I'm flying to Las Vegas on Tuesday and I have a 6-hour flight changeover in Minneapolis, so if I'm at the airport for 2 hours before my flight, I'll still have had 4 hours to kill.

Is the airport there close to the city? Cos if so, I'd like to check it out for a few hours! Anyone got any advice of cool things to see or places to go?

Militant said:

You will have to spend quite a bit on cabrides to make it to the city and back and it is dependent on the time of day on what you can do. Personally I'm not sure it would be worth it without a guide and transportation of your own. There's tons to do but it's not all necessarily real close together.

But a 6 hour layover is awful man. I hope the flight was dirt cheap.

BTW I just noticed you are only 18. Las Vegas is a 21 and older city to gamble or drink. I hope you have something else going in Vegas.

Mall of America is just down the road from the airport. Otherwise it'd be tough to get into the city and back especially at rush hour. Maybe Fort Snelling (nearby) if you had a car.

lovemachine said:

Yeah, my fiancee lives there.

THE LIGHT RAIL PEOPLE!!!!

I damn near live on that thing when I'm in Mpls. It goes straight from the airport through the city and ends downtown.

Since I assume you're a Prince fan for being on this site, the very last stop on the light rail ends up a block away from First Avenue. You could check that out, and other than that downtown is just, downtown. I mean, in the daytime downtown Mpls. is mostly just people working or shopping.

minneapolisgenius said:

I say, hop the lightrail to downtown, see 1st Ave, take some pics. Then, head across the street into the Hard Rock Cafe and go upstairs. On the second floor you will find a nifty Prince display with costumes, hand written lyrics, famboraccas and more. Then hop the lightrail back to the airport and be on your way!


...tylenol PM hangover edit...
[Edited 10/29/05 6:17am]

endorphin74 said:

thanx endorphin that sounds like a gr8 idea! how long does the light rail take to go from the airport to the stop near first avenue?

Militant said:

minneapolisgenius said:

Shit I forgot about our billion dollar waste of tax money that is bleeding money and killing the busline. But you are right it would work perfect for him.

endorphin74 said:

(woopskies, I messed up that first reply)

That's a good question. I've never had to use it yet...lemme see if I can find out for you. My guess would be 30-45 minutes max, but I'll try and confirm that.

lovemachine said:

I'm not even goin there with you

minneapolisgenius said:

Light rail? What light rail? I don't really know what's happening since I don't live there anymore. I'll have to check it out next time.

I should have taken the light rail into downtown last weekend when I went to the Vikes game, but forgot about it even though I thought about it earlier in the week.

minneapolisgenius said:

I was gonna say! The light rail is very convenient! Great way to get downtown from the airport.

lovemachine said:

Waste of money? It's ridership now is what they expected it to be...ten years from now! It's a phenomenal success.

RipHer2Shreds said:

How is something a success when it costs 6 dollars per rider and people only pay $1.50 and they have to shut down and cut back bus routes all over town because of the lack of money into the system? If you count the initial construction costs it will cost the taxpayers an estimated 26 dollars for every rider for the first 10 years it is open. It literally would be cheaper to buy every single person who rides the train a car.

On top of this it's the same people riding the light rail as rode the buses so for the people who can't drive to the light rail they are talking the biggest hit. We had 28 routes eliminated and 78 routes were cut back and these were routes that are nowhere near the lightrail but because they spent all the money on it they have nothing less for the busses which also lose money but not at such a insane rate.

How is something a phenomental success when you have a train that 95 percent of the Twin Cities cannot possibly have a use for? It might be useful if it went to the U of M or to St. Paul but basically the trains go one place so unless you live along the ONE route it is foolish and a complete waste of billions of dollars and couting. Although can you imagaine the traffic snarls along University if we had to wait for a train every seven minutes which leads us to my next point...

It has been estimated that because of the cars being foreced to wait for the trains to pass along Highway 55 that the light rail system is actually responsible for MORE pollution to the environment then if the people rode cars themselves. I have seen the huge backups on 55 and this seems like a reasonable explanation to me.

.
[Edited 10/30/05 6:42am]

It's like 40 pages so few might read it but here is an interesting paper about light rails impact all over the country.

http://ti.org/1-2004.pdf

endorphin74 said:

That's about right.

just do MALL OF AMERICA alott of shopping and other things to do. and also

like somebody else said, its closer to the airport for tyme. also there is

no sales tax on clothing and shoes and coats except on other thing else there

is sales tax.

KNOW LASVEGAS u can go through the casions but if u do gamble they will check

your ID, have funn in lasvegas wish i was there again, if your a prince fan

check out the PRINCE impersonator at the BOARDWALK HOTEL.

CHECK BACK WITH US AND LET US KNOW WHAT U DID..!!!...AND WELCOME TO AMERICA