STC day T-2: A tour of the city

The STC Conference doesn’t officially start until Monday, but I came a couple days early so I can visit my brother who lives in town.

He gave me a tour of the Twin Cities. He took me to the Minnesota State Capitol Building in St. Paul. The place was empty for a Saturday, so we had a chance to enjoy the grounds. He then showed me the Mississippi River and a few of the 10,000 lakes in this state. It was a beautiful day, and plenty of people were out jogging, cycling, and generally enjoying the great weather.

We then went to the Mall of America, which is the megamall the area is famous for. I live in Orange County, California – the consumer capital of the world – but nothing prepared me for MOA. It is not like any mall I’ve ever been to. The best word to describe it: overwhelming. It is so large, it has its own amusement park. But it has so many stores, it’s hard to figure out where to begin if you wanted to do any shopping. They even have two of the same type of yogurt shop.

He then took me out to dinner at Punch, a great Neapolitan pizza place that serves delicious oven-fired pizza. The one we went to is on East Hennipin and University – a bit too far to walk from the Convention Center but worth a cab ride.

We sat across from a Twins fan who looked sort of dejected. The reason was that the Twins lost to the Tigers 2–8. My brother and I are going to tomorrow night’s game at the Metrodome, so let’s hope the Twins do better.