My thoughts on Minneapolis are similar to yours. I've only been there once but I was impressed with it. There is a ton to see and do there. I wouldn't be able to handle the winters. As you mentioned, the city is extremely clean. Funny thing is, we hit Fargo, ND on the same trip and it too was extremely clean. Not a whole lot going on there but an interesting place.
Patty! Holy hell how have you been?Houston
Orlando
Augusta, GA
Jaco, Costa Rica
Patty! Holy hell how have you been?
phoenix
I didn't say Detroit, because I wasn't there for the full 3 days stipulated. I was there for about a day and a half. We drove past plenty of streets on which is seemed every house/building was abandoned, grafitti'd, and partially destroyed.
The low point for me was that we went to the casino (the Motor City Casino) the night that we were there - figuring casinos are fun. The people that were there gambling were not having fun. It appeared that everyone there was gambling for bill money. Everyone was really quiet and somber, and it really depressed us. We ended up leaving without gambling, just because we were feeling so guilty for being there wanting to have fun around all these other people that really NEEDED to win.
Newark and Detroit
What about Minneapolis did you not like?
We flew into Minneapolis with the idea of spending few days.
Day 1 we walked through town, as we like to do in new cities, and it was very sketchy. We spoke to a cop and he said that not even his family comes to downtown Minneapolis.
We looked for an area with good bars and restaurants and pretty much struck out. We spoke to the concierge at the hotel and he wasn't much help directing us to a central restaurant/bar district. I expected to find stuff to do downtown near the river and they don't have much riverfront development.
Day 2 we did go to Mall of America and it was just a big, old mall. Nothing really fantastic it at all considering I've heard about it for years. Were going to go to a Twins game but the weather was rainy.
Day 3 my wife got her picture with the Mary Tyler Moore statue and hit the road. Went to Iowa, Chicago, Wisconsin and had a much better trip.