Delighted to be invited to their wedding, we set about finding a home exchange in Minneapolis. We were really excited when B&D accepted our enquiry and here we are. A smashing condo so close to downtown, but next to a beautiful park and the excellent Walker art gallery and Minneapolis sculpture garden. We traded cars too, and have been zipping around in a bright red Mini Cooper - not your usual American car! So cool.
Our first full day consisted of exploring downtown. At first sight, similar to many other American cities but some subtle differences. It gets really cold here, so there's a network of skyways to connect the buildings, meaning you can walk the whole of downtown without going outside! They have very cool drain covers too.
The Walker Gallery is almost next to our apartment and is full of interesting art work, but the highlight for us was a huge tapestry depicting Minnesotan forest with local characters from history superimposed. It was created from photos but then stitched. Must have taken many hours!
The photo tapestry
There's also a great view of downtown from the gallery, looking across Loring Park.
Just outside the gallery is the sculpture garden. The most photographed piece is surely this cherry on a spoon.
The gallery and sculpture park are separated from the city by a fairly ugly motorway. Right next to it on the opposite side is the Basilica. A Catholic church with a statue of Father Hennepin who founded the city, having discovered the waterfalls on the Mississippi, which he named for St Anthony, and which he apparently claimed were as big as Niagra Falls (there are most certainly not!).
The next few days were filled with social stuff! We met up with Katherine & Colin (the bride and groom to be) for a supper of Somalian food at Midtown Market Exchange, a really interesting market in the old Sears building - followed by local beers. And then we met C&J, our exchange partner's daughter and son in law, and were very happy to have a Nepalese lunch with them at a great buffet restaurant on the buzzing Lake Street. Minneapolis is really cosmopolitan, a bit of a surprise for a city in the upper Mid West.
We enjoyed two evenings with the extended family of the wedding party - hosted by Colin's dad Doug and his wife Lynn. The first evening was at a very upscale restaurant called the Spoon and Stable, fashioned from an old stable building in the warehouse district of town. The food was great and we met Katherine's sisters, Kari and Solveig and Solveig's husband, the wonderful Dave. We were also pleased that Colin's brother Trevor and his lovely wife Kelly were there as we'd previously met them in Montana and in their former home town of Denver. Isn't it great that you can travel halfway around the world and end up making lots of new friends!
The second evening was in the Butcher and Boar, an easy walk from our apartment. A loud, buzzing place, with meat featuring heavily on the menu. Wild boar sausage called out to me -simply delicious. And this time we got to meet Colin's sister Kendra, her husband John and their exceedingly well behaved little boys.
We met up with Colin's dad Doug, his wife Lynn and Grandma Betty for a trip to the University of Minnesota Arboretum. Lots of beautiful plants, in a great setting, with huge Lego models to keep kids (and the bearded one) interested.
Hostas are everywhere in Minnesota. Are they the State plant?
A Lego dragonfly
Lego bee on pansy
Irises
American weddings seem to include a rehearsal, which we were lucky enough to be invited to. It took place at Katherine and Colin's house in their back garden. They laid on an amazing spread of Indian food - all cooked by them with help from their friends. Totally yummy and very authentic.
Colin with the Indian food. Boy was it good! The day of the wedding dawned bright, but with warnings of storms. In the event the weather held out until we were all safely inside for the ceremony. Katherine knitted her wedding dress and it was a work of art, with thousands of tiny beads stitched into it in a Fibonacci sequence.
The ceremony was much more personalised than a British wedding and the speeches were funny and at times deeply moving.
Table decorations - origami Star Wars fighters and wonderful flowers. All by Kari Pederson (the bride's twin sister) 
Doctor and Mrs DeLong
Me and the bearded one on the balcony of the Day Block Center, where the wedding was held. 
Doug DeLong, Lynn Marsh and Grandma Betty
Table favours - Wisconsin Maple - Yummmmmmmmy
The wedding dinner was again Indian food! Having previously experienced extremely disappointing Indian food in New York, we were again treated to a fabulous and highly authentic spread. No surprise really as Colin and Katherine have visited India and learned to make dishes from scratch, grinding and blending their own spices. After the excitement of the wedding weekend, we were left to our own devices to continue our explorations of the area. The temple of shopping that is the Mall of America greeted us on Monday. Our excuse - well museums are generally closed on Monday and the weather was cold. It can switch from being 80 degrees Fahrenheit on one day to being close to freezing on the next. To paraphrase Mark Twain, "the coldest winter I ever spent, was a summer in Minneapolis".
What can I say about the Mall of America. Well it's a Mall and it's in America. The bearded one could say more as he loves shopping, but maybe even he is becoming too accustomed to shopping in America as he seemed less impressed this time (we've been here before en route to Montana).
Tuesday - well museums were back open so we headed to the Mill Museum. Did you know that Minneapolis was really founded as a mill city? No, neither did we. But the highly informative Mill Museum, right next to the Mississippi (yes they needed water to create power to grin the wheat) was fantastic. We shared our experience with a couple of hundred school children, which certainly upped the volume, but it was great. We were greeted by Jim, a docent (or volunteer guide) who must have been in his eighties as he was a teacher in the early 1950s. He loved Britain and spotted our accents right away. What a lovely man he was. The museum is devoted to all things wheat related and has plenty of old advertising material, including lots of Betty Crocker (cake mixes etc) products and more generic stuff to do with wheat. Gold Medal flour was the top brand. The mill was burned down (flour is highly explosive) but only after production had ceased. The museum is a new building within the shell of the old, and highly creative, including an elevator ride, where you are seated and transported through various activities of the mill. Innovative and kept the school kids quiet!
View of the river from atop the mill building
We had been told that Duluth was a worthwhile day trip. Situated on Lake Superior, the town is supposed to be a real gem. We drove there in around 3 hours, a pleasant drive on the almost deserted freeway. Stopping only for an 'emergency Mickie D's (McDonalds) as the bearded one called it, we went straight through town and out to the North Shore. A rugged coastline on the world's largest freshwater lake. It felt like a sea as we could barely make out the coast Wisconsin in the distance. The water was incredibly cold. Not a swimming lake under any circumstances.
Crystal clear waters of Lake Superior
Cold, cold, cold
Lighthouse at Two Harbors
Industrial stuff. Docks from which iron ore is loaded on to the ships. Huge structures, spoiling the view but necessary for the local economy
Old locomotive used to haul the iron ore to the ships
The Enger Tower, Duluth. Built by a local businessman and handed over to the town by his estate when he died. A great vantage point over the city and lake.
View of the ship bridge from the Enger Tower in Duluth. This is the means by which huge tankers can enter the harbour area and the canals
Thursday was our last full day and we decided to head out to the as yet unexplored twin city of Saint Paul. The metropolitan area of Minneapolis and Saint Paul is known as the Twin Cities, and Saint Paul is actually the state Capital of Minnesota. The Capitol building was under renovation, so no photos of that. Instead we visited the Catholic Cathedral, completed in the 1920s, with some superb stained glass, and the mansion of James J Hill, built in the 1890s. James was a self made man, who made his money from building the railway that connected Minneapolis with the west coast of America. The house is a sandstone mansion, largely unfurnished now, but containing some intricate wood carved details, leather wallpaper, marble bathrooms, stained glass windows (though he rejected Tiffany!), an electric burglar alarm (yes from the 1890s - he liked his mod cons) and extensive kitchens and servants quarters (often the most interesting parts of stately homes). After the tour we had a light lunch in a local café and as it was over 70 degrees, we treated ourselves to iced coffee - they have a lot of different flavours here, so I had raspberry chocolate and the bearded one almond chocolate. There are so many choices in America. Even ordering a sandwich you have to pick your bread, your choice of cheese, what kind of salad leaves you want, how many fillings and just when you think you are done, what kind of dressing you want on your salad. I do get quite flustered! Delicious though..........
The dome inside the Catholic Cathedral in Saint Pauls
Stained glass in the cathedral
The James Hill Mansion. I am there to give a sense of scale
Cathedral dome from the garden of the James Hill Mansion
We had a bit of a wander along Grand Avenue in Saint Paul and came across this tax accountant. I guess Scally doesn't have the same meaning in American, but it seems an unlikely name for an accountant?
Tomorrow is our last day, so we will be cleaning, polishing and packing up ready for the flight home. We have standby tickets, so here's hoping we will get on our flight...... or maybe not. This trip has been a revelation. We sincerely hope to return to the Twin Cities, to reacquaint ourselves with old friends and new ones and to further explore a really interesting state.
