Oh and to Drew, nothing I have ever done smacks of effort.  If you don't find my shit funny then you haven't been drinking or don't understand anything about a 10th grade reading level (known as Minnesota doctorate).
Who the fuck would want to live in MN?
Money magazine? I am sure their 9 annual subscribers are pumped about that.  I have hills around me too, there are probably 2000 feet, those are as big as your ski mountains, pathetic.   If MN is utopia, then I would rather live in hell.
What good skiers have come out of MN?  Aside from some mediocre cock smoker with an alright edit whose dick NS sucks.  And don't give me some bullshit about someone who moved out of MN when they were 15.  Don't even think about naming Matt Sternbenz, he is a pimple on the history of freeskiing's ass.
And 4 lakes, holy fuck!  Combined that's like an ocean.
Here's the deal.  If you have to actually back up the home town you live in and justify why it's great, then it really isn't.  If someone talks shit about my hometown, I really don't care, because I know how it is.  I don't want to live to there because it doesn't align with my current lifestyle, but it is way better than nearly everywhere else in the country, so it doesn't matter what people say.