Weekly Recap: Wisconsin and Minnesota

Our next long travel day was unfortunately also very wet again. (If you happened to watch the Bears-49ers opening weekend game, we drove past Chicago in the middle of that storm). Percy was much more active during this long trip. We drove all day and traveled through a total of 6 states, ending in Wisconsin. For the second time we set up in the middle of a soaking downpour, but at least this time we were better prepared to do it. This spot was our first back-in site, but it went smoothly despite being dark and wet.

Morning after the rain in Wisconsin

We wanted to be close to Milwaukee, so we chose Cliffside Campground as our home for 3 nights. It's an easy drive to downtown Milwaukee and is south of the city, which helped shorten our already long drive there. Monday was a trailer day. We set up Starlink, worked, and ate leftovers for lunch. Bryn erged and then we went to Walmart to pick up some groceries and other small items we felt we needed. 

Tuesday we had a full day in Milwaukee. We woke up early to go to Planet Fitness, then headed to a laundromat close to a cafe in East Side. Our morning was spent working and popping over from Colectivo Coffee to East Side Maytag to check on our laundry. We switched to Good City Brewery for a late lunch and stayed there for the rest of the work day. We liked all these places. The coffee shop had delicious breakfast and lunch options and the brewery was an awesome find--great wifi, food, and beer selection. Of course, we got cheese curds.

 

After we finished work, we headed to Great Lakes Distilling for some cocktails. They have a wide selection of alcohol and the drinks were delicious. For dinner, we walked down the street to Zocalo Food park. They have a group of food truck gathered so we could pick whatever we were craving! Shawn got pizza and empanadas, Bryn got sushi. This was an awesome find and we highly recommend it if you're visiting Milwaukee!

 

The next day (Wednesday) we drove to Minneapolis, trading off driving and working in the car. Our campsite setup was pretty quick and uneventful. Bryn went on a nice sunset row with Lake Phalen Rowing.

On Thursday night we went into Minneapolis to have dinner and catch a Twins game. We got seats for $7 (and the stands were still mostly empty). The difference between a decade old baseball stadium (Target Field) and a century old one (Fenway) was very noticeable. The weather was great and we had a blast despite the lack of any interest in the two teams playing.

We spent Friday night in the camper due to forecasted rain (which didn't really materialize). After work we did another Planet Fitness workout and then cooked dinner at "home". We didn't realize it at first, but our entire dinner was from Costco. We played another scenario of Gloomhaven: Jaws of the Lion and went to bed early to prepare for our big Saturday in Minneapolis. We are about a quarter of the way through a campaign of the main Gloomhaven with some friends back in Boston, so we've decided to play through the smaller Jaws of the Lion with just the two of us while we are on the road.

Saturday was a packed day. We started with an early workout. Bryn did a Row House class and Shawn ran outside. Next we checked out the Mall of America. We did a little window shopping and walked around investigating the ridiculous size of this mall. We got a snack at the food court and debated doing some of the roller coasters in the indoor amusement park. Eventually we decided to just do the Fly Over America "4-D" experience, which was enjoyable.

After the mall we drove to Minnehaha Falls to have a picnic lunch. It turned out that the river is currently dried up so there was no waterfall to view. At least a plaque informed us that we were in good company: the same had happened when Lyndon B. Johnson visited in 1964. Though the city pulled out all the stops (literally!) for him and temporarily flooded the riverbed from some hydrants. Despite the lack of waterfall, it was a very nice park to eat our lunch in.

For our afternoon activity we visited the Minneapolis Institute of Art. We didn't realize that it is free entry, which was a pleasant surprise. It had a great and diverse collection. Shawn's favorite were the "period rooms" (whole rooms designed in a certain style/time period), Bryn's was "Halloween" and Percy, if he appreciated art, would surely love "Peeling".

After the museum we met up with some friends who had moved to Minneapolis a couple of years ago for med school. We had dinner and drinks with them at O'Shaughnessy Distilling Co., Surly Brewing, and Indeed Brewing. It was great to catch up with them, who we haven't seen since pre-COVID besides a chance encounter at the Chicago airport. Fingers crossed for a Boston-based residency!