Spoonbridge and Cherry – My First 2016 Trip in Minnesota

I know, I know. It’s been such a long time since I’ve blogged. I would love to say it’s been because I’ve been busy traveling the world day and night, but really I’ve just been busy with life. I wish blogging and traveling is my full time job, but since it isn’t my full time job, I try my best to make any time off I have into an adventure.

That’s why when I found out Alex and I had the same two days off in a row together, we jumped at the chance to finally travel to a new place. Queue in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Living in South Dakota we always hear about Minneapolis being a big city not too far from us to visit. We kept saying we would visit it all last year, but of course we never found the time or money to go.

Finally in the beginning of the year we booked our hotel for our consecutive days off and we had never been so excited to travel to a new place in so long. So after work we headed off for a road trip to Minneapolis.

We arrived into the big city late at night where we stayed at a Holiday Inn Express in town. Not going to lie, walking from the parking lot to the hotel we literally froze in the middle of the night. Luckily the cool thing that Minneapolis has are Skyways that connects most of the buildings in the city for a climate controlled environment, so during these winter times it’s perfect to stroll through town in these.

After a wonderful night’s sleep in our king bed, we decided to step into town, geared up in our winter coats, and see what this city has in store for us. Now I’m a big planner, especially when it comes to travel plans. I like to do my research and have ideas of where to go for the day.

I saw that Minneapolis has this observation deck in the W Hotel or formally known as the Foshay tower. We decided to walk out into the fresh cold city air and see if we could go check it out.

Look at that temperature! -8 — Look at that temperature!

Unfortunately for us, the elevator that goes up to the observation deck happened to be out of service until February. So I only got pictures of the tower itself instead of on the deck. But the next time we go to Minneapolis that will definitely be at the top of my list to visit for I love observation decks of cities.

While we walked around a little I did see a little bit of the street art that is part of Minneapolis. I have heard there are some amazing ones out there, but maybe on a non-negative degree day we will explore more into it. But here is a little taste of some of the street art we saw.

Another point of interest on my list of things to do in Minneapolis was to visit the Walker Art Center to the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden and see the Spoonbridge and Cherry.

Considering it was a working day Tuesday around noon on a gusty cold day, the sculpture and park was empty. The park and museum as a whole is currently under construction, but we were at least able to go see the Spoonbridge and Cherry.

While it’s not the coolest thing I’ve ever seen and nor was it a place I could sit and stay for hours looking at. Alex and I had fun seeing it and taking pictures on it.

Checking too make sure the lake was all iced out.

Note: After taking pictures on the spoon, I later realized there were signs saying to not climb, sit and play on the sculpture. Opps.

Overall it was fun little morning adventure we had in the city of Minneapolis. We didn’t do a whole lot in the city considering we just needed to have a relaxing getaway. I’ll have to come back in the summer or spring when the grass is green at the garden and see the Walker Art Center too. I hear it is a beautiful place during that time.

But in the meantime, we did go to the Mall of America and that will have to be a whole other posts considering how much there was to do in this big, big mall.

So keep an eye out for my part two of my first 2016 trip to Minnesota next TRAVEL TUESDAY! All I can say is that we did have quite an adventure in America’s largest mall.

The Minneapolis Sculpture Garden is open year-round and is free to walk around and explore.

Fun on the Spoonbridge and Cherry for my first 2016 trip!

Have you already taken a trip to somewhere new in 2016? And if not, where are you planning for travels this year? Share your thoughts in the comments below! I’d love to hear it!