Itinerary Help for Minneapolis with a 10 year old

[sent]

My 10 year old DD and I are taking a little trip to Minneapolis for fun. I thought I would have more time to research but work dragged me down the last 2 weeks and we fly out late tonight. We will have tomorrow and Monday. This is one of the few bigger cities in the US where I have not been so I don't know what to expect. 

1. What are some things we should do that DD will enjoy? She likes arts and crafts, farmer's markets, is willing to check out nature. She likes exploring stuff in general. This is the "Land of Lakes" right? Here's what I have so far -

Sunday morning: Sleep in, quick brunch type meal, head over to Mill Museum 
Sunday late afternoon and evening: ?
Monday: ?
Tuesday morning: Mall of America and then we fly out Tuesday afternoon. 

2. Should I rent a car? We are staying in downtown Minneapolis and parking is like $30/night at these hotels so I'm debating it. 

3. Restaurants? No food restrictions but we're not huge meat eaters, prefer poultry and sea food. 

[meowmaps]

I went to Minneapolis pre-kids but looking back on my trip there are two places I’d definitely take my kids - the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden and the American Swedish Institute (they have a great and casual cafe that would make for a nice lunch).

[kmpls]

You can do fine without a rental. Just use Uber or Lyft.

I would allocate more time for the Mall of America if your daughter likes that type of thing. Mine does! It’s just a huge mall but there is lots of shopping, dining, even rides if you are into that sort of thing.

Mill city has neat farmers market but just sat. The Minneapolis Farmers Market is good and I like going. If you go over to the Mill museum across the river is St Anthony Main and it’s really pretty, I like to eat on the patio at Aster Cafe. Also the Stone arch Bridge is there and near to see.
]
Minneapolis Sculpture Garden is good for pictures. Minnehaha Falls is fun to walk around. Sea Salt is popular spot to grab food but go at off time as can be really busy.

Lake Minnetonka is to the west. Excelsior or Wayzata are fun places to walk around and eat. 6smith is restaurant right on water and has good food.

Lots to do. Let me know if you have questions! MSP is a great airport but some small delays lately with construction.

[diva0045]

We went last summer with our 14 and 10 year old. They LOVED the science museum. We did the Crayola Factory at MOA. 10 is probably the oldest I’d take there. MOA itself was fun to walk around. We didn’t do the amusement park because my kids don’t like rides. They enjoyed the M and m and Lego Stores.

[ny96]

We love to do Lake Harriet and the Linden Hills neighborhood where there is a great children’s bookstore, toy shop, and ice cream shop.

[sent]

kmpls - I just realized our flights home on Tuesday are at noon so I have to switch when we visit the mall since that's not enough time on Tuesday morning. The same group that operates MOA opened up the American Dreams Mall a few years ago here in NJ so I'm thinking the malls may be similar enough that we don't need to spend too much time there doing the entertainment stuff. Maybe we will do some shopping if they have some stores we don't see at home.

diva0045 - we have a Crayola Experience here in Easton, PA. DD's been there three times, including earlier this summer at DS's insistence that we return there. I'm Crayola-ed out LOL.

[freshsqueezed]

We live close enough that we have gone more than once. My son, who just turned 11, absolutely loves the science center in St. Paul.

[tennisgal]

Depending on where downtown Mpls you are staying, the US gymnastics trials are at target center and the Pride festival is in Loring park.
I agree with checking out the sculpture garden. Lake Harriet isn’t too far from downtown and they do have a bandshell/pavilion that often has live music. The Bakken museum is just off Lake Calhoun/bda mkasaka and is cool
I haven’t been downtown mpls for awhile so I’m not up on the restaurants. Hell’s Kitchen has a good breakfast, Brits is a bar but has lawn bowling on the roof

[sent]

Thanks everyone! I did end up reserving a rental car. These suggestions are perfect. I can already see that I’m going to have to return someday because there’s so much to do!

Now to pack, I hate packing! It’s always a reminder of how everything in our bedrooms are such a disaster.

[ksun]

Science museum in St. Paul
Minneapolis Institute of Arts
Crayola exhibit at MOA
Bryant Lake Bowl is right by Lake Calhoun and old school bowling
Sculpture Garden in Mpls

[erbear]

There’s a great farmers market near the university of Minnesota.

[annieh22]

Exploring around Minnehaha Falls is always a hit.

Also love Lake Harriet—there’s a great playground, paddle boat rentals and a loop to walk around the lake. Also you can eat at bread and pickle right by the bandshell. There are free music and movies in a lot of parks too. www.minneapolisparks.org/activities-events/music-movies/

Lots to do and explore here. My preference is more South Minneapolis than downtown, as there so many neighborhoods with great spots like Linden Hills and anything near the lakes (Harriet, Lake of the Isles, Bde Mka Ska, Nokomis).

[tennisgal]

Smack shack has good seafood. Black sheep has good wood fire pizza. Freehouse has pub food…these are all in the North Loop area of downtown

Minnehaha falls are more impressive than usual due to all the rain but some of the trails around there are flooded

[sunnysally]

FYI, there is no sales tax on clothing!

[whitemerlot]

Minnehaha Falls is fun and they have a delicious and super causal restaurant there called SeaSalt. Also have ice cream there. It’s a great place to spend a couple hours.

[underwaterrhymes]

Our kids loved Mall of America and my youngest swears he had the best meatballs of his life at The Market at Malcolm Yards. We also loved Minnesota Landscape Arboretum and Minnehaha Falls.

We LOVED the area and can’t wait to go back.

[sent]

Jun 30, 2024 14:19:12 GMT -5 underwaterrhymes said:

Our kids loved Mall of America and my youngest swears he had the best meatballs of his life at The Market at Malcolm Yards. We also loved Minnesota Landscape Arboretum and Minnehaha Falls.

We LOVED the area and can’t wait to go back.

DD randomly picked a food hall and this is where we ended up today. We had some stuff from the Korean section and a lemonade. We drove over to the park with the falls but I didn’t want to stalk cars for parking so I said we’d try again later.

[sent]

Jun 30, 2024 9:19:46 GMT -5 sunnysally said:

FYI, there is no sales tax on clothing!

Something NJ and MN have in common. Must be all those malls LOL. We went to MOA for a little bit last night before it closed and to have dinner. We will be going back to the mall today to finish checking it out. Right now we’re making our way through the science museum. This museum is very good! I will have to come back here when DS is old enough to understand the exhibits.