A Free Day of Adventure

 Minneapolis, MN

Couples Skate in the All Skate Direction!

The Walker Art Center

Today we took advantage of our NARM Pass and walked over to The Walker Art Center.  There are a couple of new exhibits that we haven't seen yet.  We also haven't explored their permanent collection recently.  

Donna and I peer into Passing Winter - Yayoi Kusam

Office at Night - Edward Hopper (The Nighthawks guy)

There is a great Stanley Whitney exhibit.  I wasn't aware of him before today but his works are fantastic and it's great seeing them all together.  I liked the reflection of the paintings in the floor.

Holidazzle 2024

After our museum visit we headed home and ate some dinner and then walked the skyway to Holidazzle 2024.  Holidazzle is and was a winter festival in Minneapolis.  It has had a 10 year hiatus but it's back this year, in part.  There used to be a parade but now it's a closed street with a lot of vendors and things to do as well as things to do indoors.  We took advantage of this free event to celebrate winter in the winteriest place I have ever lived.

They had Minne-Golf set up to play for free.  It's the same course as we played here but in a different place.

We were headed to the FREE ROLLERSKATING AKA Roll-A-Dazzle sponsored by CenterPoint Energy in an unused business in The City Center Shopping Mall.

We arrived just after they opened so it looks pretty deserted in these photos.

You signed an online waiver, gave them your ID, and Twin Cities Skaters gave you rollerskates!

I ran off and got photos while Donna put on her skates.

This is Donna's "I'm having fun" pose that you can also see here in this skating post.

There are a lot of many opportunities for selfies.

They had a nice seating area set up so you could rest, post on Facebook about skating for free, and tighten your skates.

It turns out those toe stoppers are just for posing.

After skating we bundled up and walked Nicolette Mall.

The mall has a giant chess board and they put scarves on the pieces.

There was a beer and drink tent that we didn't make use of.  A $9 can of beer seemed inappropriate for our Free Day of Adventure.

Fake ice carvings are a thing even when it is 10 degrees out and a real ice carving would survive just fine.  After looking at this again it might be real. The Southern California boy in me just assumed it was fake.

I was hyped for this Holidazzle Rollercoaster but it turned out to be a stationary sled.

As we walked we happened across a giant yeti.

They seemed pretty cool to look at but then we found out...

They were a marionette and we could control them!

The animation looks pretty great considering it is like 5 random people just randomly pulling ropes without any organization.

The Yeti was made from recycled mattresses, which is really cool.

This hoop tunnel was stroller and wheelchair accessible.

There were a few large hour glasses that were interactive.  When you started turning the wheel it triggered a light show with music.

This is what it looks like before you started turning the wheel.

It was a fun day of exploration.  Minneapolis has been treating us great so far.  The weather has been getting colder and we are expecting our first major snow storm today (it's happening as I write this).  That's okay, we don't have to drive anywhere anytime soon.

That's it for today.  If you missed, Skating the Stadium, and didn't click the link above, check it out.  We went rollerblading at US Bank Stadium for NOT FREE!

Old School Roller Skating

 Arvada, CO

Get funky y'all!  

Skate City

Today we went to "Adult Skate and Workout" at Skate City in Arvada, CO. We arrived at 10:15am and paid our $5 to get in and were given rental skates.  It was my first time on traditional roller skates in about 20 years.  After getting my skates on, I skated over to the doughnut table and grabbed a "free" doughnut.  At 10:30 the skating started.  All in all, there were about 25 skaters that attended and there was 1 fantastic "skating leader".  She knew most people's names, including ours, and skated with us (she is in the upper left of the photo above, while keeping the music requests playing.

Mmmmmm, doughnuts!

Old School skates!

After the first half hour Kelly, our skate leader, blocked off part of the rink and passed out squares of carpet just like in kindergarten.  We weren't entering "Nap Time" tough, we were entering "Workout and Stretching Time".  I thought it was going to be casual but Kelly was a drill sergeant.  Have you ever done leg lifts, crunches, squats, and planks with skates on?  I have.  

After exercising, the cones came out and people practiced their sweet moves.

And then the skate dancing started to old school hip hop songs.

It was super fun and we will probably do it every Wednesday until we leave.  I fell twice but that was because my confidence was coming back faster than my skills.  By the end of the session my confidence and skills were high but my legs were tired so I chose to take it easy.  Next week I will push myself again and hopefully I will get back to where I was in Jr. High minus the flexibility for "Shoot the Duck" and "Limbo".

That's it for today.  If you missed Confluence Park, check it out.  We are staying right near the point where Cherry Creek flows into The South Platt River.