Minneapolis/St. Paul with kids

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Spending a couple days there before driving on to Lake Superior in August. Bringing 3 young kids and likely staying in st. Paul

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We did a northern MN trip a couple of years ago and loved it.

The Oliver Kelley Farm is north and west of the city, but not a wild detour from the Duluth route. The kids on our trip loved it.

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We did a northern MN trip a couple of years ago and loved it.

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I'd love a brief recap of this trip.

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Valley Fair is an amusement park that could be fun for kids.

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Went to Valley Fair all the time when I was in Elementary. Haven't been in two decades, at this point, but definitely a good call.

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I'd love a brief recap of this trip.

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Early, direct flight from MSY was easy

One night in Minneapolis, did Mall of America and found a brewery/dinner.

Drove north, did the farm I talked about and then stopped in St. Cloud for lunch.

Rented a house up north and central. (We chose Grand Rapids, but there's a ton of similarly sized towns.)

Rented a boat and went out on a lake one day. (Might rent a house ON a lake next time.)

Went to the headwaters of the Mississippi River, then want to Bemidji for dinner.

Found some other state parks and did some hiking.

We canoed in the Mississippi one day in Grand Rapids.

Drove to Lake Superior and hiked to the lake shore and the falls. Drove to Duluth for dinner on the way back (made a circle back to Grand Rapids.)

We saw a reasonable amount of deer - had to stop the car to let a pack of wild turkeys cross the road. (And other assorted wildlife.)

Weather was great, tons of breweries around. Food was surprisingly good (my extended family is from the Midwest, so my expectations were low.)

We spent the last night in Saint Paul, and had a great dinner and some beers.

Was not crazy expensive, leisurely pace, great people. Would do it again in a heartbeat. Would like to go Ely and the boundary waters when my little gets a little older.

If there was a negative, it was that things were spread out - it was a decent drive to get anywhere, but hardly a big deal. And I prefer some forced family together time.

But, man - being able to spend most of your days and all of your nights outside and never breaking a sweat? Can't beat it!

My family lives about 25 miles east of St Paul and I was there visiting for the weekend for a graduation. We went to Como Zoo & Conservatory yesterday which is cheap and fun. That's about all I've got.

Thanks! Very helpful.

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the UP. Absolutely love it.

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May I ask what you do there? I went once, and Pictured Rocks was awesome, but I was taken aback at how sort of ghetto the whole UP was.

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Would highly recommend camping in this area in mid august, which generally seems to be past the real biting insect peak which can be awful.

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I saw a billboard on the UP for an insurance company that said:

We have you covered in ALL 3 seasons: Winter, Mosquitoes and Winter

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The horse flies though - they straight up chased us out of a camp site one year and cut our trip short. Just brutal.

I have no shame in admitting my mental game with swarming insects is weak, I’m trying to have fun not live through a plague. But I’ve found that come mid August most of the bugs and berries have all come and gone. If you are in the UP during July you can practically live off the thimble, blue and blackberries. They are abundant.

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I hear you. No shame at all.

I also found Marquette to be surprisingly OK. Like, it had the same kind of trendy restaurants and stuff as you see anywhere in a modern town.