Minneapolis is one of the most overlooked cities in the United States. It is an extremely sophisticated, mid-sized city that has the culture, restaurants and nightlife of a much larger city, but that has the friendliness of a small city. It is a rare combination. Plus Minnesota has one of the best park systems in the U.S. and in the north of the State is the Boundary Waters Canoe Area that is the largest wilderness park in the the lower 48 states.

Our house is very centrally located in the city, near to light-rail and buses and close to downtown. You can get around the city pretty well without a car. Minneapolis was recently chosen as the most bicycle friendly city in the U.S. However, you would want to car to go out of the city. The lakes, and the Mississippi and the St. Croix Rivers are great. I highly recommend the Boundary Waters Wildness area, The Mall of America, a trip up to Winnipeg, a trip to Chicago. Minneapolis also has a very strong local arts and music community. We have lived in many different places and can reasonably say that Minneapolis is an exceptional city. It is a great place to visit. Check out these web sites about Minneapolis:

http://www.vimeo.com
http://en.wikipedia.org
http://en.wikipedia.org
http://www.canoecountry.com
http://www.coolhunting.com
http://www.minneapolisparks.org

I am a high school English teacher who is married and has two boys, 18 and 14. I speak fluent French and some Spanish. I have traveled outside of the U.S. a lot. We like sailing, museums, reading, camping, and many other things. We consider one of the best aspects of this kind of exchange is the chance to meet and interact with local people in a non-touristy way. Visiting monuments and museums is nice, but the people will always be the highlight of the visit. We will take good care of your home. We like the old camping adage of leaving your camp site better than you found it. This applies to houses as well.