23 Things I Love About Minneapolis In The Spring

1. I love how quiet it is in uptown in the first few days it gets nice enough to walk around. As soon as the weather’s good on a regular basis people will be driving in every night to go to bars or restaurants or the lakes. But now it is still empty enough that it feels like it’s mine.

2. The first time it’s warm enough for you to relax while you walk from car to building. Usually you clench your shoulders during these walks but once a year it’s the very first time you realize you can take your time. It’s not painful to be outside. It’s the best feeling.

3. Parking on both sides of the street and ceremoniously unsubscribing from text, email, AND phone alerts for snow emergencies. Your seasonal parking paranoia is gone for what seems like forever.

4. Seeing the skyline again. In the spring things emerge from a grey/white fog and you can actually see the outline of all the buildings and you remember why you live here.

5. The lilac trees.

6. Target Field.

7. Beginning to dream of lunches at Tin Fish, watching the waves and eating walleye rolls.

8. After months and months of driving and public transportation being a huge stressor, you can just walk outside and catch a bus or taxi if it’s convenient. When you go out downtown, you can stay until bar close and not worry about dying of hypothermia when the bar kicks you out and there’s no taxis left. (Looking at you, Pourhouse).

9. Seeing white caps on Calhoun and Harriet and Lake of the Isles when the surfaces have been flat ice for months and months. The movement is intoxicating.

10. Summers at the cabin are becoming a reality, and emails are circulating about setting aside specific weekends.

11. Driving with the windows down.

12. The first day it’s really sunny out and you decide to go to Calhoun and there’s probably 500 other people there, but it’s okay. It’s Minnesota camaraderie and it’s fun to see so many people happy.

13. Dreaming of the hot summer nights you’ll spend at rooftop bars downtown and going to one even though it’s not warm enough yet and they’re only open because they have heating lamps on and everyone is just blowing their load about summer at the same time.

14. Boats. Dreaming about boats and Big Island.

15. Bros wearing shorts as soon as it hits 50, because, bless their hearts.

16. People who have never lived in a very cold climate will never experience the euphoria of the first day the sun feels hot on your face in the spring. It’s just a tiny feeling of heat, but it feels like someone just called you on the phone to tell you you’ve won millions of dollars and nothing will be the same again.

17. Watching your dog realize it’s spring now, and he gets to go on fun walks along the river, not just quick, painful trips around the block. (Though he misses the piles of snow, tbh).

18. Being able to walk across the street outside instead of the much longer (but warmer) skyway route.

19. Flip flops. I know these are not fashionable but when you have to spend ~minutes bundling up and putting on boots and coats before you leave the house for six months the idea of slipping on shoes and walking out the door becomes massively appealing.

20. The ease with which you can get in your car and drive somewhere. I’m going to resist the urge to break my ice scraper in half, throw it in the trash, and walk away with my middle finger in the air mostly because I don’t want to replace it next year, but it is nice to chuck it in the trunk and slam the lid.

21. Walking around Loring for the first time since last summer.

22. The smell of grilling food is always in the air because no one can stand to go one meal without grilling after being confined to their kitchens for so long.

23. Whatever it is that is in the air — infectious zeal — everything and everyone seems alive and happy.