We arrived in Minneapolis on Friday. After doing teaching sessions at the University of Minnesota Radiology Department on Friday afternoon, we spent a non-biking day in the city on Saturday before biking 58 miles to Faribeault, MN on Sunday. We really enjoyed, and were impressed with, Minneapolis. Its downtown appears to be a vibrant, thriving place, with superb restaurants (a useful quality when on a calorie-burning trip like ours). Another impressive fact, relevant to our trip, is that Minneapolis was just named by Bicycling Magazine as America's best bicycle city. The city has 83 miles of bike trails and another 44 miles of on-street bikeways. Though we almost always shun bike paths and trails, we rode along their trails for the last few miles into the city on Friday and the first few miles out of the city on Sunday.
Minneapolis has also adapted to its cold environment very well. It has an extensive "skyway" system of covered bridges between buildings: the world's largest continuous network of skyways, 8 miles long connecting 69 blocks in downtown Minneapolis that allow you to travel from building to building without going outdoors. It also has an indoor amusement park, with several roller coasters and other rides, inside what is probably the most visited tourist attraction in America: the Mall of America, where we went on Sunday to buy specialty socks.
Our lobster dish that's a work of art (at the art museum's restaurant)
A stomach-churning roller coaster at the Mall of America (we didn't take it, just listened to the screams of those who did)
Another ride at the mall
Crossing the Mississippi River on our way out of Minneapolis
