Minot is a small city in North Dakota also known as "The Magic City". Here are some suggestions on What to Do in Minot!
One of the most recent trips I took was to Minot, North Dakota. And why? You ask. Well, let’s say that if it wasn’t for my two cousins who live there, I wouldn’t even know Minot existed. But I’m glad I know and I’m glad I visited.
Since I know that Minot gets rough winters, I timed my trip to be somewhat towards the end of summer, so I went in August. For me (a former Miami resident and current LA resident) I found it to be a little bit chilly, especially during the morning hours, although it did get hot some of the days I was there. Even one morning the temperature was around 45F or 7C, so yeah it was cold for me at times, but overall the temperature was pretty pleasant.
I had the privilege of visiting and staying at the Minot Air Force Base where my cousins live with their husbands. It was a unique experience for me because that was the first time I experienced the military life first hand. It is very interesting what they do and to see how they live. If you are visiting Minot and happen to know someone who is part of the Air Force, I recommend you to ask them if it’s possible to get a tour of the base and to learn more about their lives. Pretty interesting stuff!
I mainly visited Minot to be able to spend time with my cousins whom I hadn’t seen in three years. Too much time if you ask me! But we had time to go to some of the iconic places in Minot, such as the Scandinavian Heritage Park, which is where the Visitor’s Center is and where you can buy shot glasses, mugs and other types of souvenirs (I collect shot glasses from every city I visit). This is a beautiful park, which has buildings with Scandinavian architecture, waterfalls, statues and even a Finnish Sauna. I’ve seen pictures of it covered in snow and it looks beautiful. So if you go to Minot, you have to visit this park no matter the time of year.
On the weekend, we took a 2-hour trip to the border with Canada where the International Peace Garden is. I loved the whole experience! I haven’t been to Canada yet so I was very excited to be that close to it, although I think we technically did step on Canadian soil because the garden expands to both the US and Canadian territories, but we didn’t go through immigration. This is a must for visitors of Minot, because is fairly close, is beautiful, filled with history and if you like camping, you can even camp there for the weekend. Is relaxing. While driving to the International Peace Garden, we passed by many sunflower fields, which were huge. All those flowers looked so beautiful together. I wonder what they do with all of them before the winter comes?
We went twice to this coffee/dessert place called Sweet & Flour. It was really good. They had great desserts and the place is really cozy. For a minute I felt like I was at a café back in LA. Sweet & Flour is located in Downtown Minot. The downtown is very pretty and worth the visit because it has all these old buildings and little shops and bars, but if you go, try going early in the day because many of the shops only open until around 5pm and some of them don’t even open on Sundays. But don’t worry; Sweet & Flour was open at 11pm on a Friday :).
Five Interesting Things About Minot:
Actor Josh Duhamel was born there (you might have seen him in movies such as Transformers, Life as We Know It, When in Rome and he is also Fergie’s husband or just Google him). He goes visit from time to time and I was always looking out to see if I saw him by any chance jajaja. He is even the co-owner of a restaurant in Downtown Minot called 10 North Main, but I didn’t get to visit it. Maybe next time.
They call Minot “The Magic City” apparently because it has grown so much in so little time. My cousins have been living there for 3 years now and they were always pointing out new buildings, restaurants and shops that have opened after they moved, and because of Minot State University (MSU) there are a lot of international students in the city.
Minot International Airport is the smallest airport I’ve been to in my life. It is only serviced by 4 airlines, Delta, United, Frontier and Allegiant and is even smaller than the international part of the airport of my birth city, Maracaibo, which really surprised me. The great part about this is that as soon as you go through security, you are right there at your departure door.
Before getting to know Minot in person, I thought it was flat but to my surprise, this city has hills, which I love and it makes it even cuter!
Minot is 4 ½ to 5 hours away from Winnipeg, Canada by car. That’s another place I need to visit next time I’m in Minot, because I’ve been told that Winnipeg is a beautiful city filled with culture and history and I also have a cousin living there!
Bonus: There might be a reality TV show in the works about the people living in Minot, who are there to strike rich due to the oil boom in that area.
I know these are not the only things to do in Minot, but that’s as far as I got this time. Hopefully I’ll travel there again soon to meet my soon to be born niece or nephew and I’ll discover new and interesting stuff to do there.
Now I’ll ask you this: Why Not Minot? 🙂
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