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Opinion

For This Week’s Open Thread: How Do You Staycation?

As we do each time this week, we're turning Racket over to you, the readers.

9:05 AM CDT on March 21, 2025

Be honest: When is the last time you visited this fella at St. Paul’s Bell Museum?

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Racket's Keith Harris has quit.

Quit working for this Friday, that is. Yes, Keith took a well-deserved day off to tool around the city doing whatever it is a Keith Harris-type does. We're guessing reading, listening to music, grabbing a tasty lunch, seeing a movie, and then catching a show, but at press time can't confirm any of that. (Update: I've received word that he's scheduling a massage—we stan a self-care king!)

In the absence of Keith's labor, we have a layup Open Thread prompt: What do you do when you're a vacationer who's marooned at home? It's so easy to take the greatest city on Earth—charitably, this lifelong Minneapolitan will classify that as "the Twin Cities"—for granted. Me, personally? I've not visited places like Mia, the Minnesota History Center, or the Guthrie in a shamefully long time.

What about you?

Where are you go-to spots, either in practice or aspirationally, when you're unyoked from the time-sucking tedium of employment? We're talkin' museums, hikes, and meals around the metro, but hell, let's also broaden the scope to day trip destinations like antiquing in Stillwater or geocaching at Frontenac State Park. (Racket's Em Cassel once appeared on MPR News to discuss day trips, if you'd like to steal some of her ideas.)

As always, feel free to ignore this prompt and talk about whatever you want. This is your open thread, after all.

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