One of the things we prioritized when booking hotels was to find one with free breakfast, so we usually always have that meal covered. At our hotel this morning, which was adjoined to an Outback Steakhouse, we walked down a hallway, through the pool, and then into a room for breakfast. Waffles, eggs, sausage, fresh fruit, and some yogurt. Yum. We checked out of our hotel, drove 3 minutes, and went into the Mall of America.
The Mall of America. 4 stories, 5.6 million square feet. The largest shopping mall in North America. A perfect symbol of
American extravagance, gluttony, and opulence. But... It was pretty cool, too. The entire center of the mall is
essentially a Nickelodeon-themed amusement park, which was basically nostalgia overload. They had rides devoted to Hey
Arnold, Rugrats, Ninja Turtles, Avatar: The Last Air Bender, and even Dora the Explorer. We didn't go into any of them,
but we did look around the whole area, it was pretty epic. I almost snagged a Ninja Turtles action figure for Levi but
decided against it at the last second because I wasn't sure which turtle was his favorite.
Next, we went to the Lego store and looked around. Mario and Luigi greeted us at the door with blinking eyes and a few
random video game sounds. They had a TON of sets, most of which are obscenely expensive but all ridiculously cool. I
think my favorite was an NES and retro TV set, which was awesome. On top of the building, they had some MASSIVE
sculptures which were awesome.
We rounded out our Mall of America visit with M&M world, which was basically the same as the one in Vegas that we've gone to like 15 times, but a bit smaller. We got a new plate for "C" (we got M&M plates for all the kids last time we went to Vegas but hers didn't survive the flight home) and a very small bag of M&Ms before heading out.
We loaded back into the car and took the long, arduous 2 minute trek across the street to Ikea. Ikea is probably "K"'s favorite store in the entire world. We walked through the showroom in record time, only grabbing a couple very small things. We hit the cafeteria for some traditional fine dining at Ikea, Swedish meatballs, mashed potatoes, peas, salad, and fresh fruit. We once again piled into the car and hit the road. This time to the UPS Store to ship off the things I got from Grandpa so we could free up some car space.
Our last stop in Minneapolis was at the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden, across the street from the Walker Art center. There were lots of interesting, unique art pieces in the small park, including a tree loaded with wind chimes, a cherry on a spoon that shoots water, and a giant blue rooster. We also walked across the Siah Armajani Bridge, a blue and yellow bridge spanning I-94. It probably wasn't the most exciting place in the world for the kids, but they didn't complain. We topped it off with a popsicle from the ice cream truck.
We left Minneapolis, which was by far and away the largest city we've gone through so far on this trip, and drove to Wisconsin. Our hotel was a paltry 104 miles from the park, clocking in at just under 2 hours so the crew handled that without breaking a sweat.
We're staying in our first Holiday Inn for the trip. The room is laid out about the same as the rest - 2 queen beds and a pullout couch. We scoped out places to grab dinner and, because most of the stuff from our roof bag is just shoved into the back of the van (preventing kids from sitting in their seats), we opted for somewhere within walking distance. The closest place was Max's Family Kitchen, 0.7 miles away. We walked all the way over there to find out that the restaurant is permanently closed and will be turned into a Denny's sometime in the future. Instead, we went with plan B, a Subway attached to a gas station ehich set us back a small fortune. I guess I didn't realize just how expensive Subway was, but we spent almost $10 per person for 6-inch subs (and kids meals for the younger 4).
We hiked back to the hotel room, and "C" took the walk both ways like a CHAMP, stopping to pick up flowers along the way. We capped off our night with some more Lilo and Stitch on the ceiling. Tomorrow, we explore the great state of Wisconsin!