Tours   

Step into history in the Wabasha Street Caves – carved from sandstone to mine silica in the 1840s, then used variously for storage, mushroom growing and more until, as the Wabasha Street Speakeasy, they became a gangsters’ hangout during Prohibition. Our very entertaining Lost Souls Cave Tour will include no murderous mobsters, but as we hear about eerie occurrences, with lantern lights flickering on cave walls, we may well feel like kids telling ghost stories around a campfire. Just before Halloween, no less! A happy option: lunch together post-tour. Course fee: $17.

 

The leaves are changing and dropping from the branches of the trees all around us. This is the best time of year to learn how to identify trees using their leaves! Join a Garden Naturalist on a guided walk to learn how to use dichotomous keys and field guides to identify trees using their leaves, bark, and other key characteristics.  We'll meet at the Wirth Beach parking lot: 3200 Glenwood Ave. Hiking surfaces include paved and natural surface trails that feature changes in terrain and some hills. 

 

The leaves are changing and dropping from the branches of the trees all around us. This is the best time of year to learn how to identify trees using their leaves! Join a Garden Naturalist on a guided walk to learn how to use dichotomous keys and field guides to identify trees using their leaves, bark, and other key characteristics.  We'll meet at the Wirth Beach parking lot: 3200 Glenwood Ave. Hiking surfaces include paved and natural surface trails that feature changes in terrain and some hills. 

 

On Nov 4, we will visit the Raptor Center for a program in which Raptor Center staff show live birds. Afterwards, we will go into the area where the birds are kept. On Nov. 11th, we will visit the College of Biological Sciences Conservatory. The staff will show us the public display gardens and talk about the Conservatory. Then, we will visit the research collection and do a treasure hunt. There may be an option to join lunch outings after each session (own expense). 

Learn more about Minnesota/ Native American history and Dakota culture through a guided tour of the Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Cultural Center. Established in 2019, Hocokata Ti, located near Mystic Lake and surrounded by restored native prairie grasses, is a not-to-be- be-missed architectural gem and cultural treasure.  Meet at Hocokata Ti. We will begin with a 1-hour guided tour of the museum. After a short break to visit the gift shop and library, we will spend 45 minutes with the relics. Join an optional lunch (own expense) following the tour. Note two and a half hour tour.

This approximately 1-mile tour of Lakewood Cemetery highlights the courage, resilience and influence of women whose essential contributions shaped cultural, educational and social advancement. Featuring a diverse array of trailblazers, advocates and quiet leaders, the walking tour honors both celebrated and lesser-known women whose legacies continue to resonate today. 

 

If you love exploring the food from around the world, this one’s for you. We will try 3 world cuisines, one lunch at a time, starting with a lunch meeting at which we choose 2 more restaurants to visit. For this edition, we will choose restaurants in the general vicinity of the U of M, including restaurants in SE and NE Minneapolis, and downtown locations near the river.

This course will start at the Bloomington Education & Visitor Center with spectacular views of the Minnesota River and migrating birds with a marvelous bird feeding station. Attendees can select among hiking trails along the bluff or down to the river to explore. We will then continue for a Swedish lunch and conversation at the second floor restaurant of the nearby IKEA department store.

Have you ever wondered how the lights stay on across 15 states? Join us for an exclusive tour of the MISO Regional Control Center. Step inside the high-tech "nerve center" of the Midcontinent’s electrical grid, where expert operators manage a massive real-time energy market and coordinate the flow of electricity for 45 million people. See the giant video walls, witness the technology that balances supply and demand in seconds, and learn how MISO is leading the transition to a cleaner energy future. 

 

Join a convivial group exploring four distinctive breweries, tasting samples, comparing styles and learning about local brewing history. First we’ll meet innovators who built a small operation with a huge national reputation, in a brilliantly crafted, amazingly landscaped grain bin. Next we’ll gather in a cozy, brick-walled establishment, then the country’s first brewery founded to support Latino communities, and finally, at an early start time, a pub that grew from a guy giving his brother a home brewing kit for his 21st birthday. A happy option: having a meal together afterward in each pub. Course fee: $45

October 8, 4 pm: Bang Brewing, 2320 Capp Road, St Paul

October 15, 4 pm: Town Hall Brewery, 1430 Washington Ave, Minneapolis

October 22, 4 pm: La Doña Cervecería Brewery, 241 Fremont Ave N, Minneapolis

October 29, 3:15 pm (note early start time): Wooden Hill Brewing Co., 7421 Bush Lake Rd, Edina

Seasons: So much life, color, and expectation are packed into that single word. It conjures images of holidays, weather extremes, life cycles, culinary flavors, holy day calendars, agricultural cycles, sports schedules, and those oscillating periods of idleness and activity – with a suitable time for every purpose under heaven. Seasons are filled with cultural symbolism, moods, and commentary. Over the next year our OLLI @ Mia courses will delve into the overarching theme, “The Expansiveness of Seasons,” starting with Fall and its many meanings and implications for our lives.

 

If you love exploring the food from around the world, this one’s for you. We will try 3 world cuisines, one lunch at a time, starting with a lunch meeting at which we choose 2 more restaurants to visit. For this edition, we will choose restaurants in the general vicinity of the U of M, including restaurants in SE and NE Minneapolis, and downtown locations near the river.

Oct 7--Davu Seru, Givens Collection of African American Literature and Life

Oct 14--Ellen Engseth, Immigration History Research Center Archives

Oct 21--Aiden Bettine, Tretter Collection in GLBT Studies

Oct 28--Erik Moore, University Archives

Nov 4--Kate Dietrick, Upper Midwest Jewish Archives

Nov 11--Maggie Ragnow, James Ford Bell Library and Special Collections and Rare Books