We had coffee with Lake Superior, packed up and we were off to Minneapolis. We took State Hwy 61 along Lake Superior to Duluth then it was Interstate 35 into Minneapolis. We arrived in Minneapolis at about 1:30 pm and tried to check into the Motel 6 that Diane had booked but no check-ins until 3:00.
We decided to go to a Starbucks and use their Wi-Fi to post onto the blog. Google Maps showed us the closest one and off we went. When we arrived at our destination we were at The Mall of America. The heck with the blog posts let’s go experience the largest mall in the USA. It was interesting and crowded, school shopping mostly. We walked around for a little while and decided to have lunch. We settled on Cowboy Jack’s Saloon. We sat at the bar and had a veggie burger. But the most important part of the afternoon was asking the bartender what her favorite breweries were in Minneapolis. She gave us three breweries that we should visit. Top of the list was Surly because besides great beer that had really good food.
We went back to the Motel 6, checked in and we were off to Surly Brewery. We had to go across the city which took a little time as it was going home time for commuters. The brewery was in an industrial part of the city. There were grain silos, some still operating others closed down and other businesses. Surly Brewery is large. They have a pretty large parking lot and it was hard to find a parking place.
They have bouncers at the entrance to check ID’s. We were shocked that they didn’t ask for ours. The place was huge, it looked like you could have 2 full court basketball games in the indoor taproom. You had to check in with the host to get a seat. We wanted to eat some food so we asked host for table for 2 out in the patio and they told us to check-in with the patio host. It was a 30 minute wait for a seat in the patio so we got a couple of beers and waited for a seat.
This was a Monday but there were over 200 people in this place for beer and/or dinner. We were amazed. The beer was great and the food was too. We had a wonderful time.
LOL