St. Cloud, MN to Medora, ND (plus a video!)

We left Minneapolis late in the afternoon and knew we were a little behind schedule. We decided to stay one night in nearby St. Cloud, then do an ambitious drive the following day.

St. Cloud was a great stop for the evening (are there any Marshall Eriksen fans out there?!). We had dinner at Anton's, a favorite of the locals, and took the opportunity to celebrate the completion of my continuing education hours (freedom!). Later, we grabbed a beer at White Horse before walking around the little downtown as the sun set, all the while Taras was trying to teach me how to whistle (he was not successful).

The next day we drove onward to North Dakota. We stopped for lunch in Fargo, just to say we did. As we drove west, the flat landscape changed to hills and valleys.  Even though the temperature dropped by 20 degrees, we were thrilled to see new landscapes. No more flat land! As a bonus, it was a beautiful day to drive - the sun and clouds gave us quite the show. Well, until we were right outside of Medora and the rain started pouring down... more on that tomorrow. 

-Amanda

The strong winds were playing with the grass along the road, so we pulled over and shot some shaky videos:

Food | Minneapolis - St. Paul, MN

Food is delicious. And the Twin Cities were extra delicious.

We started our grazing with dinner at the 112 eatery in downtown Minneapolis. The place had a great cozy atmosphere, and the food was super good, as should be expected from a James Beard winner for Best Chef Midwest. We shared a salad and two small pasta plates.

St. Paul won us over with the food trucks parked on Kellogg Blvd., outside of the City Hall. The food selection was excellent with around half a dozen trucks parked on a busy downtown street. Tons of local "suits" were down at the trucks for lunch. We chose a taco offering, dripping with an awesome sauce.

Tao Natural Foods & Organic Café was one of our all-USA favorites! The fresh vegetarian offerings reminded us of our favorite healthy eatery in Cambridge (Life Alive). We had a wheatgrass shot and two bowls filled with brown rice, beans, avocado, and greens. The added charm of Bragg Aminos at each table made us feel right at home! Bonus: they have a great market for your natural-living essentials.

Dinner on day two was at the highly Yelp-rated (we definitely live and die by Yelp!) Brasa, serving southern, creole, and Caribbean inspired comfort food. We shared something like 3 small meats and 5 small sides and it was just the right amount for 3 people, without getting stuffed to a condition of a food-coma...

..which left some room for cupcakes!  We went to Cupcake (winner of Cupcake Wars on the Food Network) for dessert, to fill a special request for my brother to bring treats home to his wife. With plenty of sugary options, including cupcakes, brownies, and frosting shots, coupled with a good coffee, we were reasonably impressed... although, we've all had better cupcakes.

On our way out of town the following day, we popped into Moose & Sadie's in the North Loop/Warehouse neighborhood for a quick bite. The tuna melt I ordered was very good (I'm a sucker for a tuna sandwich...) and Amanda's wrap was nice and fresh.

Twin Cities, you fed us very well - thank you for that!

-Taras

Minneapolis - St. Paul, MN

Our visit to the Twin Cities went a little differently: Taras's brother was in town for work, and it was great to slow down a bit and see a familiar face from home. We also spent a good chunk of our time in the beautiful Minneapolis library while I finished my CPEs, alongside a gazillion homeless dudes escaping the rain. We didn't do as much exploring as we would have liked, but here is what we did see:

St. Paul - It was raining so we did a quick drive-by of Summit Ave. (to see the beautiful, historic homes) and Grand Ave. (to check out the shops and restaurant scene). When the rain stopped we went downtown - there is some great architecture, the area is well-maintained, and there are Peanuts character statues around Landmark Plaza. We also made sure to stop by City Hall to see the Vision of Peace statue. But the real highlight was visiting the Cathedral of St. Paul - it looks like a building straight out of Europe.

Minneapolis - We explored different parts of the city on foot but didn't manage to take photos of most districts, like Uptown, Northeast, and North Loop. Downtown was bustling and I couldn't get enough of the awesome, retro business signs. We made a quick visit to Minnehaha Falls Park and were awed by how nice it was to have nature of this sort so close to a city. And, don't worry, we made a quick stop at the Mall of America. I know you were worried.

If we had more time we would've loved to check out the sculpture garden, see the Museum of Russian Art, bike some of the local trails to fully appreciate the strong bike culture of the city, spend more time at Minnehaha Falls Park, and enjoy one of the city's lakes. 

Do you live in the Twin Cities, or have you visited before? What did we miss?

Stay tuned for a post about our eats in the Twin Cities!

-Amanda

St. Paul:

Minneapolis:

Lake City, MN

After what seemed like endless driving through the crop fields of the Midwest, we made a quick stop in Lake City, MN. We grabbed some breakfast at a local diner in the sleepy downtown area, and took some time to enjoy the town's namesake, Lake Pepin, and the shore park. We learned that a lake can be a widening a river, where the current slows down significantly - and that's what Lake Pepin is: a wide part of the Mississippi River.

Lake City's claim to fame: it is known as "the birthplace of waterskiing."

Oh, and we spotted a cute family of ducks at the shore park - enjoy the animated gif at the bottom of the post. 

-Amanda