<p>Apparently our Red Carpet Day event is ending about 12:30 but our flight isn't til 7 so we will have some time in the afternoon to scope out the campus.</p>
<p>What should we definitely hit?</p>
<p>Coffman Union and some of the campus libraries are definitely worth visiting.</p>
<p>That entirely depends if you want to stay ON campus and check that out, or venture off campus and scope out Minneapolis. The MSP airport is insanely massive and you’ll wanna be there by like 5 if you fly out at 7, so that limits your time a bit.</p>
<p>My recommendation:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>Have lunch in Dinkytown. This is basically part of our campus, located across University Avenue. It has tons of restaurants, shops, etc. My personal favorite is the Loring Pasta Bar.</p></li>
<li><p>Walk through East Bank through the Knoll and Northrop Mall (the big grassy area). That’s the only part of campus that’s even remotely pretty (as a UMN student, I find most of our campus pretty depressed and ugly, but I still love it here). You can walk to the rec center, but it’s kinda out of the way and you won’t get in very far without a valid U of M student ID. Go into Walter Library and go up to the second floor. It’s a beautiful library and the architecture on the 2nd floor is amazing. I’m sure you’ll see Coffman Memorial Union at Red Carpet Day, but if not, it’s at the South end of Northrop Mall and has all the lounges/restaurants/bookstore,etc. Then walk across the Washington Avenue Bridge to West Bank. There’s a covered walkway if you don’t care to walk outside. Once you get across the bridge, look to your left and that’s pretty much the entirety of West Bank that you’ll ever have class on unless you’re in Carlson. There’s really nothing worth seeing over there anyways.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>If you want to see Minneapolis better, walk down the steps at the end of the covered walkway to street level and hop on one of the WESTBOUND busses (the ones that are coming from the other side of the river) into downtown. The 3, 16, 50, and 50U are the busses that’ll take you downtown from there. They’ll take you downtown along 3rd Ave. (*I think), and get off at the Nicollet Mall stop and walk down Nicollet Mall into the main part of downtown. Again, tons of shops, restaurants, etc. and it’s pedestrian only. You’ll get a good feel of the city. You can walk to Target Plaza and Target Field (and actually walk right up to the gates), but I have no idea how to get there by heart. After that, head back towards 4th St. (one block from where you got off the bus) and hop on the southbound Light Rail which will take you to the airport. It’s about a 30 minute ride from downtown to Terminal 1 at the airport.</p>
<p>Thank you! Did a lot of the stuff you recommended, just super tired now but I will report back tomorrow for sure.</p>