Day 9: Minneapolis - Part 2

We had a brief 30 minute window for recovery, and then we were off to downtown. We took a bus down to the Nicollet Mall, an outdoor pedestrian mall in the heart of downtown (makes a lot of sense in place like Minneapolis where it's freezing most of the year, right?).

With some time to kill waiting for the Brewers / Twins game to start, we explored Mill Ruins Park, on the bank of the Mississippi River:





Very cool. Like many cities, Minneapolis has recently renovated, restored, and rebuilt in previously decaying industrial areas, and the results are some great mixed-use developments with easy access to just about everything.

The Brewers game was quite a treat. Even though I hadn't heard many good things about the Metrodome, what really made it a good time was that nearly half the stadium was filled with Brewers fans (this was the highest total attendance all season except for opening night). We were in the bleachers amongst some fun-loving Brewer fans:



This went on all night (it helped that the Brewers were dominating). Notice how towards the end of the video the Twins fans are trying to boo down the chants? Also, I got a great clip of Bill Hall doubling with the bases loaded in the third inning:



I lost track of the number of high-fives given somewhere around the second inning.

Although most of the jawing between fans was in good fun, at one point a Twins fan walked up to one of the guys in front of us, took the dude's hat off, and threw it to the ground. A fight almost broke out, and in fact, I think a punch was thrown. Security was on it pretty quickly. No one got thrown out until the guy right in front of us (who wasn't involved) started chanting "Sit Back Down" and was immediately tossed?!? He reappeared (to thunderous applause) a half an inning later, telling us that security thought he was chanting: "Suck my #$%@".

One other noteworthy item in rivalry...at some point a female Twins fan came down and sat with one of the Brewers fans for a while, chatting and flirting with him. A minute or two later a Twins fan (who didn't appear to know the woman) came down and escorted her out, and back to a group of Twins fans. Quite amusing.

My dilemma of whether or not to get a Brat (which I tend to eat on trips home, almost in homage more than anything else...) was finally solved when the Cookie guy caught my eye. Cookies?!? Yes. Someone thought it would be a good idea to sell containers of a dozen medium sized cookies to people sitting in their seats. For the paltry sum of $5. Not only that, but they were still warm (with melting chocolate chips to boot)!

The final note about the Metrodome, the ceiling is held up by pressurized air, so to enter, you have to go through a revolving door airlock (you can feel the pressure difference in your ears). When you leave, you are literally sucked out of the building:



Miles today running/walking: Approximately 11