| I paid a visit to the Mall of America for the first time last weekend, going there to escape the kids for a little while with Anna, my cousin and his wife. The trip accomplished exactly what it was supposed to: a brief escape from parenthood. Any parent can tell you that even though you love your kids more than you ever thought possible, you simply can't wait to dump them off on someone and run sometimes. It's just the truth. Overall, I enjoyed myself. The MegaMall (as it's known) wasn't too bad. After 9 hours of walking, we almost saw every store. Almost. Of all the shopping that we did, I enjoyed the Bose and Apple stores the most, although the prices in the Bose store and the fact that I've never owned an Apple product kept me just curious. I also enjoyed the creations in the LEGO Imagination Center, which included dinosaurs, a motorcycle (complete with rider), and even Harry Potter, all completely made of Legos. Very cool to look at, but I never bought a thing anywhere. Not one item. I paid for beverages, food, gas, and a hotel room, but nothing else. I enjoyed Camp Snoop more, the amusement park located in the dead center of the mall.
Click for larger versionCamp Snoopy was a very pleasant surprise. Being indoors and having that unbelievably frightening name, I figured this would be just a step better than Tea Cups. However, I was very pleasantly surprised by each of the two rollercoasters located in this world's-largest-indoor-amusement-park. The Timberland Twister was a true blast! If you're in the midwest and you're looking for a very inexpensive and short vacation, hit the Mall of America in Bloomington, MN. I relaxed while I was there and I don't think we dropped $250 on the whole trip, even with the inflated gas prices. |
