Light Rail

I'm starting to think about packing my bags for Minneapolis and head north, way north for me. I'm checking out the weather (highs in the mid-60s perhaps even 70, lows in the high 40s, far better than last December!) and I'm remembering my trip back to the airport on light rail.

On the way in, I took the Super Shuttle, which was OK but took a long time to get to the hotel and so on the way back, we decided to try the light rail.

Light rail is such a bargain! For around $2, you can get from the airport (btw, love the cute blonde family on the home page!) down close to the hotel, then you can easily walk. You can even walk mostly inside, if need be, because of all the bridges and such that connect buildings. That was a wonderful thing in the cold weather as well. It was about one block over and two blocks down, not any longer than any airport concourse walking trip, so extremely do-able.

Once there, buying tickets from the kiosk was also a snap.

The part that was NOT a snap was competing for room on the train with all the Vikings and Bengals fans. See, there was a playoff game the weekend we were there. Every restaurant was crowded with fans all weekend long. And the trains ... well they looked like they'd been stuffed with purple and gold cloth. We waited in the 16 degree weather for a train to be less full and finally, after we skipped the first two trains, the conductor said "YOU BETTER GET ON THIS TRAIN." So Winston and I took our suitcases, shoved them through the doorway and snuck on. Two stops later, we had the train to ourselves, which took us directly into the airport.

Fortunately for all of us, the Vikings have a bye week! So, one of my very few Minneapolis tips: take the light rail!

See all of you at the end of the week! Lots of surprises and fun and of course, lots of networking and learning to be had. Can't wait! My favorite time of year: UCDA time!