The next gathering of the Social Media Breakfast - Minneapolis-St. Paul (#SMBMSP) is going to be held at the Great Minnesota Get Together, the Minnesota State Fair. Should be lots of fun, with bacon on a stick and everything ;-).
We used to live right by the fairgrounds, and in fact parked cars for 5 years. It was great fun, and we met lots of nice Minnesotans from all walks of life.
I offered some parking tips to a fellow SMBMSP member, and with that in mind thought it would be helpful to post those tips for others.
We lived on the west side of the fair, and were often amazed at how few people ventured to the back side of the fair...choosing instead to sit in stopped traffic on Snelling or Larpenteur.
If the weather is nice, the first Friday of the MN State Fair is usually the first or second busiest day of the whole event, with parking affected accordingly.
The best way to get to the Fair is to take what we called the "back way", which would be Como Ave, to the west of the fairgrounds.
The
easiest way to do that is to take a"feeder highway" (94, 35W, etc.)
to Highway 280. This road is under construction, so you could encounter
delays here.
From Hwy 280, take the Energy Park Drive exit (all the signs will tell
you to take Como, which you *could* take, but Energy Park is a bit of a
shortcut). No matter whether you come from the north or south, you will
end up facing north after you exit Hwy 280. The railroad tracks will be
right in front of you, so you can't go straight. Take a right onto
Energy Park Drive. The first stop light is for the "bus road" back and
forth between the two U of M campuses. Don't turn there!
The second stop light will be at Raymond and Energy Park Drive. There
will be a Bruegger's Bagel place on the left corner. Make a left turn
and go under the railroad tracks. Go to the light, which will be Como
Ave. Make a right turn onto Como. You'll have about a half mile to the
fairgrounds.
The big parking lot south of the fairgrounds is one good option - price is about $11 this year.
The south lot fills on the weekends pretty early. If you're sitting
in traffic back near the Como/Raymond intersection for quite a while,
there's a good chance the south lot is filling up.
If you are getting there between 7 and 8 a.m., there shouldn't be a problem with parking in the big lot, especially during the week. The traffic will move pretty smoothly after you make the right turn onto Como Ave. You will see the married student housing on your left, and as Como curves east, you'll go past a fire station on your right. There will be a stoplight for the bus road, and then the fair ground parking lot will be on your right.
Now, some "tricks of the trade", if you will.You shouldn't have any trouble parking in the south lot fairly early in the morning. Traffic will back up to the fire station or a bit beyond on Como, and you should still be OK. If traffic is backed up once you turn onto Como from Raymond, you might consider an alternative parking option. Just to the west of the fire station is a big parking lot for a St. Paul public schools building. They park cars on the weekend, but not usually on week day mornings, since the building is in use. They charge in the $8 to $10 dollar range.
If you are backed up to Raymond and not moving much, you can
consider parking in the neighborhood right there across from the
married student housing. Since we moved, not sure if anyone is parking
cars in the neighborhood (1 or 2 other families will often do so on the
weekends), but there is some street parking available. Capitalism
prevails! When traffic was heavy, we could charge $10...when it slowed,
we would do anywhere from $5 to $8.
Have fun!
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