Inver Grove Heights Farmer's Market

This is our favorite thing of the summer!  The Inver Grove Heights Farmer's Market has amazing produce, flowers, and bread for great prices.

We got a ton of veggies for the whole week for only $13 - we couldn't believe it!  And it is so much more delicious than at the grocery store.  We are already sad for October to come when the market ends for the season.

Fort Snelling State Park

This was actually our second time going to Fort Snelling State Park.  The first time was in the early spring, although you can't tell by how brown everything is!

This time, things were much more green.  First, we went up to the Fort itself, which was up a pretty steep hill:

The biggest topic of conversation when we were up at the Fort was whether it would be a good stronghold for the zombie apocalypse... I think we both decided there were considerable downsides!

Then back down the hill!  One of the cool parts of this park is the ability to rent bikes to ride on the trails.  Unfortunately it is pretty pricey in my opinion ($4/30 mins) but there are options to get yearly passes for those who use it a lot.

Back to a familiar route, but totally different look than before!!

We even saw this little guy hopping across the trail:

It's a little frog!  Unfortunately, he must be too small to eat all of the bugs... we ran into a swarm, and despite our bug spray, managed to get bitten a few times.  I didn't really put any on my face because I hate how it feels, but I regret that decision...

Got bit three times!  But still had fun and we're looking forward to next time!

Devil's Lake, WI

Ok, so technically it is not in Minnesota, but we recently took a weekend trip to Chicago for a friend's wedding.  Look how cute we are!

On our way back to the Twin Cities, we stopped at the beautiful Devil's Lake State Park, just north of Madison.  It has a lot of great hiking trails, camping spots, and of course, boating!  We were there on a quiet Monday morning and took a nice hike along the lake.

Anybody want to have a picnic?

There were several points along the way where we could see where rocks had fallen down the hill toward the lake - I guess that's why they called the trail we were on "Tumbled Rocks Trail" !!

 

What a fun way to celebrate our anniversary!

Afton State Park

A little bit delayed, but we visited Afton State Park a few weekends ago on an overcast morning.  It was still a beautiful day, and we enjoyed our walk along the St. Croix river.

As we started down the path, there was a very pretty path with stairs winding down toward the river bank:

Our first hint that this might be a little bit more than we anticipated when we saw a man clearly in much better shape than us huffing and puffing his way up the stairs... uh oh!  As we feared, the stairs kept going... and going... and going!  And so did we.

The worst part was coming back up!  But we managed to get back in one piece, tired but smiling.

Mill City Museum and Stone Arch Bridge

What a gem!  When I heard about a museum about the flour mills in Minneapolis, I wasn't really expecting much, but I was pleasantly surprised!  It was actually a really fun and interactive museum, with a lot of cool history and fun demonstrations.  There is an elevator "ride" where you rise up and down the levels of the mill and see how some of the equipment used to run.  The absolute coolest part is at the end of the ride at the top of the building, you can get out on an observation deck and see the most awesome view of the river and the Stone Arch Bridge:

We walked across the bridge afterward, since it was just a gorgeous spring day!  Would absolutely recommend to all, adults and children, as a fun activity to do in Minneapolis!

Minnehaha Falls

So we had a friend in town over the weekend and she read about Minnehaha Falls on a tourist's guide to the Twin Cities.  We have been hearing about it since we moved here, but hadn't gotten the chance to stop by.  It was definitely worth a visit (and worth many return visits to really explore!).

The falls themselves were cool:

(Me and my hubby in front of the falls)

But I think the cooler part of it was the walk by the river, and so much green space!  Definitely worth the trek.

(Us being goofballs)

Minnehaha Park wasn't the only place we went over the weekend!  Stay tuned for more from our touristy fun!

Welcome to Minnesota

Ok, so technically we have lived here for almost a year... but with starting a new job and a husband in school, we haven't exactly been able to explore to our hearts' content.  We are forgoing any major vacations this year to attempt to learn more about our new home through visits around the state parks (and regular parks) in the area.  We are also going to use this as a chance to whip our butts into shape after months of sitting on 'em!

Stay tuned for our adventures!