My Sweet Bear had lived there for several years. Friends that he met while living there, Steve and Karen had visited us in Florida before we moved to Kentucky. Early on in my consulting work for AARP I was headed to South Dakota to present a training on a Monday-Tuesday schedule. It was much cheaper to fly out on Saturday, than it was to fly out on Sunday, so Steve picked me up at the airport in Minneapolis St. Paul, and I spent the night with them, flying on to South Dakota the next day. Steve died of cancer a very few years later. Shortly before I moved to DC, I attended a regional Medicare training in Minneapolis, flew in, took the light rail into downtown, walked to the hotel. I explored downtown, I stumbled across a rare book dealer that Sweet Bear had worked for while finishing his PhD.
From what I could see, it is a pretty state. Populated with hearty people, the winters are extremely cold. A nice place to visit, a little to cold for me to think about living there.
Being very cold is something that came quickly to my mind. I must have heard or read something once.
ReplyDeleteA pretty place in the summer, spectacular autumn colors.
DeleteGorgeous in spring. Lots of lakes. The state bird is the mosquito. I love Minneapolis and St. Paul.
ReplyDeleteI missed mosquito season.
DeleteI have also visited Minnesota twice. With my old friend Richard we drove up to the Canadian border to stay in his family cabin by the shores of Rainy Lake and I also had a girlfriend from Minneapolis who came to stay with me when I was at university in Scotland. For those two weeks we were so in love that I wanted it to last forever.
ReplyDeleteYoung love can be intense.
DeleteI have always heard good things about Minneapolis St. Paul but have never been.
ReplyDeleteI might like yo go, in the less frigid and snowy months!
Go for it.
DeleteWhen I worked for Wells Fargo, I used to have to go to Minneapolis quite often. I loved how convenient it was to take the light rail from the airport right into downtown. In the colder months, I could take the skywalk from my hotel all the way to the office.
ReplyDeleteOne of the first cities to connect nearly all downtown buildings with enclosed walkways.
DeleteThe Land of 10,000 Lakes. I've not been there but know a few people who canoe in the Boundary Waters. That area is very remote but very beautiful.
ReplyDeletePretty area, when Hilton opens a series of hotels along the way, I will try it.
DeleteOne time my grandfather visited the state from our home in North Dakota. His host, I think my uncle, said "Now isn't this beautiful?" To which my grandfather displayed his sense of humor with his reply: "I can't tell, there's too many damned trees in the way." Grampa was a native of Minnesota, by the way, but moved to NoDakota as a young man and lived there the rest of his life.
ReplyDeleteI had a roommate from MN who would go into a cliche speech whenever folks were over. I questioned him on this; he said folks expect this of him so he provides it.
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