August 29-31, 2008

Mall of America ... here we come!
Well, Labor Day weekend = going somewhere fun, right? The original thought of going to Mt. Rushmore went out the window (we'll do that in the spring, I think) and so off to Bloomington, Minnesota for us! It's about a 5 hour drive but if you ask the kids, I think they'll say it was worth it! Austin declared that he would like to go there for his birthday! Kids ... they're so funny!

We stayed at the Fairfield right across the street from the mall - handy! We arrived around 10:30pm on Friday night and went to the room to relax, watch a little tv and just unwind.

After a nice breakfast, we decided that Saturday was going to be a shopping day - you know, get a feel of the land, so-to-speak. We eventually paired off, Austin with Jacob and Melissa with moi. The "boys" played a round of miniature golf, looked at the rides, checked out the Legos, raced a cool NASCAR in a race simulator (I hear Austin was a maniac!) and just looked around.

Melissa and I went to the clothing stores (fun fun). It is expensive to be decked out in all of the "name brands". Melissa had some birthday money that she could spend and I think most of it went to Aeropostale.

We met the boys at the Rainforest Cafe. The reason to go to the Rainforest Cafe was to enjoy the ambiance, not the excellent cuisine. What I'm trying to say is that the food was o.k.

Due to the chewing of an eyeball by Gabby, Austin got himself another snake from the Build-A-Bear at the Rainforest Cafe store. He named him "fangs"and he's a python. I have no idea why the photos from the cafe turned out weird - it must be from the low lighting.

After a busy day of shopping and fooling around, we went back to the hotel for a little pool action and a nap (at least I tried ...). It was pretty much R&R the rest of the night.

Sunday was the day we were to go on the rides so we braced ourselves and got up a little earlier. We ended up getting to the mall a tad bit earlier than the 10:00am opening so we decided to buy our wristbands from the kiosk and stand in line (if there was one) for the rides we wanted to go on. Actually, it was really nice at that time - hardly anyone around. Hardly anyone except the Fox News people!

The Republican National Convention is this week in Minneapolis and they (along with other news teams) were scoping out the mall. Of course, we saw Steve Doocy (the pic is a little blurred but his facial reaction is hilarious!) with - we assume - his son going on the rides. He smiled at Jacob and probably thought I was some stalker-person. It was fun to see someone that "famous", walking around the mall and going on rides!

Austin really enjoyed the day - he wasn't too short for any of the rides! Melissa got a little "roller-coster"-ed out after awhile. Comparing to a 'real' theme park, there really aren't that many rides but because of a malfunction at the kiosk where we bought the wristbands, we received a $14 per person discount! Yahoo!

All-in-all we had a great time. I'm not sure when our next outing to the Mall of America will be, but at least we can say that we've been there, done that! And ... don't forget ... friends don't let friends live in MINNESOTA! muah ha ha ha! :)