Is there enough to do in and around Minneapolis for 5 days?

I'll put this here. I understand the 1/2 hour limit, but it's worth the extra 1/2 hour (about an hour to get there from downtown-ish area) http://www.franconia.org/. that alone would take up a whole day, it's very kid friendly as well.

I live in St. Paul, and I can say there is definitely plenty to do in the Twin Cities for five days. As others have pointed out, this is a fantastic area for biking. the Midtown Greenway was recently named the http://www.usatoday.com/story/travel/destinations/2013/07/23/best-urban-bike-paths-across-the-usa/2576801/. Biking around the chain of lakes or along the Mississippi river road is also a lot of fun. For longer rides, there are quite a few regional trails, including the Gateway State trail, which runs for 18 miles all the way from St. Paul almost to Stillwater. Oh, and Harriet island in St. Paul is a wonderful place to bike through the woods with great views of the river. Much of the stretch of the Mississippi that flows through the Twin Cities is a http://www.nps.gov/miss/index.htm, so there are tons of great places to hike, bike or just take in the views. Personally, I wouldn't recommend Stillwater for a short trip. It's a quaint enough town but it can get very crowded and touristy, especially on weekends in the summer. Some neighborhoods I like to explore within the Twin Cities are downtown Minneapolis along Nicollet Mall, Uptown and the Lakes, the Minneapolis riverfront and St. Anthony Main, Summit and Grand Avenues in St. Paul and Northeast Minneapolis. Definitely make time to go to the Mill City Museum and walk across the http://www.minneapolisparks.org/default.asp?PageID=4&parkid=268.

I love Stillwater and the B&Bs there. They have a steamboat that's fun. Cool shops, great food. Same can be said for Minneapolis. I would suggest the MCAD museum and the Walker. Eat at Blackforrest. There's a lot of lakes. Mall of America? I'd have no problem coming up with five days of things to do.

Here's the bike rental site, https://www.niceridemn.org/, and the https://secure.niceridemn.org/map/. The bikes are kind of....large. I think your 14 and 12 year olds could probably ride one of these, but I doubt the 8 year old could. But, might save you from having to haul 5 bikes on your trip and just bring one or two for the smallest ones. Chain of Lakes is a great idea. I didn't think about it because I live just off of one and take them for granted. They are superb for low-key bike riding and people watching. The Lake Harriet bandshell and Tin Fish for food/drink/ice cream are two popular stops along those paths worth checking out. Lake Harriet bandshell has http://www.minneapolisparks.org/documents/activities/MusicSchedule.pdf. Quality varies dramatically.

Biking around the http://www.minneapolisparks.org/grandrounds/map_CL1.htm is fun. You can grab bike share bikes near the Walker Art Center (check out the free sculpture garden as others have mentioned) and bike through the upscale neighborhood to Lake of the Isles and explore trails from there. (there are also bike share at spots all around the lakes)

Thanks to everyone so far and keep the suggestions coming. We are super excited as this thread has pushed us over the edge (as I knew it would).

A canoe trip down Minnehaha Creek is a great idea. Some museums to consider are the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, the Walker, the Mill City Museum, and the Museum of Russian Art. Get some Nice Ride Bikes and do a bike ride one day, perhaps down the Midtown Greenway. Have a Jucy Lucy (the local delicacy) at Matt's Bar. Have some good German beer and sausage at The Black Forest Inn (sit outside in the beer garden). The Fringe Festival will be going on, so seem some cool live theater. Go to Moto-I and have some of the saki they brew with small plates of Japanese food.

My wife and I went to Minneapolis a couple years ago and had a wonderful time. We stayed at a hotel near the Mall of America and made extensive use of the http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hiawatha_Line commuter train (We had a car, but after driving 7 hours we were sort of sick of it and was so much easier to use the train). Using just the Blue Line we visited Fort Snelling, Minnehaha Park, the Saint Anthony Falls district, the Mill City Museum, and the Guthrie Theatre. I think that covered 3 days. I think it takes the train 40-some minutes to go from one of its route to the other, so our max travel times were around 30 minutes. Using the car, we also visited the Minneapolis Institute of Art. Had we more time, we would have visited the Walker and its sculpture garden, explored neighborhoods and the downtown, and visited more parks. The canoe trip mcstayinskool mentions looks fantastic. It's quite easy to fill five days in the Twin Cities; we ended up having to cut some stuff. Nthing the suggestion of asking locals what to see and do, everyone was extremely helpful and super-nice. We didn't have a set itinerary and so were able to incorporate suggestions into our plans and it worked out great.

If I had to pick one thing it would be the Mill City Museum -- absolutely fascinating. Besides the Walker, there's an interesting Russian art museum too. The Arboretum, Minnehaha Falls, walking around the lakes are great outdoor activities. A St. Paul Saints minor-league baseball game is a real happening. Have fun. I bet you'll love the Mini Apple.