By: Priya Anderson and Ruby Anderson

Growing up in Rochester, MN is different from St. Paul in various ways: from the size of the city, to the activities you can do and the type of people you meet. We moved in October of 2021, so a majority of our life was spent in Rochester. For people unfamiliar with the Mayo Clinic’s birth place, we’d like to share some of our favorite places to get readers acquainted.

Apache Mall:

Apache Mall is like the centerpiece of Rochester. It is located in the SW portion of the city and has 114 stores. we’d say it’s the place teens and young adults hang out the most. The relatively small size is great for an impromptu shopping day, but sadly it is not as popular to actually shop as it was before COVID. When we visit Rochester, we mainly like to go to the food court and get Caribou coffee, since a large number of the stores that drew people in had to close. It is still a great place for teenagers to safely chill out and relax.

Soldiers Field pool:

If you’re looking for a place to cool down and have fun with your friends during the summer, Soldiers Field pool is the perfect place to go. We have had so many great memories at this pool from when we were toddlers to when we were teens. A lot has changed around Soldiers Field, but the pool remains open every season. We actually consider it to be nicer than the Highland Pool near Highland Park High School due to its larger children’s area and the length/number of slides. The pool is also located very close to downtown Rochester, so after you are done swimming you can go see any of the “tourist” stores and restaurants it has to offer.

Downtown Rochester/Peace Plaza:

The Mayo Clinic brings all walks of life to Rochester, which means it can be a source of “tourism”, if that word works. Things like restaurants, clothing stores, U of M merch stores, and countless hotels are due to the patients staying at The Clinic. The restaurants located here are very good in our opinion. For example, Chesters, which serves ‘upscale’ American food, Canadian Honker, a great family breakfast place (great for birthday brunch) and Victorias, an Italian style restaurant Mayo employees love, are some of our family favorites.

The Peace Plaza is in this same area, and is right in the center of all of the hotels. We highly recommend staying at one of these a couple times, even if you aren’t staying for the Clinic. Mayo Clinic history is also all over downtown, and you can walk through all the artwork/statues made for the hospital. Overall, this might be the second most popular place for anyone to spend time in Rochester.

Oxbow Park and Zollman Zoo:

Oxbow Park and Zollman Zoo is a campground and zoo that holds previously injured animals that have been inhibited from living in the wild. It houses 30 species of animals, from bobcats, black bears, foxes, porcupines, turkeys, chickens, bald eagles, insects like tarantulas, and amphibians and lizards. This was a lot of fun to go to as a young child and we still really enjoy it. It really is fun for all ages because of how diverse the animal selection is, and the walkable outdoors. Events also take place there, like holiday light shows and animal shows. Oxbow pPark also has great hiking trails, and forestry all around.

Quarry Hill:

Rochester Public Schools used to take us here the most out of any destination for field trips. Quarry Hill is a nature center with outdoor and indoor activities, and is primarily for younger children and elementary school events. Personally, the best part of any Quarry Hill trip was finally coming inside out of the cold and the forest, and seeing the T-Rex skull on display. In this room, they also had several large fish in a long tank, turtles, bees that lived inside of a hive within a see-through wall (and their queen which you would always try to find and when we were there for school, we used to get raw honey comb from the bees as well), snakes and lizards, and more large bugs. They also had things like animal pelts, antlers, bones, and fossils to put under microscopes and observe. There’s also a bird watch room behind the beehive. As said before, the T-Rex skull was always the most exciting, and being a little kid, it looked unbelievable. In the quarry there are more fun secrets like caves, rock climbing, trails, and rivers.

Even with the limited things we could do in Rochester compared to St. Paul, great memories were made and the connection Rochester has to nature is also evident. From the Apache Mall to Quarry Hill there are a variety of places to hang out and make memories with friends and family. We miss it a lot, and hope to go back soon!