Last time in this Minneapolis series, we strolled through Northeast Minneapolis, stopping for a sausage at a great Polish deli, had a fabulous lunch at Masa downtown then made our way through Loring Park, stopping to ogle at the dandelion fountain and the birds.
Right across the Friendship Bridge from Loring Park is the Sculpture Garden, part of the Walker Art Museum complex.
If you missed my blog on the Walker Art Museum last year, then you don’t know how hard I fell for it. It’s an amazing museum with intriguing and moving exhibits, and you MUST visit it. When I did last year, it was nighttime, so touring the Sculpture Garden too wasn’t ideal. Thus I made sure to make it a priority this time, especially with all the recommendations for it I got from friends and Twitter tweeps.
They weren’t wrong. The Sculpture Garden is a playground for photographers, and now we’ll walk through some of my favorite shots. We will enter from the southern end and walk mostly in a clockwise direction. Less commentary, more pretty!
Can you find me in that last picture? Find the photographer is always a fun game!
The next sight that greets us is Spoonbridge and Cherry, a very large sculpture that lends itself to so many fun angles. Here are some of them:
And one last view of Spoonbridge and Cherry from the slats of Nautilus.
There was also a nice garden at the northern end of the garden.
Feel free to tell me what type of flowers those are. I can never remember plant names.
Let’s continue down the eastern side of the Garden.
I loved the Hare on Bell so much. I think the captured movement of the hare mid-leap is what captivated me.
Prometheus Strangling the Vulture II looked different from every lumpy angle.
That set piece on the bottom looks like it had a healthy diet of twigs, eh? I know, I’m hilarious.
Let me believe that this angle of Amaryllis exposing a dying hedge is poetic, ok?
At this point, we’ve made our way back to the Garden’s entrance, but the sculpture fun isn’t done! Right across the way is a huge lawn outside the museum proper, and it houses a few more installations, though they come with no titles.
Those blobs creep me out, but that’s appropriate for the Walker, if you read my previous post on it.
And I threw in those trees because I almost always find well-planted groves beautiful.
We are done with the Sculpture Garden, but never fear, there is always more art around in Minneapolis. The Hennepin Avenue United Methodist Church is definitely worthy of contemplation.
Once you’ve had your fill of buildings and sculptures, walk back toward downtown on 15th Street and treat yourself to a coffee break at the Dunn Bros. (329 W 15th Street) on the way, because what better way is there to recover from art viewing than a cappuccino and a few more paintings?
Dunn Bros. is a coffee chain with many Minneapolis locations, but I’ve decided that the ones located just on the outskirts of downtown, like this one, have a lot more personality than those in the busier area around Nicollet Mall.
Now that we’ve enjoyed the beauty of sculpture, we can continue down 15th and end up on Eat Street, the southern portion of Nicollet Avenue that boasts a lot of international restaurants for several miles stretching south of downtown.
The husband and I did not end up far from the hotel this night, however. We chose Asian Taste (1400 Nicollet Avenue), a very affordable Japanese restaurant, for our dinner.
It’s a casual restaurant with at least one enthusiastic patron who likes their big screen TV for sports watching.
My husband was not disappointed in his Singapore Sling.
I had a great junmai sake, but I have no clue what the brand was.
The crab rangoons, called fried wontons here, were just as good as they always are.
I’m not really sure how a restaurant could do crab rangoons wrong. Maybe too much cream cheese and not enough crab? For my meal, I chose a single spicy spider roll.
I wasn’t feeling that adventurous, as you can tell. No matter; I LOVE crab, and this roll was great, though perhaps a little too heavy on the spicy mayo. The miso soup was up to par as well.
In other words, Asian Taste is a serviceable Japanese restaurant that’s not far from downtown but far from downtown prices and has a great alcohol selection.
That was the end of Day 3, which feels like a clean blogging break. Next time, we’ll cover brunch at the Lowry, the Loring Hill neighborhood, and the Lake of Isles. It may be the last post in this series . . . but I won’t know that until I write it! In the meantime, if you want to see more pictures of the Sculpture Garden, this is the album for you.
"Travel Guide"
My travelogues tend to follow my day’s schedule when I’m out exploring. I chronicle my meals and sweet treats along with tourist sites worth checking out, including hiking trails. Sometimes, I may include just one particular trip highlight; other times, I’ll include several so you can make a day trip out of them.