definately the coolest city…not just the weather

First and foremost, Minneapolis is a miserably cold, frozen tundra of a place. However, it is beautiful and I had a blast. We got in on Friday and this is what it looked like on the streets outside of the airport.

Like I said, it was cold.  Luckily I had some good friends that let me borrow some warm accessories so that I could stay at a fiery 98.6 degrees.  I’m not going to bore you with all the mundane details of the trip so I will touch on some of my favorites, first being the Mall of America.  What a place.  I can’t really describe how impressive of a facility it is.  We went there to waste some time the first day, and to eat at Bubba Gumps.  The mall is a 4-story building with every kind of store you can imagine, it even had like 32 shoe stores (we counted on the directory).  In the middle was this huge, 3-story amusement park with a ferris wheel, roller coasters, merry-go-round, and other rides.

If you ever get the chance to make the trip, I highly recommend going to see this place.  I would fly back just to spend a couple of days here.  I wonder what its like the week of Christmas…

After dinner,  we headed over to the Minneapolis Convention Center to check out the auditorium we would be holding our even in.  This room was HUGE!!!  The sound system was pretty cool too.  We set up our equipment, tested everything out and even managed to snap a couple pictures before bedtime.

Saturday morning was day one of the auction. There was press all over the place, and a pretty nice crowd showed up for the sale.  I was in charge of managing the internet bidders.  Don’t feel like explaining all that but here is what I was doing online all day.

So thats what I was doing.  This is my boss doing what he does best.  You should hear him do his auction chant.

After the first day of selling was over, we went to lunch down the road at Brit’s Pub.  This was a really cool place.  There were fireplaces lit, couches, billiards, and they had really tasty food.  After lunch a couple of us decided to walk about 4 blocks and visit the Target.  I have never seen a 2-story Target before, but I found something even more interesting inside.  In the center of the store was an escalator equipped with a special center section for your carts to ride up in.  You placed your cart in at the bottom and got it at the top.

Downtown Minneapolis is a place I would have liked to have spent more time.  There are shops, businesses, and restaurants everywhere.

Later that night some of us decided to walk around for dinner.  One bad thing – it was only about 11 degrees outside.  Our remedy?  The skywalk.  On the second floor of the buildings downtown, there are these tube-like walkways that keep you out of the elements.  We walked inside from block to block.  Not only did this thing contain hotels and offices, it was practically a strip mall above the city.  I even saw a Gap and Banana Republic up there.  The only bad thing is that all the shops close at 8 and we almost got stuck in the Macy’s.  Long story for another time.  This is what it looked like in that thing.

The next day was spent at the convention center again, and then the airport.  At the airport I was going through security to get to our terminal.  I had already gone through the metal detector and was waiting for my bags to come off the conveyor.  My rolling luggage came out just fine, but when my backpack arrived a security guard immediately took it, grabbed me, and walked me over to this little table where he pulled out everything.  He confiscated my tooth paste and face soap.  Apparently he thought I was going to high jack the plane by cleaning the pilot’s pores and making his breath minty fresh (hopefully some of you found that one-liner amusing, because the security guard did not).  When we left Minneapolis I realized that flying at night was one of the most beautiful things I had ever seen.  To be above everything else and look down at the lit streets and buildings was like pulling open a computer and watching the circuit board light up and process all the actions and formulas you put in it.

I can’t wait until one day I can go back and spend some time leisurely.  Its an amazing place.  I hope I can do it again sometime.

~ by mikemonts on January 28, 2008.