And then Minneapolis goes and surprises you...

When you have spent sufficient time in a city as small as Minneapolis to carve out your favorite spots, you sometimes believe you have been everywhere, know everyone...that there are few surprises left. So when my husband packed up the car and headed west toward Mound, MN this past Thursday afternoon, I got completely freaked out he was taking me for a pontoon rental on Lake Minnetonka.

Imagine my surprise when we veered away from the lake, and pulled up to Big Stone Mini Golf + Sculpture Park.  First, before I even tell you about the wonder that lay inside, I gotta tell you how much I love a place that just lets you "do you". We brought in our own picnic and ate it on a picnic table with giant metal gloves and mittens attached to it (use your imagination). There were no rules posted (none of that "no outside food" nonsense). In the shed where you pay for golf, you could also purchase goat snacks, organic eggs to take home and baskets made from colorful melted eyeglass frames. I could live here. The staff encouraged you to explore the entire property: mini golf, sculpture park, farm and gathering spaces. Basically, they tell you that they are "open until 9:30, and go wherever you like". There is something about this freedom on someone else's magical property that almost seems too good to be true. We made a day of it.

So mini-golf, putt-putt, whatever you fancy to call it- I've been pretty disappointed with the trend in "landscaped courses" in the past 15 years. If I want to hang out with a bunch of over-manicured annuals, I can just sit outside of a mall next to their planters. Not the case here. These holes are mega-creative. To the point that a good putt-putter would probably be frustrated with the bumps and uneven playing surfaces. This isn't actually about golf. It's all about engaging with your golf-mates, getting lost in an enchanted garden and your own imagination.  I am now curious if the latest putt-putt trend- the "artist-designed" mini golf- has gotten its inspiration here at Big Stone. 

There is only one other putt-putt course I feel equally passionate about. It is a "canoe-up" mini-golf in Central Wisconsin where BYOB- basically Bring-Your-Own-Anything- is encouraged. **(Since it's Central Wisconsin, there could actually be hundreds of establishments like this one).** Several years ago, our friends Cham and Ben gave us a canoe tour of a chain of lakes where we paddled up to this joint and golfed in wet swimsuits on a hot July day.

The 7th hole at Big Stone was a walk-in museum. It was a gigantic overturned boat with stain-glass windows made of re-purposed plastic coils in the brightest Crayola colors.

 

 

 The sculpture garden and farm were so integrated into the landscape you hardly knew where one began and the other ended. A friendly goat roamed throughout. We met a family who just came to feed the goats. Another young couple played checkers on a life-sized board and wandered the property. The penned horses ran up to greet us so excitedly, I thought they mistook my baby for their dinner.

Another highlight was a land-locked boat to climb inside and "captain". This vessel was better than any nautical museum I have ever been to. We probably could have spend the night in there without anyone knowing. Maybe next time we will try.

As much as I want to give Brendan credit for "discovering" this place, it's been around for ten years. Even the New York Times discovered this place before we did. And I love it. I need to be reminded that my city is more complex and unexpected than I give it credit for. 

My Favorite Minneapolis Weekend: May Day

The May Day Parade is one of those things that makes me fall in love with my City over and over again each spring. After winter has done a number on my soul, I wake up giddy and full of hope on the first Sunday morning in May. And it's never just the parade. It's the brunches, BBQ's and garden parties that accompany all the parade festivities from dawn to dusk. And I can't lie...purchasing our house because of it's prime location one block off the parade route was no accident.

This morning I received multiple texts from out-of-state friends wishing me a "happy may day parade", which reconfirms its notoriety outside of Minnesota. My cousin in Brooklyn even texted me last month "What's that funky parade in your neighborhood called again?" when he was out with Minneapolis clients.

May Day weekend, it just doesn't get any better, anywhere else in the world. Yeah, I said it. And equally as wonderful this year: the biggest May Day march I have ever attended in Minneapolis on Saturday. First, we'll check out the parade.

I'm fairly certain that Minneapolis has the highest percentage of stilt-walking youth in the Nation. Let me know if you think someone else has got us beat. Yeah, that's what I thought.

And your city definitely can't contend with our volumes of tall bikes and crusty-punk pedal power, so don't even try.

Every free spirit, puppeteer, activist, artist, kid, eclectic and neighbor is parading or watching.

Love you May Day! Just 364 days til we reunite. See you May Day 2011 with a baby strapped to my chest.

So travel back one day with me, and check out the May Day March for Immigration Reform. It was such a crucial time to hit the streets, in light of the recent passing of Arizona SB 1070. The march started at Martin Luther King Park in South Minneapolis, and extended 30 blocks to the Minneapolis Convention Center, which played host to the MN Republican Convention. This GOP gathering endorsed Tom Emmer as their choice for governor. Tom Emmer has publicly praised SB 1070 as being a "wonderful first step" in immigration reform. Well GOP folks, hope you hear the loud protest of thousands of hardworking Minnesotans walking in solidarity with our hardworking immigrant neighbors. We certainly outnumber your tea party friends.

Flirting with February: How to survive a Minnesota Winter without resenting it.

I've already downloaded all the flix from my adventures today, and my camera STILL feels like a block of ice as I cradle it in my hands. Oh well, it's seen worse (heavy exposure to spray paint and sand in January alone).

This February I created a personal mission for myself. Attend social and recreational outdoor events during the frigid MN winter that I have deemed "crazy" in the past. I definitely fall in the category of Minnesotans who "love my state, but can barly tolerate the winter". Sure I have my winter traditions that push me through to April (or MAY). Lots of cooking, reading, working-out. Let's not forget the heavy helping of TV on DVD. I like a lot of theme nights to bust out of boring routines. One year, my Husband and I had a Minnesota Winter theme night where we made "Hotdish" and watched Fargo.

Then I started to think about all these crazies who claim to love the Minnesota winter. Seriously. They don't hide inside from it. No, they hang their winter freak flags high, and jump in head-first, some literally plunging into frozen lakes for "polar bear clubs". Nothing that extreme for me, thanks. But I did want to check out the events that I've heard people raving about for years. February, are you trying to flirt with me?

February 6th became my Minnesota Winter "Let's Do This" Day. Man, if Prince can get Apollonia to jump naked into a half-frozen Lake Minnetonka, the least I can do is bundle up to hit two winter events that our fine Twin Cities are known for.

First stop, Art Shanty Project, Medicine Lake

Upon arriving to Medicine Lake, I immediately shared with my friend Crystal that in high school, I drove my Oldsmobile onto a frozen Lake Minnetonka to hang out in an ice house one Friday night. Where, on the rest of Earth, is this a normal teenage activity outside of Minnesota, Wisconsin or Canada? Is that really a standard Friday night for a 16-year old...ice-fishing with the opposite sex?

Well, if you've ever wanted to check out art galleries on a frozen lake instead of frigid fishing huts, Medicine Lake is the destination. Souped up ice houses out on a solid lake infused with interactive art make for a delightful afternoon.

Art Shanty Project describes itself as "A four-weekend exhibition of performance, architecture, science, art, video, literature, survivalism and karaoke, ASP is part sculpture park, part artist residency and part social experiment, inspired by traditional ice fishing houses that dot the state’s lakes in winter."

The highlight to me was the celebration of winter itself: kids pulled on sleds behind snowmobiles, snowbikes, artists drinking beer in their full-body snowsuits and dogs aplenty. It was more reminiscent of a summer BBQ than a miserable winter day.

You gotta love the "dance shanty" blasting Pitbull with middle-aged men bouncing up and down. Also, The Post Office Shanty was actually a functioning USPS affiliate for the four weeks it was out there. There was even an ice house that strictly traded art with the attendees, a teepee that was a sauna and a shanty that taught you everything you need to know about Finland. I'll see you again next year, Art Shanty Project.

So the second half of my cold-to-the-core day was the City of Lakes "Loppet". What reeled me in was the Loppet Luminaria event that would light up Lake of The Isles with ice-brick luminarias. What does loppet even mean? No idea. Probably "crazy-long snowshoe race" in Norewegian. The hard-core race was happening the next day. Regardless, thousands of Minnesotans and tourists snowshoed, cross-country skied, baby-sledded or hiked down an snow sculptured street (The Mall) until it spit you out onto a whimsical winter lake scene. I even saw a dog legitimately pulling a kid on a sled (same as baby-sledding, minus parent involvement). Once you reached the lake, the lumirarias led the way through the dark as you looped across Lake of the Isles. Not to mention there were fire jugglers and ice pyramids once you arrived at the main lake.

I get it now. When does one get to kick it on a frozen lake, covered in beautiful lights on a winter night? It was gorgeous. And a balmy 23 degrees. Winter, you kick my ass and my spirit every year, at least offer up some beauty. It was what I had been searching for: a way to embrace the Minnesota Winter as charming and charismatic. To see people in an outdoor setting, after hibernating with family, food and DVD entertainment for all of January.

So February, you flirted with me, and you got me (this once). My friend Chip has even convinced me to try snowshoeing or cross-country skiing. And I think I'm actually gonna do it! What am I doing? Being a winter hater has carried me through life this far, and now I'm gonna throw it away and hang out outside? Oh well, only 84 days until the May Day Celebration!