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Friday OT #2 - The Nines

Twin Cities-St Paul Saints, The Lucky Gnome, Uptown, rentable scooters.
Anchorage-Lots of outlets for outdoor and adventure activities. You see moose in the city. People are nice.
Chicago-So many cities within the city. Good food everywhere. People are ok. Lots of festivals. Fun sports town.

I would really like to hit up Nashville and New Orleans. Nashville for the music scene, NO for food and music.
 
1. Minneapolis - a clean, friendly city. Almost whatever you want to do.....sports, symphony, theater, music events, and lots of recreational opportunities only minutes away.
2. Madison - as @cowgirl836 alluded, best-kept secret in the Midwest. The isthmus itself is wonderful, but there are lots of really neat things close by as well. Frank Lloyd Wright's architecture in the Dodgeville area, House on the Rock, the Dells, etc.
3. Pittsburgh - a very interesting, eclectic place. Beautiful scenery along the river(s) and lots of great neighborhoods with awesome food.
 
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throwittoblythe said:
Savannah x1000. We went there on an anniversary trip before we had kids and loved it. Stayed in Hilton Head but spent most of the time in Savannah. Our day on Tybee Island was great too. We have this on our short list as future places to go when we tire from the midwest winters. I've heard lots of good things about Charleston, but we haven't been there yet. I loved the history and beauty of Savannah and the small-ness of it, as well.
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I totally agree with all of that! We were there in February and it was gorgeous light-jacket weather. We were able to just go see all kinds of cool historical stuff, eat super-Southern food, haunted pub crawls, etc. It's gorgeous and so elegant. I had really wanted to go to Charleston because I figured it was the same (and Savannah was my favorite city in the US until I went to Portland), but I figured we'd try something totally new. I still would like to go to Charleston sometime soon and back to Savannah!
 
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Angie said:
I totally agree with all of that! We were there in February and it was gorgeous light-jacket weather. We were able to just go see all kinds of cool historical stuff, eat super-Southern food, haunted pub crawls, etc. It's gorgeous and so elegant. I had really wanted to go to Charleston because I figured it was the same (and Savannah was my favorite city in the US until I went to Portland), but I figured we'd try something totally new. I still would like to go to Charleston sometime soon and back to Savannah!
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Bonaventure Cemetary was probably our favorite part. Those statues are so realistic/creepy/cool; combine that with the spanish moss blowing in the trees...it was so beautiful. The ghost tour riding around in a hearse was pretty fun, as well.
 
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throwittoblythe said:
Bonaventure Cemetary was probably our favorite part. Those statues are so realistic/creepy/cool; combine that with the spanish moss blowing in the trees...it was so beautiful. The ghost tour riding around in a hearse was pretty fun, as well.
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We made it to Bonaventure, but only stopped outside. I want to say that's the one featured in Midnight in the Garden of Good & Evil, isn't it? We didn't do a ghost tour riding in a hearse (I would have LOVED that), but did a haunted pub crawl!
 
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Angie said:
We made it to Bonaventure, but only stopped outside. I want to say that's the one featured in Midnight in the Garden of Good & Evil, isn't it? We didn't do a ghost tour riding in a hearse (I would have LOVED that), but did a haunted pub crawl!
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Yes. They moved the statue after the movie though because they didn't want all that foot traffic in the cemetary.

The statues/headstones are so beautiful:
angel-with-palmetto-leaf.jpg

This one was by far the creepiest...pretty sure she comes alive at night and walks around:
Gracie-Watson-memorial3-1000x500.jpg
 
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Kind of a homer answer since I live here, but I love Minneapolis. Growing up in Iowa I never visited here. First time I think I was actually here was when I took my first job out of college.

It's the perfect sized city for me. Tons to do. Very liberal. Close drive still to ISU and family in Iowa. Great food.
 
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Buster28 said:
I don't care for Chicago. For me, Minneapolis is by far the better 'city' experience in the midwest.
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I would agree on preferring Minneapolis to Chicago, but a lot of my preference stems from the fact that Minneapolis is smaller, easier to navigate, for affordable, friendlier, etc. I like it because it's not as "big city".
 
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San Francisco is my favorite. Sante Fe is pretty cool. I like Chicago a lot. I kind of want to visit Detroit and see what’s going on there.

I got a hot take on Portland and it’s that there is a severe shortage of attractive women relative to Seattle and Denver.
 
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NYC - it's just so "alive." Also love Seattle.

I do make an annual trip to the "city" of Sturgis, SD - there have been years that there were over 500k in the area for a week or so, that counts as a real city, right???
 
These big cities are hard to judge, it really comes down to what you like. I think a lot also depends on how much a person researches. For example, the first time I went to San Diego I went to all the places you're supposed to go. The last time I went, I stayed in a different part of town and it was a different experience. Both times were great but both times were different. There was one area of town where we went to eat and it was just blocks of homeless camping on the sidewalks. It was a little shocking but that didn't make me hate the whole city.

Went to Milwaukee last year for the first time last year after hearing about how big of S Hole it was. I loved it but I probably explored .001% of the city. I've had the same experience in nearly every city I've ever been to.
 
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I like New Orleans. I might not want to live there long-term, but I wanted to stay a little longer when I was there.

For places I've lived for extended time, Minneapolis is good. Winter is a little too long for my preference.

On my short-term wish list: Portland, San Francisco.
 
Top Tier:
New Orleans - as others have stated, the music, the food, the culture, is uniquely it's own thing unlike anything in the country, but bring Gold Bond and an extra wallet
Chicago - lived there for a year after undergrad, great city, I would argue the only truly Midwestern "big city", so much going on all the time
Austin - the music is great and there's a surprising amount of outdoor stuff to do, pretty much the only reason I will voluntarily go to Texas, which says a lot

Honorable Mention:
Pittsburgh - actually a beautiful city with a lot of history, great food, cool architecture
Seattle - water everywhere, really modern but expensive
Minneapolis - a beautiful city, great biking, terrible in winter as advertised

Want to go:
Nashville - been there for an overnight, but want to go back

Overrated, no desire to go back:
Los Angeles - yaaay traffic
Las Vegas - unless you like drama
Mostly everywhere in Texas (sans Austin, and actually Denton has a cool scene, going to San Antonio next month and will report back)
Everywhere in Florida
 
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isukendall said:
Top Tier:
New Orleans - as others have stated, the music, the food, the culture, is uniquely it's own thing unlike anything in the country, but bring Gold Bond and an extra wallet
Chicago - lived there for a year after undergrad, great city, I would argue the only truly Midwestern "big city", so much going on all the time
Austin - the music is great and there's a surprising amount of outdoor stuff to do, pretty much the only reason I will voluntarily go to Texas, which says a lot

Honorable Mention:
Pittsburgh - actually a beautiful city with a lot of history, great food, cool architecture
Seattle - water everywhere, really modern but expensive
Minneapolis - a beautiful city, great biking, terrible in winter as advertised

Want to go:
Nashville - been there for an overnight, but want to go back

Overrated, no desire to go back:
Los Angeles - yaaay traffic
Las Vegas - unless you like drama
Mostly everywhere in Texas (sans Austin, and actually Denton has a cool scene, going to San Antonio next month and will report back)
Everywhere in Florida
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Agree on Vegas, guess it's neat to see once but too many other places in the country/world to see before I'd want to go back.
 
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