Target Headquarters
by Stephen-KarenConn
Karen travels to Minneapolis from Cincinnati several times a year on business. She works for Proctor & Gamble with headquarters in Cincinnati and her job is as a Customer Service and Logistics Coordinator for Target, based in Minneapolis.
P&G is the largest comsumer goods company in the world with dozens of brands including Crest, Duracell, Gillette, Pampers, Pringles, Clairol, Tide, Iams and many many more. Target is the second largest retailer in America - surpassed only by WalMart. What this means is that Karen and her team are responsible for shipping millions of dollars worth of products to Target warehouses around the country every day - Two Billion dollars in business every year. Those numbers boggle my mind, but my beautiful wife is a brilliant and capable person and I am very proud of her. When Karen was scheduled to go to Minneapolis in April, 2007, I decided to meet her there. I drove my trusty 12-year-old pickup truck while Karen flew. After her business was wrapped up we spent the weekend touring Minneapolis and St. Paul, which including seeing the Target Corporate Offices in downtown Minneapolis, and a downtown Target store near the headquarters.
After a wonderful weekend together Karen flew back home and back to work in Cincinnati. Being semi-retired, I had a little more time. So I took five days to get home, taking a zig-zag route which helped me to collect several new counties in my ongoing quest to visit every county in the United States at least once in my lifetime.
TARGET
Convention Center
by BLSM
The Minneapolis Convention Center is only about 10 years old and has already grown from the the original three domes to four plus two other very large rooms for conventions. this shows two entrances. These domes can be one veryvery large exhibite hall or divided into 4 smaller ones. But even the small one are big enough to play football in with all the bleachers and then some. On the far right entrance is the main skywalk that leads to several hotels and shopping centers. You can walk from many hotels to the convention center and never go outside. It is also connected to several parking ramps.
Loring Park
by yooperprof
Minneapolis people love their parks, and Loring Park, at the edge of downtown, and in the heart of a vibrant cultural district, is one of the best. Biking and walking paths cross the park, and there are numerous recreational opportunities: basketball, tennis, boating in a small pond, and winter ice skating.
Note: Loring Park isn't the safest place to stroll across at night.
1382 Willow
It can't be said enough
by mnhaus
If you're here during the summer and plan on spending any time at all outdoors, bring some mosquito repellant with DEET. They make jokes about the mosquito being the state bird, but.....maybe they aren't really joking?
Nicollet Island - Back in Time
by goodfish
Nicollet Island is the only inhabited island on the Mississippi and was named for Joseph Nicollet, who explored and mapped the mighty river in the 1830's. This 48-acre limestone oasis was once a busy industrial center of factories, mills and ice houses. It was also, for a time, a fashionable address and while the early commercial structures are mostly gone, 22 Victorian-era homes have survived. All but two of them date from 1864 to 1898.
The southern end of the island has a park, an event center, and upscale hotel/restaurant that occupy the remains of a former boiler works/door company. DeLasalle Catholic High School takes up most of the middle section, and the residential neighborhood lies on the northern third. There are only a few little streets lined with homes in various states of repair - from beautifully restored to the interesting, bohemian paint job - but it's a fun ramble on a sunny day. When the trees obscure the downtown skyline, you forget you're in the middle of a city! And those really are chickens you hear - one of the residents raises them!
The island is attached - by the Hennepin Ave. bridge - to downtown on the one side, and Northeast Minneapolis on the other so it's easy to combine this with a visit to either place. I'm attaching websites with some nice pictures of the houses (http://nicolletislandmn.org/index.php?history) and a little history (http://fieldguide.fmr.org/site_detail.php?site_id=120). Have also mapped out a favorite riverfront hike that includes the island (see next tip). There is a small parking lot on the west side of the island but it's really more fun to leave your car downtown or on the Northeast side and walk to it via the Hennepin Bridge.
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Joe Mauar #7 at bat
Liz, Jan, Ennis, Kathy, Mary, Tugboatguy
Skyway near Crystal Court
Lots of yummy veggies
