The weather today was predicted to be nice in the morning and not so good later in the day, so we decided to head out and see the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden first thing while it was fine. It was about a 15 minute drive through busy trafiic but well worth it. The park is very close to the center of the city and since opening in 1988, it’s welcomed millions of visitors, showcasing more than 40 works from the Walker Art Center’s collections, including the iconic Spoonbridge and Cherry. If you Google “Minneapolis” you’re bound to see a picture of the “Spoonbridge and Cherry”.
We wandered around enjoying the sculptures, some of which were interactive, including a massive swing.
One I really loved was an installation of dozens of wind chimes in a tree, they were lovely to listen to as you walked beneath.
The Basilica of St Mary, a beautiful cathedral tolled the hour while we were walking through the park nearby.
After leaving the park we drove the 15 minutes down the freeway that takes you to Minneapolis’ Twin-City, and the actual capital city of Minnesota, St Paul. We stopped to take a look at the lovely State Capitol building , shining and white in the sunshine.
That concluded the cultural portion of the day and we set out on the real business of our visit to the Twin Cities – shopping! In stead of heading straight back to the Mall we decided to visit a local Costco. We always love to visit a Costco ( or two!) when we’re in the USA as they are sooo much bigger than ours at home and previously we’ve picked up some great bargains. This time we just came away with a pair of trousers for Neil.
On the way out to Costco we’d passed a mall with a sign for Sierra Trading Post, another of our favourite shops in the USA so we dropped in there on the way back. No bargains this time though. back at the hotel we decided to head over to the Mall to visit a few stores we’d missed last night and yet again I was blown away by the huge theme park in the middle of things!
We’ve been pretty restrained with our shopping here, content to just wander around and browse. We’ll head back over there this evening for dinner at another of the restaurants.