Hello everyone! I've recently focused my blog on tutorials and resources for other Steemians, such as free software for various purposes and how to create a curation trail bot if you happen to be locked out of Streemian like I am.

Today, I want to change gears and talk about a recent fun travel experience I had related to my work as a graduate student.

Traveling as a Graduate Student

I'm in my third year of graduate school now, and I'm deep into my research projects. A few times a year, I have the privilege of presenting my research at conferences, either during a poster session or by giving a short talk during a session of similar research topics. In August, I traveled to Washington, D.C. to present my work at the American Chemical Society (ACS) National Meeting. It was a fun trip, but I had visited the D.C. area before, so I was familiar with the city.

I was recently able to attend a conference in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The only times I've been to the Minneapolis-St. Paul area were during stopovers at the airport, which don't really count as actually visiting the city, so I was excited to venture out of the airport and experience an area of the United States I've never seen.

Minneapolis, Here I Come!

My flight was uneventful. I did notice a lake soon after takeoff that looked like it was very low. I thought it made an interesting photo, so I snapped one from my window seat.

Upon landing at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport, I had been informed by my adviser that there was a very convenient method of transportation to travel from the airport to downtown Minneapolis. The twin cities area has a light rail system that runs back and forth from Minneapolis to St. Paul. Since there's a stop at the airport, I just paid for a fare, hopped on the train, and off I went into the city.

Since I landed on a Monday morning, I was the only one in my train. It was cold that morning, and I did see a few snowflakes fall, so it was very pleasant. I remembered to pack warm clothing, so when I got off the train and stepped outside into the cold air, I was prepared. I walked a few blocks to my hotel and checked in.

Getting Around Downtown

My favorite thing about Minneapolis is the Skyway. It's a second floor network of walkways that connect many of the buildings in the downtown area. This allows you to traverse between buildings and other areas of town without ever going outside. This proved invaluable for my trip since it was cold and rainy for most of my time there. I don't have much experience in large cities, so I was impressed by the walkways. I like to walk to the lab during the week when I'm doing research, so it was no problem for me to walk 15 minutes from my hotel to the convention center, especially since I didn't have to go outside.

The Skyway provides some great views of the streets downtown, so it was nice to stop and take in the views, especially at night. Taking photos of this was difficult, since it was through glass, but I did want to share one photo I took because the lights were beautiful.

Interesting Sights

The conference proceedings did keep me busy during the days, but I had the chance to visit a few places around the city that I found interesting. On Tuesday, I headed over to the campus of the University of Minnesota to an area called Dinkytown, where I had lunch at Loring Bar & Restaurant. One of my friends informed me that it is believed Bob Dylan lived in an apartment above this restaurant and frequented it. I thought that was interesting, but even more interesting is the interior of the restaurant:

It's very colorful and creatively decorated. My favorite part is the stage, which I regret I did not get to see anyone give a performance on. If I'm ever back in the area, I'll be sure to try to catch some live entertainment here. I enjoyed a pasta dish. I believe it was tortellini with bolognese.

Also on Tuesday, I visited the Central Public Library in downtown Minneapolis. It may be one of the most impressive library facilities I've ever seen. There was plenty of study and work space, as well as librarian help desks, computers for Internet access, and countless resources to help people find jobs. The building is five stories and takes up an entire city block. There is a large open area with a high ceiling in the middle:

In the photo, the help desks and computers are on the right side, and the bookstacks are on the left side. I decided to go explore through the bookstacks as well, and the book storage system was interesting to observe. The library has a moving shelf system that expands and contracts at the press of a button. You can see these shelves here:

Even more interestingly, the library has books that are very old and deal with subjects that I didn't even know there were written volumes of. It always baffles me that so much knowledge could be contained in one building. For example, I found Moody's investment guides from the 1930s, stock reports spanning the 1970s to the 1990s, a book on orthopedic field surgery techniques for World War II, and several more things that I didn't know had been preserved in book form.

Libraries are wonderful places. My local public library is not nearly as grand as the Central Library of Minneapolis, but when I go to large cities and see people taking advantage of the services that the library has to offer, I'm always grateful that such public services exist.

I regret that I did not get to visit more places across the area while visiting, but it's difficult when you also have to attend the conference. I did, however, get to visit many great restaurants around the city.

The Food

I had many great meals while I was in Minneapolis. There were many places in the Skyway to stop and get breakfast, so I took advantage of those. There were also some great lunch restaurants. One place I went was the Hen House Eatery, which serves breakfast food all day and a wide variety of sandwiches. It was very tasty.

One thing that happened unintentionally was that I ended up having many pasta dishes. As I already discussed, I had lunch with some friends at the Loring, which specializes in pasta. Then at dinner, I went out with some other friends who picked another pasta place. Then on Wednesday evening, I ended up having to order a pasta dish because my original order could not be fulfilled due to a kitchen malfunction at the restaurant (They didn't charge me for the meal, which was a great way to make up for not getting to have what I originally ordered). Despite pasta overload, it was all very delicious. I took pictures of some of the dishes I ate, so I'll share those here:

• Lasagna from Red Rabbit

• Chicken Nanban Donburi from Zen Box

• Pesto Chicken Tortellini from The News Room

I was very impressed with all of the meals I had while in Minneapolis. On the last day I was there, I had a burger from Ike's Food and Cocktails which was also very delicious. I would recommend checking out any of the restaurants I've linked to if you're in the downtown Minneapolis area.

Heading Home

My time in Minneapolis was enjoyable. The weather wasn't the greatest, and we did have rain and light snow several times during the week, but the Skyway helped with that, and I was able to get around and see many things across the city. I will hopefully be able to go back someday to experience even more of what the area has to offer.

Upon flying home, I got to go visit my parents for a while on my way back to the university where I work, and I was greeted by some beautiful fall weather as well as their flock of chickens.

The weather was much more pleasant upon returning home, and I didn't miss any of the fall colors that were hanging around where I live.

Final Thoughts

I hope you've enjoyed reading about my trip! I enjoyed my time in Minneapolis, and I would love to go back sometime to experience everything the twin cities area has to offer. I'll be sure to go back in the summer, though, to avoid the cold weather.

I'm not sure where the next conference will be that I'll get a chance to travel to, but I hope it's somewhere where I can get out and experience some other things besides just listening to presentations all day. Until then, I'm not sure what I'll be blogging about, but I'd love to hear your thoughts if you've visited Minneapolis.

As always, thanks for stopping by.

!steemitworldmap 44.976047 lat -93.273046 long First Visit to Minneapolis- A Splendid City, Even in the Cold! d3scr