Minnesota – Minneapolis

We only had 1.5 days to spend in Minneapolis and one whole day was already ear-marked for the Mall of America. The extra half day was wide open but we were a little travel weary by this point so I don’t feel we squeezed quite as much adventure out of it as we could have. Needing rest and sleep can be a real inconvenience sometimes. We visited the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden and then located a Jucy Lucy for dinner. Read on for what we saw and what we missed.

Minneapolis Sculpture garden

The Minneapolis Sculpture Garden is completely free but you do pay for parking (a few dollars for an hour). It’s open from 6 AM to midnight daily and the trails are all wheel-chair accessible. Interestingly, the park was built on a marshland, so a lot of thinking and collaborating went into the layout. There are approximately 40 outdoor sculptures interspersed and highlighted among areas of native grasses and wildflowers.

Possibly the most famous sculpture is the Spoonbridge and Cherry pictured above. It has come to represent Minneapolis and is seen on many travel sites and advertisements for the city. Apparently, it’s a local favorite as well because there were two wedding parties taking photos in front of the sculpture in the 1.5 hours we spent moseying around.

I’m notoriously terrible at judging distances. I didn’t read anywhere how long the paths were at the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden but using my malfunctioning internal guessimator, I would say approximately one mile to loop through everything.

Important Tips:

• there is a free app called Bloomberg Connects you can download that walks you through the sculpture garden and provides maps, info and more information about each piece, as well as the
• There is also a visitor self-guided tour sheet that you can download. It’s a PDF file which you print out and take along. Technically it’s for visitors of all ages but it seemed more geared to kids and families to me. It’s not really a tour sheet (whatever that is), it’s more of a workbook. There are 8 pages total, with the first being a small map. The others are interactive pages, prompting people to make up stories about a particular sculpture, describe emotions it makes them feel, dream up your own sculpture of an everyday object etc.
• There is a paid parking lot right next door to the sculpture garden, so the access is very easy. Sharing the grounds is also The Walker Art Institute, which is an arts venue, featuring galleries, performances, film screenings and more.

mall of america

Mall of America is big. I mean, really really big. I thought it was going to be big going in, but then it turned out to be even bigger than I imagined. It’s 4.2 million square feet, with approximately 500 stores, over 50 restaurants, an indoor amusement park, Sea Life Aquarium, mini golf, bowling alley, movie theaters, Crayola experience, escape rooms, gaming studio, Flyover America, mirror maze, urban combat zone, comedy club, mini golf and lots of things I’m leaving out. The mall estimates that if you go into every store and spend 10 minutes, it would take you approximately 86 hours to get through everything. As I said, it’s big. The largest mall in the Western Hemisphere, in fact.

We started at Nickelodeon Universe, the indoor amusement park. The roof is glass in this area and it was a sunny day so it really gave the impression of being outside. You can either purchase an all-day wrist band ($45) for unlimited rides or you can purchase individual points. The rides are either 3 points (kiddie rides) or 6 points (big kid/adult rides). We love coasters and amusement park rides as much as the next family, but I didn’t want to drop a lot of time here because there were so many other things to see and ways to spend money. So I bought 6 points (=$8.10) for each kid and let them choose one ride. They elected The Fairly Odd Coaster and loved it. At a little over $8 per ride for big kids, a wrist band would be worth it if they’re going to ride more than 5 rides. At our visit, there were 7 thrill rides, plus an assortment of family and kiddie rides. We were there as soon as the mall opened on a Sunday morning and our kids waited in line for approximately 40 minutes for their ride, so take that into consideration as well. The amusement park is big considering its indoors but small compared to outdoor parks. On Nickelodeon Universe’s website there are bundle ticket packages, so if you also want to visit the aquarium, do the Crayola experience, go mini golfing or a do a flight simulation ride over America, be sure to check out the bundle options.

After leaving Nickelodeon Universe, we basically wandered the mall for the next 6 hours. We’re really not big clothing shoppers, so we mostly stuck to unique stores, such Crayola (they have art work made with crayons), the M&M store (go through the rainbow light tunnel and take a photo in front of the Minnesota mural made out of M&M’s), the Lego store (massive Lego creations that are hanging from the ceiling), an amazing toy store which prompted us to buy Christmas presents in July, a store dedicated to all things Minnesota and a candy store making the most adorable cotton candy animals. The prices in MOA are comparable to any other mall. This includes the Lego kits, which are priced as if they’re going to be a family heirloom.

We spent one whole day in Mall of America (MOA) and I thought that was perfect. If you’re into shopping and urban entertainment, you could easily spend several days. I mostly kept us focused on things that were unique to the mall and we skipped activities that could be done elsewhere. We were there on a Sunday in July, from open to close, and although it was busy, I didn’t think the crowds were overwhelming. One nice thing about 4.2 million square feet is that you have room to spread out. Another handy fact about that much indoor acreage is that, if you keep moving all day, you can log over 10 miles on your fitness tracker. Jax was so tired by the end that he thought he may need pushed home in a shopping cart.

12 Important Things to Know Before Going To The Mall Of America:

1. There are hotels that hook directly onto the mall, plus there are many hotels in the area that offer free shuttle service to and from the mall. The Mall of America website details a list of preferred hotels, with the most popular amenities listed for each. People can, and do, spend entire vacations here.
2. Wear comfortable shoes. You will be walking. A lot. We hoofed it 10 miles in one day inside the mall.
3. If you live within driving distance, the MOA actually offers car detailing, oil changes and car washing while you shop.
4. I didn’t realize it at the time but you can rent lockers, strollers, shopping carts and wheelchairs. We lugged around our purchases all day and kept playing Rock Paper Scissors to decide who had to carry a particularly heavy pair of shoes. I didn’t see anyone with a shopping cart but the lockers certainly would have been nice.
5. There is a Mall of America app. Download it. Peruse it.
6. Plan ahead. If you are in any way limited on time, I would definitely advise against just walking into the mall and blundering around. There is too much to do and you’ll be overwhelmed. Download the app beforehand and look through the stores and activities. Mark the ones you definitely want to visit and try to work out a rough itinerary. Approach this like an urban hike – do some planning, wear appropriate clothing, pack snacks and let a buddy know where you’re going in case you need rescued from the depths of a clearance rack.
7. There are MOA Tours! I didn’t know this until after our visit, but they offer behind the scene tours and answer questions I didn’t even know I had. As a matter of fact, I do want to know why the floors aren’t flat in Nickelodeon Universe.
8. Check Groupon for deals. Remember how I said to plan ahead? If not – refer to #6 above. The night before our visit, while we were discussing activities, the kids said they wanted to do The Amazing Mirror Maze. It was listed at $10 per person, but I found a Groupon offer that was $20 for a family of four.
9. Find your pickup spots ahead of time! Our hotel offered free shuttle service to and from the mall. However, there are many parking lots, dozens of doors and 4.2 million square feet to navigate. Approximately 30 minutes before the hotel shuttle arrival, we started looking for the pickup location. We had to call the hotel, who said to use the Northwest exit #2. After consulting a map, marching in the wrong direction, getting lost, stopping to ask for directions, half jogging in a panicked fashion in a different direction, we eventually determined that the Northwest exit #2 is part of a black hole and doesn’t seem to exist. In the end, we missed the last free hotel shuttle and had to sleep in a canoe at the LL Bean store. Just kidding. We did miss the shuttle though. That part is true, so we had to find alternative transportation back to our hotel. Don’t be like us. Figure it out ahead of time.
10. There is no sales tax on clothing in Minnesota. This applies to general use clothing, not accessories, sports equipment or protective gear. For example, if you purchase pants, no sales tax. If you purchase a suit of armor, expect to hand over some tax.
11. If you have one day at MOA, like we did, I would not recommend committing to any one particular thing. Yes, Nickelodeon Universe offers unlimited all-day ride bands but there are so many interesting things to see and do that I’m glad we mostly explored.
12. If you’re going to spend a short amount of time in Nickelodeon Universe, do it early or late! Nickelodeon is like any other amusement park, in that ride wait times fluctuate dramatically between the different rides and throughout the day. We went there first thing in the morning, purchased tickets quickly and still waited in line for 40 minutes.

jucy lucy

The Jucy Lucy or Juicy Lucy is Minnesota’s claim to fame in the hamburger department and they are almost exclusive to the bottom half of the state. The Lucy is a cheeseburger, except the cheese is sealed in between two hamburger patties and turns into a molten pocket of gooeyness when the burger is seared.

Matt’s Bar & Grill in Minneapolis takes credit for making the first Jucy Lucy around 1954. They drop the “i” from their version and have been featured on various TV shows, including Man Vs. Food and Food Wars. Their main rival is the 5-8 Club, which bills itself as home of the Juicy Lucy. The 5-8 Club, also a Minneapolis restaurant, has had its Juicy Lucy featured on food channels, as well as Jimmy Fallon. Time Magazine has even gone so far as to name this Minnesota favorite as one of the Top 17 Most Influential Burgers. I didn’t know a list of history-changing hamburgers existed, but there you have it.

I absolutely love trying state specific food and so a Juicy Lucy had to be on the list. It would have been fabulous to try both Matt’s Bar & Grill version compared to 5-8 Club version but alas, time and stomach space were limited. We ended up ordering from 5-8 Club due to proximity to our hotel. At Matt’s Bar & Grill, there is one Jucy Lucy. The famous one. At 5-8 Club, they offer a variety of versions, from ones stuffed with bleu cheese, with chipotle and onion straws on top, to ones with American cheese, bacon and secret sauces.

The critics of the Ju(i)cy Lucy point out the burgers must be well done in order to melt the cheese on the inside and they feel by definition this means the burgers are too dry. We did not find that to be the case. Our Juicy Lucy’s were FANTASTIC. In fact, you have to be a little careful because the burger comes hot and if you tear right in, the molten cheese will pour out of the middle, scalding whatever body part it contacts. The picture above does not do it justice because I forgot to take a picture until most of the meal was finished and then I snapped a hasty one with a greasy finger. Put down your reading device and go add Ju(i)cy Lucy to your Minnesota Bucket List right now.