with rides in it. I believed this, yet somehow was still disappointed despite it being exactly what I expected. The ride area in the middle is busy and colorful and gave me a quick dopamine hit, but then we spent like two hours just walking through a regular-ass mall (albeit with four stories and some experience-based activities on the higher floors), and I bought gloves at Hot Topic and had pretzel bites at Auntie Anne's, and I really could have been down the road from home at South Park mall in Strongsville, OH.

At least Emery and I rode one of the coasters - the Rock Bottom Plunge with a 90 degree hill and some upside down twists - and that was fun if you can get past spending nearly $10 on a single ride.

Since it was now afternoon and we didn't have a lot more time for sightseeing, I asked if we could just hop off the bus at Minnehaha Falls on our way back, since it's on the route between the mall and the city. The park is right across the street from the transit stop, and the falls are down a set of stairs. They're very pretty, but if you're just coming to see the waterfall, you can be in and out in ten minutes.

Our bus back to Uptown passed by the George Floyd memorial at the site of his murder, so we were able to see that out the window, and I really appreciated the way Minneapolis has memorialized the victims of ICE and police brutality. I saw Renee Good banners at Reverie that morning as well.

Back at Em and Seb's apartment, we took a quick break (lie down and ibuprofen for me because my four drinks and substandard sleep of the night before were catching up) then hopped on the bikes and took the bike highway out to dinner. We crossed over the Sabo Bike Bridge on the way too, and seriously look at this biking infrastructure! Jeez.

Our dinner destination was Francis Burger, and what a cool vegan spot! I loved the red lights and open garage doors, but the food was my best meal of the trip up to that point. I got a maple bacon milkshake and the spicy chicken burger with fries, and wow. Possibly the best vegan chicken I've ever had, and topped with pickled red onions and delicious sauce.

We had a really refreshing night ride back, stopped to check out their local bookstore, then rode back up to my BnB where I called it a night (after letting Casper crawl all over our laps for a little hang sesh).

Day 4

Sculpture Park

Checkout in the morning wasn't until 10, so I was up and showered by 8 to take a short walk over to the sculpture garden which was very close to my BnB. This brought me through Loring Park first, which was super pretty, especially with the sun rising over the lake and the fall colors.

There was a nice pedestrian walkway elevated over the highway separating Loring Park from the sculpture garden. I really enjoyed walking around seeing the art.

Obviously there is the famous Spoonbridge and Cherry...

...but there were also a good dozen other sculptures of an equal size and a walkway of smaller ones as well. I basically had the park to myself aside from a few gardeners.

I was sad to pack up and say goodbye to my beautiful BnB, but I'm really glad I called an Uber to get to my brunch cafe of choice, Modern Times, by 9:30, because by the time I finished eating, there was a line out the door on a Monday morning. Apparently they are closing near the end of the year and everyone is trying to make the most of their final months.

And I totally understand why, because omg, this gritty, cramped little retro diner served me a plate hashbrown rancheros that I will be thinking about forever. I was full halfway through and plowed on because it would have been a crime to waste any of this meal.

Cheddar, tofu, avocado, lettuce, sour cream, all on a bed of hash browns and ranchero sauce. I could cry.

I had just enough time to stop by Em and Seb's and run out to a cute local Korean cafe with Emery for a black sesame latte before we had to say goodbye. They walked me to the bus stop, and I caught a connection the train to make my 2:45 PM flight home.

This was such a cute little weekend away, and I left really impressed with the city! I thought three days would be plenty for Minneapolis, but I'm actually excited to visit again in the future and see more of the city and surrounding areas.