OUT & ABOUT >>

• BEST BATTING CAGE
  As Dome-detractors will tell you, baseball is meant to be played outdoors. And, as Dome-defenders will tell you, that doesn't mean a whole lot in Minnesota, where spring can find home plate buried under a snowdrift. Minnesota's tardy summers also force a compromise for amateur sluggers... More >>
• BEST BEACH
  As its name suggests, Hidden Beach offers a measure of seclusion rare for a city beach. Tucked in the woods on the east side of Cedar Lake, its sands are not even visible from the nearest roadway, Upton Avenue. There are no parking lots nearby. There are no roped-off swimming areas. And there... More >>
• BEST BIKE TRAIL
  Yeah, it's only two and a half miles long, and yeah, its completion was delayed three years. But when the Midtown Greenway finally opened in August, Minneapolis bicyclists had something to shout about: a safe, quick alternative to risking life and limb on busy, east-west roads like Lake Street.... More >>
• BEST BINGO GAME
  Bingo, unlike bowling, is a blue-collar Midwestern diversion that has never really caught on beyond its core constituency. One reason, perhaps, is that, according to popular perception, said constituency consists primarily of chain-smoking retirees in support stockings. Another reason is that,... More >>
• BEST BOWLING ALLEY
  Let's face it, bowling is not best enjoyed as a sober activity. Sure, there are plenty of people who take this "sport" seriously, and the sheer number of league games that take place at this particular alley attests to its status as a well-kept venue. The nights, though, are left open for the... More >>
• BEST BOXER
  It probably says something about the Minnesota fight scene that the boxer who had the best year fought only once, was stripped of his title, and was twice arrested in highly unsavory circumstances. But the simple fact remains: St. Paul's "Steel" Will Grigsby is the slickest, most accomplished... More >>
• BEST BOXING GYM
  Back in 1991, when Jim Glancey bought the former Anderson Meat Company building on St. Paul's East Side, he hoped to train and manage professional boxers. But like many who proceeded him, Glancey quickly learned that it's tough to make a buck on the prairie's pro fight circuit. Rather than... More >>
• BEST CASINO
  The "bigger is better" principle does not apply to all things. (Think house pets. Alimony payments. Melanomas.) But with casinos, size does matter. Gambling is an inherently grandiose pursuit, and for our money, at least, the bigger and gaudier the venue, the better. For the winners, a roomy... More >>
• BEST CHUTZPAH
  Following the Gophers' humiliating loss to North Carolina State in the Micronpc.com Bowl, you might think coach Glen Mason would either hang his head in shame for a couple of weeks, hit the streets and sign some hot recruits, or go on the mother of all benders. Mason settled on a fourth option:... More >>
• BEST CLASS ACT
  J.B. Bickerstaff catches the wrong kind of breaks. As the emotional core of the Gopher men's basketball team for the past two years, he saw each season come to an end courtesy of a broken leg. (This after sitting through the program's term-paper scandal.) The second break was especially... More >>
• BEST COACH
  The guy takes his team out on the hard court and leads the Gopher fans in the U of M rouser after every game, win or lose! Need we say more? Okay. Fine. Relatively speaking, the NCAA went easy on the U's basketball program last October. Still, the already undersize, star-starved... More >>
• BEST COLLEGE ATHLETE
  One of the first lessons taught in judo is that a small fighter can use a larger opponent's strength to his own advantage. Well, Big Ten college football isn't exactly judo. And that makes this Gopher senior's impressive record as center all the more striking. At six-foot-five and 283 pounds,... More >>
• BEST DAY TRIP
  Hmmm. Let's see, Minnesota day trip. We could go north and have our picture taken with a giant blue ox or south and jam into a crowded warehouse full of pink-colored pottery. It's so hard to decide. Or we could just stay home and take a nice stroll around downtown Minneapolis. Doesn't that... More >>
• BEST FISHING HOLE (URBAN)
  For anglers seeking obscure quarry like freshwater gar or paddlefish, the Mississippi River probably tops the list. Looking for big catfish? Try the Minnesota River. Largemouth bass? Lake Minnetonka is your spot. But for an angler chasing the ultimate freshwater-fishing thrill, nothing beats... More >>
• BEST GOLF COURSE
  There has been a rash of golf-course development over the past few years, particularly in the exurban metro. While these fancy-schmancy clubs might attract fleeting attention from the new-economy linkheads (the much-raved about course in Prior Lake, the Wilds, costs $99 a pop), regular folk... More >>
• BEST HIGH SCHOOL ATHLETE
  This year saw some staggering accomplishments in high school sports. Matt Nagel of Frazee became the only wrestler to win five state championships. Roseville's Renee Curtin ended her five-year career in girls' hockey with a record 544 points and two state championships. Still, in a year of... More >>
• BEST JOCKEY
  Since Canterbury Park reopened in 1994 Luis Quinonez has dominated the track, winning five consecutive jockey titles. But with Quinonez opting to race elsewhere last summer, the door opened up for Derek Bell, the second-best jockey at Canterbury in 1999. Despite breaking his shoulder in January... More >>
• BEST LYNX PLAYER
  There are only two realistic choices here: Katie Smith and Betty Lennox. The two WNBA All Stars accounted for a whopping 54 percent of the Lynx's scoring last season, averaging 20 and 17 points per game respectively. On top of that, the dynamic duo were responsible for more than a third of the... More >>
• BEST NEIGHBORHOOD GYM
  We're not knocking the other two YWCA facilities in Minneapolis, but let's face it, natural light--which is so essential to the indoor workout, especially in the land of seven-month winters--isn't easy to come by at the Uptown and Downtown locations. At Midtown, the $21.4 million center that... More >>
• BEST PICNIC SPOT
  American cities sprawl off into unreasonably vast distances, overladen with four-lane highways and drive-thru shopping centers. Even walking to the grocery store is becoming a near impossibility in our car-dependent rim cities. Como Park in St. Paul, designed much like the urban parks in the... More >>
• BEST PLACE TO BIRD WATCH
  The easiest place to bird watch these days might be one's computer. The Minnesota Ornithologists' Union (www.cbs.umn.edu/~mou/) maintains a list--approved by their "records committee"--of some 423 species spotted in the state. And the sad fact is, however many hours you spend with a pair of... More >>
• BEST PLACE TO CAMP
  From the obscure little gems like the Mille Lacs Wildlife Management Area to the famous recreational playgrounds of the Chippewa National Forest, Minnesota is dotted with literally hundreds of great places to pitch a tent. But the best? That's a no-brainer. The Boundary Waters aren't a... More >>
• BEST PLACE TO CROSS-COUNTRY SKI
  We don't have the knees to be graceful downhill-ski bunnies. But we can handle ourselves fairly well on cross-country trails. And a favorite spot for testing our elements is Lebanon Hills Regional Park, where miles of beginning, intermediate, and downright difficult trails can be accessed from... More >>
• BEST PLACE TO HIKE (URBAN)
  What in God's name is this place doing in the middle of a city? A little less than 50 acres in size, this island seems as if it floated upstream from Stillwater, perhaps, and somehow got lodged in the throat of the Mighty Miss. A few years back, a circumnavigation of this island offered hints... More >>
• BEST PLACE TO HIKE (WOODSY)
  Aside from the occasional clusters of forest and scattered lakes, we live in a flat expanse of citified prairie that bears a disturbing resemblance to greater Des Moines. There are, however, exceptions, and none is more striking than the Mississippi River gorge. It's no accident that the first... More >>
• BEST PLACE TO ICE-SKATE
  There's something reassuring about our ability to transform nearly everything on earth into a disco. Thirty years after the last train pulled out of the old Milwaukee Depot, this steely monument to the industrial age still looks like something out of a Monet painting. But inside the muscular... More >>
• BEST PLACE TO JOG
  Saturday afternoon in mid-March and the endless winter has finally begun to lose its bite. The temperature is a balmy 45 degrees and the sun (sun!) is shining. Staring out our dank apartment window, we can no longer resist the lure of the outdoors. So we turn off the TV, put the unopened beer... More >>
• BEST PLACE TO LEARN TO DANCE
  A year and a half after settling into its new space, the already reputable Tapestry has improved its repertoire by leaps and bounds. With two new dance spaces, featuring glossy maple floors, the center has room to balance its own programs with outside rentals. The classes are truly... More >>
• BEST PLACE TO LOSE YOUR SHIRT
  Go ahead and toss your money down the toilet at one of the state's cheap Sin City knockoffs. Just don't come crying to us when you've blown the Wisconsin Dells family-vacation fund in one debauched weekend because you were too foolish to heed the cardinal rule of casinos: In the end, the house... More >>
• BEST PLACE TO PRACTICE JUGGLING
  On Monday nights at 7:00 p.m., they start to trickle in, sometimes just a handful, sometimes 20 or 30 of them. They smile and greet each other, or introduce themselves as if it's their first time. In a flash, balls, clubs, and rings are flying. And for the next two hours, in a gymnasium shared... More >>
• BEST PLACE TO ROLLERBLADE
  There are many beautiful paved trails in Minnesota--trails that wind through beautiful river bluffs and past exquisite prairie vistas. And many of these trails were considered for this category. But alas, the Northland, beautiful though it may be, is off-limits to skaters at least six months a... More >>
• BEST PLACE TO WATCH A MOVIE OUTDOORS
  Having awarded this category to the artfully programmed Stevens Square Park movies-and-music series in past years, we're not now confessing our latent preference for the likes of Gone in Sixty Seconds and Driven over, say, Thelma & Louise and Putney Swope. It's just that Gone in Sixty... More >>
• BEST PUBLIC PARK
  While most parks offer greenery and hiking trails designed to take visitors as far away--at least psychologically--from the city as possible, Powderhorn revels in its urban community vibe. In addition to hosting the Powderhorn art festival, a massive Fourth of July fireworks display, and at... More >>
• BEST SIGN OF SPRING
  The trees might be turning green, the birds might be singing, and the temperature might have risen enough to allow us to trade our puffy, down-filled jackets for lighter windbreakers. But six months of relentless winter always leaves us a little paranoid: It may snow yet again. It is only with... More >>
• BEST SLEDDING
  Given the length and severity of the winter that has finally, mercifully passed, the thought of putting on snowpants and schlepping a sled up a steep, icy hill on a butt-cold afternoon is probably the last one you'd care to entertain. But in a few short months (!), when the temperature drops... More >>
• BEST TENNIS COURTS
  Richfield, anyone? While many park officials are likely cringing at the sight of asphalt scarred by a six-month winter, these half-dozen courts just south of Minneapolis have fared remarkably well and will no doubt be in full swing come mid-May. Nestled on the edge of Augsburg Park near a... More >>
• BEST TIMBERWOLVES PLAYER
  In the waning minutes of a midseason, 21-point rout at the hands of the Portland Trailblazers, superstar Kevin Garnett sat on the Timberwolves' bench, head draped in a towel, unable to watch the massacre. Had he looked up, he would have seen Sam Mitchell scrapping for loose balls and hitting... More >>
• BEST TWINS PLAYER
  We flirted with bestowing this honor on Jacque Jones, the Twins' young, powerful outfielder with oodles of potential. But Jones could hit .300 and drive in 100 runs this season, or he could be shagging flies in Edmonton by the time the mosquitoes start biting. There's also a strong case to be... More >>
• BEST VIKINGS PLAYER
  By mid-December, as the Vikings' season was proving once again to be a cruel mirage, the critics began casting about for someone to blame. Predictably, and rightly, the squad's defense took most of the heat. When the late-season collapse worsened, though, it became fashionable to point a finger... More >>
• BEST WILD PLAYER
  You were all thinking we were going to bestow this accolade on Darby Hendrickson because he's our homie, Richfield native, and an alum of the University of Minnesota men's Gopher hockey team. But we just can't do it. Not with Marian Gaborik, a 19-year-old left wing from Trencin, Slovakia,... More >>