Minnesota Travel Guide

With over 1 million acres (yes, you read that correctly) to explore and 1,200 miles of canoe routes to paddle through, the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness in northeastern Minnesota on the U.S.-Canada border might well be the ultimate getaway destination. You can't just show up, though; a permit to enter the preserve must be obtained for a nominal fee (day rates are $10 per adult and $5 for kids and senior citizens; season passes are $40 for adults and $20 for kids and senior citizens) by calling tel. 877/550-6777. On the North Shore Scenic Drive along a 154-mile stretch of Lake Superior on one side and lush pine forest on the other, you can stop off at your choice of six state parks along the way, check out the Split Rock Lighthouse, and end up in Minnesota's "Little San Francisco," the charming port city of Duluth.
If you prefer to limit your activities to the great indoors, the Mall of America (www.mallofamerica.com) located just outside the Twin Cities in Bloomington is exactly what you'd imagine: the biggest mall in the U.S. with over 500 stores to empty your wallet in, as well as an indoor amusement park with 30 rides, including a roller coaster, the Dinosaur Walk Museum, a NASCAR Silicon Speedway (where you can have a real-as-it-gets simulation of 195mph racing speeds), and a pretty good aquarium. To expand your mind and not your wardrobe, take the kids for a fun afternoon at St. Paul's Science Museum of Minnesota, 120 W. Kellogg Blvd. (tel. 651/221-9444; www.smm.org), for interactive exhibits. For something in between outdoorsy and indoorsy, try the Minnesota Zoo, 13000 Zoo Blvd., Apple Valley (tel. 800/366-7811; www.mnzoo.com), where you can meander around the 500 acres with 2,300 animals from around the world (and native to Minnesota), as well as check out the IMAX theater and ride the monorail between animal trails.

While California may seem like the logical state for grooming celebrities interested in transitioning into politics, Minnesota not only has an overabundance of homegrown names of the page, stage, screen, field, and dais (F. Scott Fitzgerald, Anne Bancroft, Prince, the Coen brothers, Bob Dylan, Garrison Keillor, and far too many more to name), but their present governor is former pro wrestler Jesse "The Body" Ventura. Of course, if cocktail party tidbits are indeed your forte, the state is chock full of even more Trivial Pursuit-worthy factoids. For instance, Minnesota isn't just the spawning ground for a veritable constellation of stars, it's also the birthplace of the most romanticized, written-about, and filmed rivers in the country, the Mississippi. In fact, Lake Itasca Park is the only spot of the 2,552 miles of the Mighty Miss that you can cross without the assistance of a bridge or boat. Minnesota is also the place where Scotch Tape, Rollerblades, Wheaties, Bisquick, the Bundt pan, the stapler, the Better Business Bureau, Green Giant vegetables, and Spam got their start. (There's even a museum dedicated to the meat product in Austin, MN.) Want to gawk at the world's largest ball of twine? The 17,400-pound behemoth is hunkered down in the city of Darwin. Read More

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sometime within the next 2 months we are moving to minnesota for a few months from louisiana. are there any good places to go fishing?
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I have a family from Denmark visiting and they would love to see some authentic Indian sites or festivities. They are here for the next two weeks. Do you know of anything they could see here in MN?
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