The week before the move to the new house, Jesse and I went on a trip to Minneapolis. It's the closest big American city to my part of Canada and it's always fun to head over the border to another world that's just like Canada, and just different enough to make it really fun to explore. Jesse had registered in a 5k adventure run called Warrior Dash months before we decided to bid on the house we ended up winning, and I was excited to get out of the cardboard maze our house had become, pick up some Caribou Coffee and visit my friend Lisa.

I packed my camera and put on my blogger hat for the trip…

Warrior Dash, MN

Driving up to the site for Warrior Dash was like going to a music festival even before 10 am there was a sea of cars, tents, runners, and their families. Over 7000 people ran during the day and the theme was (roughly) running, mud, barbed wire, beer & bands. Over the 5k course there are lots of obstacles to put the runners through their paces and to make it a fun challenge for everyone the last leg of the course is out where friends and family can watch!

That's Jesse in the black, about to head into the mud pit with barbed wide strung over it that runners had to duck under. One of the coolest things was that there were marines at every obstacle to encourage the slow runners and reminding everyone that the barbed wire is real. There were Serious Athletes, total newbies, people in costumes running the course in full suits, as pirates, and a group dressed as an entire circus. There were also a lot of people running who were in their sixties and seventies but we won the award for farthest drive to attend at the time Jesse's heat ran ;)

One of the funniest features was the clean up station. It was a fire hose. You can upgrade if you do fundraising for St. Jude's Children's Research Hospital- it's the best motivator I've seen in a while!

Science Museum of Minneapolis

After the race we went to the Science museum to explore the exhibits and haves some time with wifi. Crossing the border is such a small thing, but it's almost like being in Europe because you're in a 3G/mobile internet black hole the whole time! If you follow me you might remember that I went a little crazy on Instagram and Twitter.

But it was the perfect place to go Instagram crazy! I regret nothing ;)

My Favourite Things

The rest of the trip was packed with local cafes, Ikea (where I pitched a project to the owner of a development firm at check out!), lots of amazing coffee, and a trip to an incredible children's bookstore called Wild Rumpus that has a menagerie of adorable animals. Unfortunately, my friend Lisa had bronchitis by the time I got into the city & we couldn't get together, but it was still nice holiday from the stress of moving.

My favourite things about the trip were simple ones:

1. Good veg food – There's lots of tasty vegetarian friendly food, and I actually got to eat vegan almost everywhere without any trouble! Thank you Minneapolis :) I had my first “mock duck” sandwich at Pizza Luce that was my favourite.
2. Lovely art – There's a small village of  these smiling statues in the middle of downtown. They're incredibly charming, especially in the middle of a sea of office buildings. I was also able to scoop up some prints by local artists that feature the city. As soon as I can find frames for them, they're going up on the wall!

   

3. Amazing Advertising – In Minneapolis and Fargo, ND there's an incredible amount of original painted advertising and neon signs. I love vintage advertising with a passion and found myself looking up at the buildings everywhere I went so I didn't miss anything. And then there was one that was so kitschy I couldn't miss it if I tried. Murray's Restaurant & Cocktail Lounge. Wow.

With so many fonts, a teal tiled front, neon galore and a painting of their signature dish all in one place it left me a little dazed! I really have no words other than wow. While the trip was a great break, witnessing a new level of kitsch in person really made my whole weekend :)