Minneapolis is a town I went to a few times as a kid. It was a (short?) three+ hour drive from my hometown, and I remember going with my family, as well as on school field trips there (I think I saw Phantom of the Opera and A Christmas Carol several times each in the Guthrie Theater).
But since I was young when I went, I hardly remember anything about the city, except for the theater. I was excited to visit Minneapolis again as an adult, and make more of an effort to understand where I was and what I was seeing. And it was great to do that with Bobbi!
Ha ha, however, if you read any of my Mexico trip recaps, you know I am not really in to planning out things these days, so I didn’t actually have anything in mind I wanted to see in Minneapolis. My #1 request to Bobbi was that we get a hotel with a hot tub. Which we did. And it was lovely to soak in after the race.
Then we had a big decision to make – should we take naps, or go do something? I mentioned the Mill City Museum that I saw during the race to Bobbi and asked if she wanted to check it out. If it ended up being lame, we’d only be out $11. Each. Ha ha.
But, it actually ended up being incredibly NOT lame, and really interesting! I know – who thought learning about flour milling would be interesting, at all?! Not I!
The way the facade of the mill is preserved is really neat:
You guys. This mill was a bit doomed. It opened in 1874 as the Washburn Mill and… exploded in 1878. Did you know flour was super explosive? Yeah, me either.
It was rebuilt in 1880, and lasted more than four years this time (well, the building did – there were still several accidents causing worker death and injury…). Actually, it lasted awhile. Washburn-Crosby became General Mills in 1928, and the building wasn’t destroyed again until 1928, by a fire.
It stayed open until 1965, then was abandoned… well, except for by some homeless people who decided to move in. Then they started a fire that burned down a lot of it in 1991. Apparently, the historical society already had plans to make it in to a museum, so they called the fire department during the fire and asked them to save as much of the facade as possible. Hence, it looking the way it does (I think it looks cool!). It opened as a museum in 2003.
So after learning that history, I had to get this magnet, which makes me giggle:
Hee hee hee.
Our admission included access to the gallery (derr), to the ruin courtyard, a ride in the Flour Tower (!!!) and a film viewing – Minneapolis in 19 Minutes Flat.
The Flour Tower tour was so cool! It kind of reminded me of the Tower of Terror is Disney World – minus the horizontal movement (and dropping, ha!). We were in a giant elevator with stadium seating, and it went up and down through the different levels of the mill to show us what went on on each floor!
I also didn’t realize this before, but milling was (is?) crazy complicated:
It involved moving the grain all over the building until it was finally the finished product. We just saw 5-6 rooms (with animation and video in most), but it gave a really good idea of what it was like to work in a mill (crazy labor intensive, for most people – like the guys who hauled 150+ pound bags on flour on to train cars all. day. long.).
Then the elevator took us to the top of the tower and we were actually in the building next door, where they took the grain to clean it (you know, get insects and rodents, etc. out – and yeah, they used to just dump that waste in the Mississippi River!). We got to see the equipment they used to clean the grain, and got a great view of the city!
Then we rode a different, all glass elevator back down and saw more exhibits, the funny (and educational) film, and we played in the water lab for a bit. Okay, I mostly played. Ha ha! The mill is located by the river because it used the power of Saint Anthony Falls to run, via giant turbines in the water. So there were all these water exhibits (meant for children) that I had to play with, to learn about powering the mill, the apron they built on the falls to control it, and about transferring logs down the river. Hee hee. Now there is only one mill in the Minneapolis area, and it’s powered by electricity.
I was impressed by the museum and found it super interesting! I would recommend it to anyone visiting the area. It has something for everyone (oh yeah, like the baking lab (WITH SAMPLES!!!) we missed because of our Flour Tower tour time – they were eating brownies when we got off the elevator!).
Of course, after visiting a museum about flour, we were pretty hungry. And for CARBS!!! We went to Pizza Lucé for dinner. Pizza Lucé has been a favorite stop of Bobbi’s after she does Grandma’s Marathon in Duluth (she loves the Baked Potato Pizza) , and she didn’t even realize it was a chain, or that they had so many vegan options. I went a bit crazy, and loved it!
Vegan meatballs, “Fire Breathing Dragon” Pizza, Peanut Butter bars (like scotcharoos!)
Gah. Everything was SO. GOOD. I was in heaven. We were both in heaven. We left there very happy.
In fact, we were very happy with our trip! Everything worked out nicely – we got in to town at a decent time Friday night (8:30), found everything easily for the race, I was able to help Bobbi with navigation while she drove, and we enjoyed the museum and LOVED dinner. It was a great trip!
We got wild Saturday night – in our pajamas at 7:30 and asleep by 9:30 (I wanted to stay up to watch my boyfriend on SNL, but was exhausted, and wanted to make sure I could get up to do my speedwork in the am). We hit the road at 7:45 the next morning. It was a quick trip, but a lot of fun! I feel lucky I got to spend this time with Bobbi – our schedules have not linked up very well to hang out this year, and I miss her (despite our daily communication and seeing her at Efit class)! I need one-on-one time with my besties!
Lowell MA has a mill museum that it seems all middle schoolers take a field trip to. It’s not a normal museum to me since everything is still functional.
Late congrats on your race. Glad you had the possibility to run with your friend. In my life I have only ran a 10 ml once: in Scotland. In Italy this distance “doesn’t exist”.
The Mill museum looks very interesting.
What race distances are common in Italy… 5K? 42K…?
Of course flour is highly explosive. It’s why you throw salt on a grease fire instead. And why is that 2nd grade fire prevention tidbit rattling around in my head?? Looks like a cool trip! Is it weird I’ve never been to Minneapolis? Hopefully that’ll all change in October.
Ha ha ha! Gosh! Well, THAT makes sense but why didn’t I know that 2nd grade fire prevention tidbit? Or, the reasoning behind it, anyway 😉
You are signed up for TCM, no?
WOW! Who knew a flour mill museum could be so fun? That looks really interesting. I knew flour was explosive from my high school chem teacher…he liked to do ‘fun experiments’. haha!
Now I really want to try a baked potato pizza! All that food looks awesome!
I sure didn’t! I just thought it looked cool from the outside! Kind of made me wish that was the kind of architecture I did 🙂
I think you would REALLY have liked that restaurant. Road trip to MN next year? LOL
Looks like you had a great trip! I used to make an annual trip up to MPLS with my aunt and uncle in August to do back to school shopping at the Mall of America. Good memories. Now some of my very close friends from high school live up there and I really need to go visit more often. Or maybe just move there… 🙂
Are you guys thinking about moving? I can see living there! 🙂
That museum sounds really cool! I would never have thought that of a museum of an old mill. And I had no idea that flour was explosive. Hopefully not in the amounts one keeps at home though!
As long as you aren’t putting your bag of flour by explosive items I guess… lol!
Minneapolis is place I have changed planes in to go to MT – I am dying to actually visit the place one day lol It sounds cool.
Yaaa for samples 🙂
I saw CH on SNL – not hard on the eyes at all!!!
On the way there I remembered we changed planes there a year or two back and that I really liked the airport!
Ahh. CH, no, not at ALL!!! 😀 Swoon.
Cool! Although what a cursed place, huh? I’ve never been to Minneapolis, but it seems like a neat city, and the race and the entire weekend sounded awesome – glad you and Bobbi had a great time!
Wow, how cool! I’ve got to be honest, I’ve never even thought about how flour (or any flour product) gets to me. This is really fascinating!
I never had, either! Made me want to look in to how it’s done now, if it’s very different!
Wow! Sounds like they did an amazing job with that museum. The flour elevator sounds particularly interesting.
I think Mythbusters did a side experiment with flour to see how explosive it was but I don’t remember the outcome. But, clearly, whatever they found it’s totally true that it can explode. That magnet made me giggle, too.
They really did! It was neat to find something like that, so randomly (although maybe it’s promoted more, locally).
I will have to look up that episode! I honestly didn’t realize it! Oops!
I have your boyfriend’s appearance on DVR if you want to come over and watch it!
Sounds like a fun trip! I’m glad that you both had such a good time.
Ooo, thanks! Steven and I ended up watching it online that night! Did you watch it yet? I laughed at a few skits!
The Mill City Museum is pretty cool, and I like all the industrial stuff they left behind. And all the uses for Bisquick they used to advertise, haha. Pizza Luce was one of Eric’s favorites – pretty sure we ate there every time I was in Minneapolis! Baked potato was one of his favorites. 🙂
I can see what that’s a fave pizza place! I would go there a lot if it was by me! So. Many. Options!!!!
how fun
Minneapolis is such a cool city. The museum looks great, too! Glad you had a fun little getaway.
I missed this post when you first posted it. I had a library conference in Minneapolis two summers ago, and we had our reception in the Mill City Museum. It is a really great place. I liked the outside courtyard where you could see the old facade. At first I was like, “What’s all that stuff in the courtyard?” and then I realized I was there in the summer and you were there when snow was on the ground! But they did a really nice job with the building and the exhibits and the backing lab. 🙂
Oooo! How fun that you have been there!!!! 🙂 Did you get to see the Farmers Market set up in the old train corridor since you were there in the summer? It’s just such a neat place! Ha ha, and yeah, we didn’t go out in the courtyard – didn’t have our snow boots on!
Haha, I giggled about the doomed mill, and then I felt SORRY for the mill, except, Mica, mills don’t have feelings, wtf. It seems like a really interesting museum though, and it sounds like that was a pleasant surprise. 🙂
Mmm, pizza and pajamas! That sounds like my kind of night. Ugh, do I sound lame?? Did you ever get to watch your b/f on SNL?
I felt bad about it too, but then I thought it was really cool how they saved it! I would love to read a book about transforming it from a mill to a museum!
No! Not lame to me! When I come visit you, can we do that every night after dinner? Knitting too, of course. I did watch my bf the next day! I found all the skits on some website!