3 Romantic Weekend Getaways

My wife and I have been married for several years now, and we have finally decided to take a mini weekend vacation.

When looking for possible location spots, we decided on a few factors that were important to us. Destination, cost, and weather. I am very fortunate that I have a good friend who works for a hotel chain, and so our hotel stays usually are not unbearably expensive, so we have slightly more flexibility on where to stay.

We live in Iowa, the agricultural Mecca of the United States, and so going to a city was important to both of us.
Our first choice, at a reasonable 3 hours away is the Minneapolis and St. Paul area. We both went to school there, and have friends to see, and there is tons of stuff to do as well. The Mall of America, while not a normal stop for us while we loved in the Twin Cities will make our list of to-do, and take in a broadway quality show downtown, or at the new Guthrie building. Finally a few nights at Graves 601 (where we spent the first night of our honeymoon) really makes the trip something special. We usually have a simple, and low key vacation in the Twin Cities, as we are both very familiar with the area, and have done most of what there is to do. A trip to the Walker Art Center and the Sculpture gardens makes up the rest of the mini-vacation for a very reasonably priced trip. Cost: 2/5.

I was born, and spent all of my young adult life, and teenage years in the City of Chicago. Now here, we have a longer haul (5 hours) but infinitely more to do, and oh how I miss the food! Between Lincoln Park Zoo, Navy Pier, China Town, and a museum or six, this trip is a lot more expensive, but going back to the best city in the world is always worth it for me. This is a trip we even decided to take our son (18 months) on, and he had just as much fun as we did! (Given, he was riding in a stroller most of the time). Remember to visit the Sears (Willis) tower observation deck, or the John Hancock for some awe inspiring views. Cost: 4/5

Our final trip destination is also in the great state of Minnesota. Duluth, though not as glamorous or as urbane as Chicago or Minneapolis offers lots of small, out of the way little bed and breakfast hotels, lots of interesting sight seeing to do, and great downtown areas. Downtown Duluth offers four star restaurants nestled next to quaint little curio shops that make this area a nice, peaceful, relaxed vacation. Cost: 2/5

No matter where you want to go on a mini-vacation, make it some place memorable that your family will cherish for years to come, and always take lots of pictures!