Minneapolis 2018...II

Day 2 in Minneapolis finds me back at The Commons park, which is a few walking blocks away from my hotel. While at The Commons, I noticed quite a few bands playing in various areas of the park. I later found out that there was a Marching Band championship competition going on at US Bank Stadium, and the bands were “warming up”. With that said, good music was coming from all over the park, and it sounded great! I paused to capture photos of Wells Fargo 550 Tower, The Armory and a METRO train making its way towards the US Bank Stadium stop. I later decided to go up on the ramp leading into US Bank Stadium to capture more photos of downtown “from above”. In the process, I got great photos of the downtown buildings reflecting off the stadium, as well as the Vikings flag, Minnesota State flag and an American flag flying outside the stadium. I also captured great art from Andrew Leicester and Jane Zweig, which were large ornamental arches at the U.S. Bank Stadium Metro blue and green line station. They also made for great foreground photos with the downtown skyline. From there, I head down the ramp towards US Bank Stadium for daylight photos of the stadium. I start in front of the stadium at the Legacy Ship and Mast, and work my way around the entire stadium to capture various angles. Again, I can’t say enough of how awesome this stadium is! While walking the back side of the stadium, I noticed a “colorful hand” wall mural across the street. The mural was from Periscope, and it's an “I Really Love You” sign language mural. Walking back to the hotel, I stopped to photograph Fernando Botero's “Dancers” statue on Washington Avenue.

After a brief stop to pick up the car, I head into downtown to look for and photograph Eduardo Kobra's Bob Dylan mural on Hennepin Avenue. The mural is a great art piece which looks like it stretches across two buildings. Next up, I head over to Nicollet Mall. I stop at a Target and got a pretty cool shot from inside looking out onto the mall. Across the street I stop inside IDS Center. Walking inside, I noticed an American flag hanging above Crystal Court. Right above Crystal Court, I took photos looking in both directions of the mall. Back below, I photographed the famous Mary Tyler Moore statue on a corner. Walking a block over, The Westin hotel had a very interesting farmer and mechanic sculpture on the front façade. Then I noticed the “The Farmers and Mechanics Savings Bank of Minnesota” signage above, which indicates this hotel is a former bank building. But the sculptures were really cool, though. Across the street from The Westin is César Pelli's Wells Fargo Center.

Back to the car, I make my way over to First Avenue & 7th Street Entry…a club made famous by Prince in “Purple Rain”. I wanted to photograph the building from across the street, but I noticed the club’s sign was covered with huge “Vote” signs going across the front of the building. So instead, I photographed the artist stars on the wall outside including Prince’s star, which was re-done in gold-leaf by local artist Peyton Scott Russell. My day is winding down, and I have three must stops left…Antoine Predock's Vom McNamara alumni center at the University of Minnesota, TCF Bank Stadium, home of the Minnesota Golden Gophers football team and Minnesota United FC soccer team and Paisley Park Studios and Museum in Chanhassen, Minnesota.