OUT & ABOUT >>

• BEST BEACH
  Nothin' like a city lake, and nothin' like the Harriet North Beach, where popcorn, bikers, bikinis, runners, rollerbladers, and various freaks parade by, giving the fleeting months of June-July-August the feel of endless summer. Let the suburbs have their way-too-crowded pay-to-swim pools. We'll... More >>
• BEST BIKE TRAIL
  If your bicycling outfit is festooned with the logos of energy-bar manufacturers; if you paid more for your bike than the per capita income in the Philippines; if you care more about how you look on your bike than what you can see from the saddle, then this trail is not for you. For everyone... More >>
• BEST BOWLING ALLEY
  No matter how much bowling alleys try to look like freshmen dorm rooms once the sun goes down, bowling will never be hip, not really. Throw all the dumb black lights and drink specials you want into the game, and it will still be undertaken seriously only by a certain breed of player—and... More >>
• BEST BOXER
  Since turning pro in 2002, the St. Paul native has quickly compiled one of the gaudier records of any Minnesota fighter in recent memory: 17 wins (15 by way of knockout), zero losses. Naturally, a lot of the early Ws were a product of friendly matchmaking. No one, for instance, is likely to... More >>
• BEST COACH
  Now that we finally got rid of that lunkhead Mike Tice and that coach's coach Flip Saunders, it's time we take stock of the rest of the local yokels on the benches and the sidelines. And? Well, it's ineptitude all around, really—a truly bad year for coaches. Both Gopher hockey teams ended... More >>
• BEST COLLEGE ATHLETE
  Suffice it to say that it was an off-year for athletics at the U. None of the major teams performed to expectations, and for criminy: Do we have to pretend to be interested in yet another meaningless bowl game for the football team? That said, there was at least one champion walking around... More >>
• BEST DAY TRIP
  They had big plans. You have to give them that. The land speculators and the traders, the paddleboat magnates and the faro hustlers. After they tore down their claim shacks on the river flats, they built in the permanent stuff—brick and locally quarried limestone. They threw up houses in... More >>
• BEST FISHING HOLE
  If a quality fishing hole is defined as one that serves up fish like a Catholic church basement during Lent, yet is generally avoided by meddlesome fellow anglers, then the phallic northeastern tip of Pike Island is a glorious hole indeed. Here the mighty Mississippi and the modest Minnesota... More >>
• BEST GOLF COURSE
  Municipal golf has always been a mixed bag. What you save on greens fees and gasoline is frequently offset in other, pernicious ways: glacial pace of play, beat-to-hell golf courses, and bare-bones amenities. It needn't be so, and as proof we offer Inver Wood. Sprawling across a huge expanse of... More >>
• BEST GYM
  The Midtown YWCA might very well be the most diverse spot in all of Minnesota. Spend any time in any of the gym's five tidy locker rooms, and you're bound to overhear conversations in as many as six different languages in a single night. The Midtown Health and Fitness Center is also the... More >>
• BEST HIGH SCHOOL ATHLETE
  Hill was our pick last year when she wasn't even in high school. As an eighth-grader, she took Minneapolis South High School to the state tournament, claimed a spot on the Star Tribune's All-Metro team, and averaged more than 20 points per game. This year, she propelled South to an unbeaten... More >>
• BEST LYNX PLAYER
  Last season marked the end of an era for the Minnesota Lynx—but it's not one that many will look back on with any degree of affection. With the trade of all-time-leading scorer Katie Smith to Detroit at mid-season, the Lynx severed the final tie with its inaugural 1999 squad. While Smith... More >>
• BEST PICNIC SPOT
  The problem with most urban picnics is effort—or more precisely, the lack thereof. Here's the usual routine: Get out of car, walk to table, unpack, eat, return to car, go home. Maybe you grill. Big deal. No work, no glory, no sense of accomplishment—just another succession of mundane... More >>
• BEST PLACE TO BIRD-WATCH
  Among casual birders, Carlos Avery is best known for its sandhill cranes. The southernmost population of the birds in Minnesota, Avery's sandhill colony was established in the early 1960s by a game warden who had confiscated a captive crane from a farmer in northwestern Minnesota. Nicknamed "Old... More >>
• BEST PLACE TO CANOE
  With more than 150 miles of flowing curves, lush green scenery, ancient geological features, passing wildlife, and plenty of fishing, the St. Croix River provides a channel for the clumsy amateur and the more experienced rapid-runner alike. If you don't mind seeing some low-speed powerboats here... More >>
• BEST PLACE TO HIKE
  Of Minnesota's three major rivers, the St. Croix is by far the loveliest. Its waters run cleaner and clearer than those of the Mississippi or the Minnesota. That's not the main appeal. Plainly put, the St. Croix Valley is home to some of the most stunning scenery in all Minnesota. And nowhere is... More >>
• BEST PLACE TO ICE SKATE
  Global warming is threatening to make outdoor skating an extinct Minnesota pastime (or a sport for danger-freaks only). Till then, though, this wonderland-ish rink might be Edina's premier attraction (depending on how you feel about Southdale). It features three big ponds connected by canals,... More >>
• BEST PLACE TO JOG
  The Twin Cities are consistently lauded as a top running locale by folks in the know, and there is no shortage of high-quality trails winding around lakes, through leafy woods, and along urban corridors. The paths along the Mississippi River, however, offer a particularly spectacular setting for... More >>
• BEST PLACE TO LEARN TO DANCE
  Some may think a university is an intimidating place to learn to dance, fearing that the studios will be filled with ambitious dance majors. But it really all depends on what you want from the experience. If your goal is to seriously study dance and earn a degree in the subject, the University... More >>
• BEST PLACE TO PLAY POOL
  Fat Boy Billiards is a no-nonsense pool hall for no-nonsense pool players. The fourteen pool tables, two snooker tables, and two billiard tables are part of what sets this place apart from the others: They're all well-maintained, clean, and flat. The cues are fairly unwarped (you'll have to come... More >>
• BEST PLACE TO WATCH A MOVIE OUTDOORS
  There are other free outdoor screenings of films on celluloid with live musical warmup—in St. Paul's Castillo Park and Stillwater's Lowell Park, for instance. But Summer Music and Movies in Loring Park is special. A grassy hillside accommodates a large, reclining audience in a natural... More >>
• BEST PUBLIC PARK
  This has got to be the only park in the state—in the country?—where you can fish for carp, golf, tour a historical frontier outpost with a costumed guide, bike along a sandstone bluff, learn about maple syruping, cross-country ski, sit in for Sunday chapel, and play rugby. Granted,... More >>
• BEST ROMANTIC BIKE RIDE
  Biking in the city is great, but weaving single file through traffic and potholes is not the best precursor to getting laid. Tucked down from the busy and brighter streets, the Midtown Greenway becomes a quiet spot to take a breather. The ongoing expansion of the city trail system provides a... More >>
• BEST SPIN CLASS
  The music is deafening, the bikes are old, and let's not even think about how much sweat is soaked into the wooden platforms. But hey, you're burning 900 calories an hour and having about as much fun perspiring as one can have outside the bedroom. Stop complaining and bike harder. At the Firm... More >>
• BEST TENNIS COURTS
  One word: Astroturf. That's right, the stuff of indoor sports and welcome mats has moved outside to the courts of Bassett Creek Park. It's like Minnesota's answer to Wimbledon's grass courts, found in a (free) public park no less. A quick 15-minute drive from downtown Minneapolis brings you to... More >>
• BEST THUNDER PLAYER
  Last year's Thunder squad had one huge hole: a solid central defender to anchor the team's three-man back line. Both Nate Knox and Brett Branan spent time in this vital position, but the defense never gelled. As a result the team allowed 42 goals in 28 games. By comparison, in 2004 the squad... More >>
• BEST TIMBERWOLVES PLAYER
  His precocious talent forever changed the way society regards high school basketball players. Not yet 30 (that happens at the end of next month), he ranks fifth in total minutes played among active NBA players. In other words, Garnett is a grizzled eminence who happens to be younger than the... More >>
• BEST TWINS PLAYER
  There's a feisty Venezuelan pitcher on the Twins roster who had a record-breaking season in 2005, but it wasn't Johan Santana. While the team's ace continued his rise to the top of every fantasy-baseball nerd's wish list by logging unreal strikeout numbers and the league's second-best ERA,... More >>
• BEST VIKINGS PLAYER
  You have to give the 2005 Vikings credit for one thing: It didn't take them long to squelch all that giddy preseason talk of a Super Bowl run, thereby disabusing the Purple faithful of their usual late-fall delusions about the team's prospects. That said, the 2005 Vikings really were not a bad... More >>
• BEST YOGA
  First thing we must say is that true yoga is not done in some sweat-box with drill instructors. Second thing we must say is that Bikram Choudhury is not a spiritual guru, but a hole-in-the-soul Westerner laughing all the way to the bank. Third thing we must say is that yoga is not a competitive... More >>