Vikingville
NOV. 21 >> DETROIT LIONS AT MINNESOTA VIKINGS >> NOON CST
[1] BUNNY'S BAR & GRILL Coach Mike Tice has his own parking space--reserved by a purple sign with TICE written in gold. [2] MALL OF AMERICA U.S.'s "largest retail and entertainment complex" is on site of old Metropolitan Stadium. The popular Tuesday hangout for players has more than 500 stores, 50 restaurants and a theme park with two roller coasters. Last month free-agent TE Sean Berton was headed to Hooters here when Tice called wanting to re-sign him. [3] METROPOLITAN STADIUM Opened in 1956 as home of minor league Minneapolis Millers, then hosted Vikings and Twins from '61 to '81. [4] NICOLLET MALL AND 7TH STREET Site of TV's most famous hat toss--in the opening credits of The Mary Tyler Moore Show (1970--77). An eight-foot bronze sculpture of Moore as Mary Richards was unveiled here in '02. [5] HOTEL SOFITEL Formerly L'Hotel de France, where Yankees manager Billy Martin punched out marshmallow salesman Joseph Cooper on a late night in October 1979. [6] PAUL BUNYAN STATE TRAIL Where ax-swingin' man of legend and Babe (that would be his blue ox) roamed. [7] CHAIN OF LAKES Newly reelected state supreme court justice Alan Page, ex-Viking and Hall of Fame defensive tackle, often runs here. In '79 Page was first active NFLer to run a marathon. [8] THE CLUB FORMERLY KNOWN AS FIRST AVENUE Where Prince filmed scenes for 1984's Purple Rain. Club closed this month after going bankrupt; expects to reopen soon. [9] GOVERNOR'S MANSION Former pro wrestler and Reform Party stud Jesse (the Body) Ventura closed mansion in '02 cost-saving measure. While governor from '99 to '03 he was also on Vince McMahon's payroll as an XFL commentator. [10] 599 SUMMIT AVENUE Where St. Paul native F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote This Side of Paradise; in 1919 he raced up and down street upon news of Scribner's buying book. A few years earlier Fitzgerald had been cut from Princeton's freshman football team. [11] NORTHWEST ATHLETIC CLUB Where several Vikings--including Randy Moss and Daunte Culpepper--work up a sweat in off-season. [12] NORDEAST NEIGHBORHOOD Shooting locale for scenes in Fargo, in which Frances McDormand plays plain-speaking Minnesota police chief Marge Gunderson. [13] JOE SENSER'S SPORTS GRILL & BAR Owned by former Vikings TE and current radio analyst Joe Senser, who scored the first TD at the Metrodome. --Sarah Thurmond
[14] HUBERT HUMPHREY METRODOME
• COST TO BUILD: $68 million
• FIRST FOOTBALL GAME: Sept. 12, 1982 (Vikes 17, Bucs 10)
• FIRST BASEBALL GAME: April 6, 1982 (Mariners 11, Twins 7)
• SUPER BOWLS HOSTED: One. Only venue to host a Super Bowl ('92), World Series ('87, '91), baseball All-Star Game ('85) and NCAA Final Four ('92, '01)
• NUMBER OF IN-LINERS WHO SKATE ON UPPER AND LOWER CONCOURSES EACH YEAR: 30,000
• AMOUNT OF TEFLON COVERING DOME: 10 acres, enough to cover 836,355 10-inch frying pans
120 MILES WNW, Alexandria, Minn. In 1898 farmer Olaf Ohman found the Kensington Runestone; 202-pound stone slab (now in an Alexandria museum) has an inscription experts say was written by visiting Norsemen in 1362. It reads in part, "We were out and fished.... We came home [and] found 10 men red with blood and dead."
995 MILES ESE, Hamilton, N.J. Headquarters of Rollerblade, founded in 1980 in Minnesota by hockey-playing brothers Scott and Brennan Olson, who wanted to train in summer. They sold company, and it was moved to New Jersey in 1999.
120 MILES WSW,
Walnut Grove, Minn. Setting of Little House on the Prairie, where Laura Ingalls scampered in the field. On show, Hall of Fame DT Merlin Olsen played a friend of Ingalls's family, Jonathan Garvey.
1,521 MILES WSW, Burbank, Calif. Where ABC's That's Incredible! was taped. Cohosted by former Vikings QB Fran Tarkenton (center), show popularized phrase, "Don't try this at home."
Visitors' View
Lions DE Jared DeVries On Visiting Minneapolis
"Every time we play there, I try to go to Ichiban. It's a Japanese steak house and sushi bar. Such good food, such good atmosphere. In the off-season my wife and I go to the city to hang out, take in the nightlife, enjoy Minneapolis. [DeVries lives 125 miles away in Clear Lake, Iowa.] There's a lot of restaurants, a lot of shopping. It's a nice city."
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MAP AND ICONS BY HEADCASE DESIGN
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AP/THE OAKLAND PRESS/MICHIGAN HISTORY MAGAZINE (BUNYAN STATUE)
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LAKE COUNTY MUSEUM/CORBIS (SHIP)
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NFL/WIREIMAGE.COM (DEVRIES)
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CORBIS/SYGMA (MCDORMAND)
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AP (PRINCE)
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DAWN VILLELLA/AP (MOORE STATUE, MALL OF AMERICA)
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JENS MORTENSEN (ROLLERBLADE)
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KERI PICKETT (PAGE)
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BETTMANN/CORBIS (FITZGERALD)
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CRAIG LASSIG/AFP (VENTURA)
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PETER READ MILLER (OLSEN)
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JEFFERY A. SALTER (CULPEPPER)
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COURTESY OF ABC (THAT'S INCREDIBLE!)
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JEFF GROSS/GETTY IMAGES (METRODOME)
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CHUCK SOLOMON (MARTIN)