Minnesotans don’t let a little snow and subzero temps trap us in our homes.
Not only are we a hardy bunch; we creatively embrace whatever Mother Nature throws our way. Should you need a few ideas for how to tick off the days until spring once again thaws the North, we’ve curated a list of some hidden (and not-so-hidden) escapes, excursions, and diversions bucketed by Earth, Water, Air, and Fire—seen by early humans as the four elements that created the universe, and for our purposes, beacons to help navigate a winter filled with fun, style, and substance.
Earth
The ground is frozen and the trees are barren, Yet there are still ways to connect with the earth until the thaw.
Get Grounded
Ready for a refresh? Here’s a foolproof renewal plan. Step one: Bundle up, as usual. Step two: Get to the white-paned glass palace filled with a thriving jungle. You know the one—our historic landmark and great treasure, the Marjorie McNeely Conservatory. Step three: Open the door. Step four: Unzip your parka, and unwind your scarf like a mummy freeing itself. Step five: Feel instant joy! It’s the smell that makes your heart happy. Warm, wet air full of green growing, the smell of chlorophyll, the smell of earth. It hits you on a cellular level: This is warmth; this is life! Step six: Walk the paths, find the special blooming orchids, admire the beauty of leaves and bark, go around the Sunken Garden (as many times as you want), and marvel. Step seven: Take the interior hallways over to the Como Zoo’s Tropical Encounters—a rainforest animal and plant exhibit that combines the great smells of warm, living life with the sounds of birds and the sights of darting fish and bright frogs. And finally, step 8: Head back out to the frozen world. Your very being will be newly alert, alive, and restored. 1225 Estabrook Dr., St. Paul
Tour the Terrain
There’s nothing like the sound of horse hooves hitting the pavement, especially when you’re snuggled in an open carriage on Hitching Company’s Minneapolis riverfront tour. Book a dinner at a neighboring North Loop or Northeast eatery to warm up with red wine or a smoky drink. thehitchingcompany.com
Earthly Delights
Having one of those days when you could really use a change of perspective from your WFH space? Hustle off to Hotel Emery (pictured), and hunker down at Spyhouse Coffee in the lush lobby. And if you really need a break from the mundane, make 24 hours of it with a handmade pasta dinner at the Chef Steven Brown–driven Giulia, an overnight in one of the rooms above (hello, 12-foot ceilings), and a comfy seat at the neighboring Guthrie Theater while you enjoy The Little Prince—the story of a prince’s intergalactic travels to various planets, including Earth. 215 S. 4th St., Mpls.
Camp Indoors
Need an easy getaway with the kids? Westin Edina Galleria offers an indoor camping package complete with a tent, age-appropriate toys, and a customized sleeping bag. Bring your own twinkle lights and your favorite pillows, dim the overheads, order room service, dial up a Netflix movie, and then hunker down. edinaweekendwonders.com
Dig in the Dirt
Feeling the need to wrap your fingers around a piece of earth? Dame Errant clay studio just might be your indoor winter wonderland. Owner/artist Tara Block’s studio is tucked in a historic warehouse space and offers a great variety of workshops, but we are especially intrigued by the “Open Clay” options providing a place to create by starting with a sphere, cylinder, or slab of clay. Tools are provided, plus glazing and firing on-site. Let your imagination guide your hands. 1729 N. 2nd St., Mpls.
Commune with Nature
Only a few places in town allow you to escape from it all and experience the quad-fecta of the elements—count the Minnesota Zoo as one of the best. The animals roaming the earth year-round. The warmth of the indoor Tropics Trail. The snow monkeys taking in the outdoor air! And for the first part of this year, there’s a dolphin exhibit (a fan-favorite water mammal). 13000 Zoo Blvd., Apple Valley
Eat Local
Escaping the kitchen and eating out is often a welcome change of pace, especially in the winter. One of the things our local chefs do particularly well is celebrate the ingredients nurtured on this land. Minnesota is fifth in the nation in agricultural production, with $16 billion of our economy coming from growing things we eat. The manner in which it’s grown is obviously the finer point that brings us all to the table in different ways, and some of our chefs are keeping their roots very close to home.
The national buzz about Owamni (pictured below, 420 S. 1st St., Mpls.) is well-earned, because the Indigenous-foods restaurant has created a shift in our thinking. By removing all the ingredients that were brought to these lands by colonizers, the menu doesn’t just give us a taste of the past but a taste of who we might be today on an alternative, more natural timeline.
Speaking the language of the small farm, Wise Acre Eatery (5401 Nicollet Ave. S., Mpls.) can account for all of the ingredients in the kitchen. They come from the restaurant’s farm in Plato, Minnesota, which means the menu is planned in harmony with the harvest. If it’s been a rough year for the tomato crop, the pasta might look different—as it should.
And if you believe in gratitude for anything you’re eating, from salad to cheeseburger, Tongue in Cheek (989 Payne Ave., St. Paul) has set a place for you. The eatery’s mission is to only use animals that have lived a good life, being raised sustainably and humanely. The ethos is simple and true for all: Living a good life tastes better.
Water
Our 10,000 lakes are frozen, yet waters still flow in places big and small while ice becomes our best winter friend.
Float + Soak
Believe it or not, floating in super-salty warm water in a pitch-black (optional), completely silent pod can be one of the most relaxing and rejuvenating hours of your life—try it at St. Paul’s Awaken for Wellness (pictured, 1821 St. Clair Ave.) or its location in Hudson (411 Cty. Rd. UU). Not feeling the float tank? Fusion LifeSpa in Deephaven (18142 Minnetonka Blvd.) offers detoxifying and relaxing steams, baths, and treatments to connect with water in a more traditional spa environment.
Belly Up
For the first time ever, our best ice is going for a record in February. With the help of the city of St. Paul, Minnesota Ice is attempting a Guinness World Records title for the world’s longest ice bar. China currently holds the record at 330 feet, but there’s no doubt we can beat that in Mears Park. 221 E. 5th St., St. Paul
Bask In Bathing
The national trend has finally found its way north, as Watershed Spa opened this past fall to become the first public bathhouse in the Twin Cities. In the former Soap Factory space (fitting, no?), the lower level of the spa is dedicated to creating a ritual bathing haven with steam, a sauna, hydrotherapies, and a large communal pool. Suits are required, but you are free to move between the heated waters and the cold-plunge pool as you hydrate, hydrate, hydrate. 514 SE 2nd St., Mpls.
Slip + Slide: Ice
Ice Castles is created with icicles “grown” on a site in New Brighton (1500 Old Hwy. 8) that local artisans use to build LED-lit tunnels, caverns, towers, fountains, slides, and crawl spaces, plus a Polar Pub. Need more? Escape to The Minnesota Ice Maze, part of Winter Skolstice at Viking Lakes (2645 Vikings Circle, Eagan), starting January 6, and make your way through a “local largest” course made with 300-pound blocks, only to emerge onto an ice slide at the finish.
Go Jump In A Lake
As crazy as that sounds, there are many reasons to saw a hole in a frozen lake top and jump in. Frontiers-of-health types insist it’s good for your cardiovascular system, aiding blood flow. It’s also good for your overall well-being because icy-water submersion tells your cells to make more energy-generating mitochondria. And Polar Plunging is good for your mood because it gives you an instant boost of endorphins.
Special Olympics Minnesota knows for a fact that Polar Plunging is also good for our community—some 15,000 Minnesotans helped fundraise last winter through plungemn.com. To Polar Plunge for good, all you need to do is sign up and agree to fundraise $75. After that, it’s all about courage and commitment.
To train, some people take increasingly long cold showers or fill up their bathtub with cold water and ice cubes. On the big day, they put on their neoprene socks (what avid Polar Plungers use) or shoes (everyone must have footwear when Polar Plunging so that their wet feet don’t freeze to anything once they get out). Super plungers also put on a costume. Costume? For all the social media, of course: Minnesota’s social media feeds fill up with folks in team T-shirts, colorful outfits, and superhero onesies all jumping into cold cut-out pools in the frozen lake top in the bright blue-cast sunlight of a winter day.
Are you up for it? You can connect with the thousand-plus-member Minnesota Facebook group Night Water Butterflies to learn more. (It’s not a great idea to do your first frozen lake dip solo.)
Immersive Spa Day
Secret tip: If you book a spa appointment at Life Time Edina in Southdale, you get access to the entire premium club for the whole day. Sweat it out in a spin class, play some pickleball, then steam and sauna. Make way to your mani or pedi, then refresh in the locker room before grabbing a table on-site at Rare Steak and Sushi. Best day ever.
Winter days can take on a certain sameness—same icy landscape, same four walls—except for the day you jump into a frozen lake. That’s a day you never forget. That’s a day you were strong, brave, and possibly a little nuts—and got proof of it.
Ice-Capades
U.S. Pond Hockey Championships: The greatest hockey event in the world happens this month on Lake Nokomis. Dust off your skates to play (or sign your kid’s team up for Youth Night). Or do what most folks do: Pack a thermos and watch a game between any of 300 or so teams playing on more than 25 rinks. Starts Jan. 19
Wayzata Chilly Open: On February 11, the place to be is Wayzata Bay for a day of ice golf tourneys, snowkite races, “snowga,” and, of course, a chili cook-off. Sign up a team for the golf tourney, or just take it all in, including the restaurants vying for top prizes in the heated competition. Bonus: nearby post-event watering holes.
Art Shanty Projects: Starting January 21, Bdé Umán (AKA Lake Harriet) hosts the free-to-all fest where you can explore and interact with 35+ artist-created structures, sculptures, and other projects. This year’s crop includes Chapsicle of Love, where they’ll be performing actual, legally binding weddings.
Slip + Slide: H2O
Our winters solve one of the momentous pains of taking your family to the water park for the day: no need to apply goopy sunscreen to antsy children. Let that fact alone (but also our subzero temps and early sunsets) be all the license you need to pack up your brood and head to an indoor water park. For those looking for the grandest experience, try Bloomington’s Great Wolf Lodge (pictured, 1700 American Blvd. E.)—it has slides as high as four stories, a poolside bar, a lazy river, and a wave pool. If you’re looking for something slightly more chill, the Venetian Indoor Waterpark in Maple Grove (11801 Fountains Way) has two four-story slides and a massive 20-person spa for parents. Or hit the chillest of them all: St. Paul’s municipal Great River Water Park (270 Lexington Pkwy. N.), which has slides, lap pools, diving boards, and a sauna for less than $10 a person.
Wet Your Whistle (+Toes)
Google “local hotels with pools” and several will pop up—but two truly stand out. There is, of course, the luxury Four Seasons Minneapolis (pictured, 245 Hennepin Ave.) with a spa and indoor pool complete with floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking North Loop’s Gateway District. (Hotel guests can also book luxe spa treatments.) And then there’s the rooftop soaking pool at Hewing Hotel (300 Washington Ave. N.), where you can sit on a ledge submerged in the warm water, sip something on ice, and watch your breath rise as you take in the skyline view—including the neighboring Four Seasons.
Air
The winter air is crisp and cold, yet also filled with warmth, laughter, and energy indoors and out.
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Photos by Caitlin Abrams
Carried Away!
Hot-air ballooning isn’t just for the warmer months. Soar through the St. Croix Valley year-round (uh, blizzard permitting) with Stillwater Balloon (135 St. Croix Tr. N., Lakeland), offering hour-long airborne tours of the area in high style—complete with a champagne toast upon landing. Prefer to stay on the ground? Watch more than 30 balloons fly through the skies during the magical Hudson Hot Air Affair (pictured) in early February.
Breathtaking Views
Four Seasons Hotel’s outdoor Nordic Village, at its Riva Terrace, features curling, a fire table lounge, cocktails with skyline views, and a four-course dinner served in a private mini cabin. Open to non-hotel guests through March 4. fourseasons.com/minneapolisSecret Slice of Sky
Tucked in among the taller skyscrapers of downtown Minneapolis, Blondette sits on the fifth floor of the Rand Tower Hotel with a view that beats a panoramic skyline. The glass roof and walls allow you to perch, with martini in hand, among captains of the creative class while you glimpse the sky above, old industry looming all around you. Hey, why not make it an overnight! 527 Marquette Ave. S., Mpls.
Hang Time
Need to wear out a rambunctious kid? Urban Air Adventure Park’s Plymouth location, with all its options, is your place. Here, your kid gets go-karts, a climbing wall, a ropes course, performance in-ground trampolines, a warrior course, and a handful of other crazy stuff that defies conventional definition, like the zip-line-esque Sky Rider. Best yet? This is one of the few places where kids pay the premium price and their adults buy a Parent Pass, which gets you access to all the same stuff, at half the price. 3580 Holly Ln. N.
Levitate
Into the idea of skydiving but intimidated by all that sky? iFly’s got you, as it takes the sky out of the diving. Just off of 394 in the shadow of Bacio (earn yourself a dessert or nightcap), iFly replaces the whole jumping-out-of-a-plane thing with vertical wind tunnels powerful enough to smoothly suspend flyers in the air with the same sensation of skydiving. All ages (3 and up) and abilities are welcome. “Flights” can be booked individually (for as low as $65/person) or in groups. 12415 Wayzata Blvd., Minnetonka
Get the full list on Mpls St Paul.
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