Tuesday, February 27, 2007

Midwest bound

Here is the extent of my experience in the midwest:

1. Spent a week in western Michigan, with a side trip down to Sandusky, OH and an overnight stay in Toledo. Western Michigan: Pretty, green, muggy (August). UP of Michigan: Tree-y. Creepy guy at the karaoke place. Ohio: flat, ugly.

2. Spent 4 days in Chicago where I met EEK for the first time at an internet get-together. I got to see some cool stuff, meet a bunch of people I'd been interacting with for over a year, etc. It was November and cold, but I liked the city.

3. Spent 4 days in Indianapolis last fall for a work conference. Wasn't as bad as I expected it to be, but not a place I'd choose to spend vacation time.

And that's it. I guess one might consider Toronto to be midwest, but Canada's a whole different country, and Toronto is about as cosmopolitan as a city as you're going to find in North America. Totally not midwestern at all.

Today, I had my out-of-state travel request approved, and I'm going to Minneapolis on my birthday and will be there for a couple of days to do onsite conference planning for this year's work-related conference. I don't think I'll have a lot of time to do anything on my own or sightsee, but at least I'll get to see a bit of the city, since the hotel is downtown. I get in on Wednesday the 14th in the late afternoon, and the official meeting-type stuff doesn't start until the next morning, so it looks like I might have one evening on my own to explore. Any suggestions?

I'm quite bummed that I have to travel and be away from home on my birthday, but I guess maybe we'll just put off official birthday stuff until the weekend when I get home. This birthday will officially be The Beginning of Decrepitude, ie my late 20s (ugh), so maybe we'll pretend it didn't happen and I'll celebrate the 1st anniversary of my 27th birthday. Heh.

2 comments:

Matt said...

Minneapolis is supposed to be great. I forget why. But it's got culture and such, as opposed to some cities of several million people that seem to not have much more than several million people. I'd love to go. I'd go see some local show in the evening, because there's supposed to be a good scene there and all. But I can see how that might not be your deal. There's that statue of Mary Tyler Moore. And some really good place to get pie, says my friend who went to the University of Minnesota.

Monkey McWearingChaps said...

I interviewed at several firms there.

The only thing I noticed was that they had good malls and that's where Aveda and Target started so the flagship stores were within walking distance of downtown.

Plus they seemed to have a decent mall and the skywalks are kind of a neat way to get around. They remind me of how Montreal used to be connected, except above-ground, rather than under.