by Ester Harrison

Since my sister moved to Minneapolis a few years ago, I have taken a trip there nearly every 12-18 months. Never too long, but just enough time to experience various parts of the city. On this quick trip, I sat back and let me sister plan the entire weekend. We were there to celebrate her new baby’s (my Godson’s) baptism, so I figured that it would be best to let her make the arrangements.

We arrived late on a Friday night and headed straight to our AirBnB located off of Lake Calhoun. A few moments to settle in and then it was directly to Lake & Irving Restaurant for a nightcap. It was quiet in the Uptown Minneapolis neighborhood, we stayed for a couple of drinks and headed to sleep at our quaint AirBnB.

The next we woke up early and headed off to breakfast at Barbette, where we had a wonderful and varied meal. I had Eggs Benedict with Baby Bok Choy and Lardons, my family had granola, fruit and omelettes. After breakfast it was off to our planned adventure, the Minnesota Harvest Apple Orchard. We were able to taste apple wine, picked apples and had a picnic. It was perfect.

After apple-picking we headed back to wash-up, rest and get dressed up for dinner. That night we had a delicious and hearty dinner at W.A. Frost & Company. We enjoyed copious bottles of wine, mussels and cheeses before we even got to the entrees. Matt had a Moroccan-style braised lamb shank while I enjoyed the most delicious Scottish Ocean Trout with sticky rice, shishito stir-fry swimming in a shrimp and lemon grass broth and topped with a sesame brittle. YUM!

Our lake house AirBnB rental on Lake Calhoun was so lovely that we spent the rest of the night catching up while enjoying a bottle of apple wine. It was the most perfectly relaxing Saturday night.

The next day was a little more rushed as we had the baptism followed by lunch at the Longfellow Grill. A little more catch-up time with the new baby and then it was off to the airport and back to Dallas. 48 hours done very well in the Twin Cities!