Adventures in Minnesota!

Well, since it's been a while since I last posted I figured I better write about the fun trip my hubby & I took to Minnesota last week. The kids were (and still are, at the time of this writing) at Grammy & Grandpa's house in Illinois & we both had a couple days off from work so we decided to take a short trip up to the Twin Cities so we could go see the Mall of America. Some of my thoughts on the trip include the following (note that I have "Mall of America" abbreviated to "MoA"):

• We left Ames a bit before 8:00 AM on Thursday morning (7/15) & pulled into the MoA parking lot at about 10:30 AM...southern Minnesota is quite beautiful to see!

• The Lego store is quite amazing...they've got lots of cool displays of things like dinosaurs & airplanes made out of legos! (I took a number of pictures, they're up on Facebook.)
  
  
• We ate lunch at Bubba Gump Shrimp Co., the ambiance was cool & my food was yummy...but Mark was disappointed in his meal (I believe he ordered a Po'Boy sandwich).
  
  
• I touched a Coach purse! (The saleslady told me that the "least expensive handbag" they had in the store was $198!)
  
  
• I could've lived in the "Sanrio Store" (AKA the "Hello Kitty store") forever if I'd wanted to!
  
  
• If you ever go to the MoA, you should definitely go to the Moose Mountain Mini Golf Course...we played a round there & it was a lot of fun, even though Mark beat me by a single stroke!
  
  
• We ate dinner at a restaurant called "Noodles & Company"...it was really affordable & the food was delicious! This is another place I'd highly recommend to anyone who's going to the MoA anytime soon!
  
  
• In the about 8 hours we were there, I think we made 2 full trips through the MoA...needless to say, we were eager to relax in the hot tub at the hotel once we checked in (I don't think I've walked that much in a single day in my entire life)!
  
  
• We walked through a Cub Foods store that was near the hotel we stayed at...and now Mark is convinced that his store is "long overdue" for a remodel!
  
  
• When we were coming home on Friday, we ate lunch at a great little restaurant in Albert Lea, MN called "Trumbles"...it was really delicious & I highly recommend it to anyone who is travelling in that area!

All in all, it was a lot of fun to go, but it's not something I'd recommend you try to do in a single day...next time we go, when we take the kids, we'll probably split it into 2 days & maybe go to the Minnesota Zoo as well!