Here's my quick TR from Minneapolis:
I got 3 tickets on Frontier for $85 RT total for all 3 of us - no bags, only a personal item. Basically, my ticket cost me 2 days of my daily commute to my job. I took my older two sons to celebrate all 3 of our birthdays (instead of throwing them parties - best deal ever!). Flights were TTN to MSP. TTN is possibly my favorite airport because you park practically at the gate and parking is only $8/day. We landed in MSP around 7:30 am Sunday morning and drove to Minnehaha Falls. It's a really nice waterfall in an urban park with some walking trails along the river. It takes about 10 minutes to walk down to falls, and then we spent about an hour walking around on the trails. Parking is easy and plentiful and you can pay through the app. It was around $1.75 for an hour or so.
Next, we drove to the nearby target to get snacks and drinks. I had planned to stop at the sculpture park Dan mentioned, but my kids woke up at 2 am and were a little tired. We drove directly to Target field and parked, while my kids napped for a little bit. Then we walked around the stadium, got tickets at the box office and went inside. They let us hang out in the seats near the field to watch practice. The game was a lot of fun because we didn't really care who won, and although we were sitting in the nosebleed section, the seats felt surprisingly close to the field. The Twins played terribly and lost to the Reds. It was kids day, so after the game, my kids ran the bases. That was a total highlight for them. We ate out at Prime Deli. The burgers were delicious and sizeable and prices seemed reasonable.
We stayed at the Holiday Inn Express that's 5 minutes away from the restaurants (
https://www.ihg.com/holidayinnexpress/hotels/us/en/minneapolis/mspwe/hoteldetail). It was perfect for our needs - easy access to everything we wanted to do, an indoor pool and hot tub, and free breakfast. The breakfast had a lot of kosher items, including kosher hard boiled eggs and scrambled eggs (we had the hard boiled eggs fresh from the bag, I'm sure they would give you a bag of scrambled eggs if you wanted to reheat them yourselves), yogurt, english muffins, blueberry muffins and cereal. Basic type of Holiday Inn Express stuff.
Monday, we drove out to Pepin, Wisconsin (State #17 for my kids) to see Laura Ingalls Wilder's birthplace. The cabin itself is a replica of what she lived in. I read the books to my kids and I'm a little obsessed with Laura. The cabin is open all the time and has a clean bathroom (more than a port-a-potty, no running water). We looked around the cabin, read an excerpt from "Little House in the Big Woods" and talked about how life was different. Then we drove to the town of Pepin, fresh with Laura's description of town. It was very different from what we saw! There's a museum about her life but it wasn't open for the season yet.
Next, we drove to the National Eagle Center in Wabasha, MN. It's a beautiful facility right along the Mississipi. It's not a very long activity and wouldn't be great with really young kids, but mine enjoyed it immensely. You can go into a room and see eagles and listen to them. They are all injured eagles that cannot be returned to the wild and you stand a few feet back. Afterwards, we went to one of their Eagle talks, which was full of engaging facts about eagles. At the end of the program, we got to see one of the eagles devour a chicken. There are some exhibits which are informative. We were there about 1.5 hours.
Then we drove to Frontenac State Park. Our plan had been to hike the bluffside trail with beautiful views of the Mississippi but the ranger warned us that the trail wasn't in great shape from all the winter storms. Instead, we opted to do a prairie hike, a 3 mile loop through prairie grass that loops along the Mississippi river. It's an easy trail on a grass path with minimal elevation changes. Near the end of the hike, we saw a rattlesnake blocking our path. Always step carefully - not all sticks are sticks!
That night we went to Basil Pizza. I enjoyed my greek salad but my kids didn't love the pizza or fries. To be fair to the owner, we came in close to closing and asked him what he had left. I'm sure the food is better fresh.
Tuesday, we went swimming first thing. Then we drove to the State Capital to take a self guided tour. The last time I had been in the Minnesota State Capital was when I visited Minnesota as my 50th state and got to meet Governor Cawley. Unfortunately, Governor Dayton wasn't available to meet with my kids because he was in a press conference. I can't say that my kids loved the state capital (they enjoyed it enough though), but I like to add in a dose of learning on our trips :-)
Next, we went to Mall of America where I let them do all the activities that I usually avoid. They had a great time in the mirror maze (which is ridiculously pricey, but you can go as many times as you want until you get bored). We went through about 30 times. Next we did mini-golf. Then they did the zip-lining and ropes course - it was about $16 to do both. My kids loved the zipling and found the ropes course challenging, but it was their first time so they have nothing to compare it to. Finally, we ended in the Aquarium, expensive, but pretty cool. They have tanks you can walk under so you feel like the sharks are right above your head!
After Mall of America, we drove back to MSP, returned our car and flew back to TTN. We got home after midnight and my kids are back in school. Making memories is tiring!