Paisley Park - where the magic happened
Two weeks ago I attended the Uniglobe Travel Center annual conference held in Minneapolis, MN. After a great time of learning and reconnecting with friends, I stayed an extra day just to visit Paisley Park. If you've lived under a rock the last few decades, that's the personal residence and studios of the one and only - Prince.
I preface this posting by saying that I'm going to tell you ALL about the tour and tell you NOTHING about the tour at the same time! Why? Cause I don't want to spoil the magic for those planning to go and cause elusiveness + Prince go together!
My sister flew in that weekend to join me and we decided on the Sunday VIP tour at 10am. We caught an uber and arrived at 9:45am. Two things to note:
1. Don't think you can show up and just buy a ticket on site. The guard at the gate won't let you in the parking lot without tickets.
2. Being an LA girl, I'm use to celebrity compounds being hidden in the hills, behind tall gates and down long driveways... Paisley Park is literally on the corner! So odd to me!
As expected, no photos are allowed inside. They locked our phones in nifty pouches that we were able to keep with us and they unlocked them on the way out. But for $10 you can get a thumb drive and take home the approved tour pics.
Our tour guide was awesome and so knowledgeable! For a little over 2 hours we soaked in his insane musical genius, saw his comedic side and walked in his personal life. I laughed. I cried. I learned some things about him as a regular dude that I had no clue about, and I'm a low-key stalker fan!
Since it was Sunday, our tour included brunch in the NPG Music Club where Prince would often host parties. Cool thing is that his personal chefs still work there! Actually, many of his staff members still maintain his property.
We could have stayed all day, but the next VIP tour was coming through, so we had to skedaddle.
My sister asked our guide if First Avenue (the club from Purple Rain) was still around, and it is. It was a good 25 minutes out of the way, but we HAD to go! It was a great way to top off a great day.
This was a major bucket list item for me. And having met Wendy and Lisa the month before, I declare myself Prince's real cousin that he never met lol. I mean.... I met his peeps, chilled at the house, that makes me kin right!? 😆. No? OK, I tried lol.
The only thing I didn't get to do was purify myself in the waters of Lake Minnetonka. I didn't stress about it though cause the lakes were frozen! Oh well, maybe next time!
