We awoke at 8a or so, a little later than normal, and ate breakfast at the hotel (well, most of us — Addison prefers to just sleep in and hope we stop by McDonalds or something for him when we get on the road). Setting out about 10a we crossed back over the Mississippi to Minnesota and followed the River Road for a bit. There were several beautiful overlooks and even a “lake”, Lake Pepin, named for a very wide part of the river. Along the way we saw some locks (#5 in this case) and a dam, but stopped for neither as we had a full day ahead. We eventually crossed back into Wisconsin at Red Wing, Minnesota, home to the shoe company. The road took us on top of the bluffs and back into farm land before crossing the St. Croix river and entry back into Minnesota.
Upper Mississippi National Wildlife Refuge
Rocky outcropping in southern Minnesota
Lake Pepin between Minnesota and Wisconsin
BNSF engines hauling freight along the Mississippi
A short while later we were to the southern outskirts of St. Paul and Minneapolis. The highway went over a good bit of marshy land before we passed by the airport and a Delta hangar with several passenger planes sitting outside. The Mall of America was less than a mile south of the airport. We arrived about 2p and parked in the New York area (we skipped some other states, notably Delaware — I still hold a grudge!). Each area, as I noted, was associated with a state and a cool plaque (in the case of New York, Liberty’s head).
Marsh just south of the Twin Cities
Delta hangar near Minneapolis’ airport
Sign for Mall of America in Bloomington, near Minneapolis
Each parking area was associated with a state
An absolutely huge mall, or more accurately, four malls (each four stories tall) associated with the cardinal directions, all connected to the middle with a full fledged Nickelodeon theme park with roller coasters, log flume, etc. Even the mall directories were slick — full touch screen with directions provided for each store from the current location. The mall was connected to the Twin Cities’ light rail system. Very convenient.
One of the four “malls” within Mall of America, four stories each
Cross-section of the mall
Nickelodeon Universe, complete with roller coaster and log flume
Another shot of the theme park
We passed by a place called Smaaash that had karts, sports stuff, VR games / scenarios like zombie apocalypse, etc. Focused on food, however, we decided to eat at Dick’s Last Resort. We’d never eaten there before and it has an interesting “hook” — the menu items are loaded with innuendos and the wait staff is rude and insulting (by design). The waiter was nice and funny, but still not a fan of paying to have someone be mean. All in fun, I guess. The food was fair at best — Michelle had a chicken sandwich, Genetta a Philly, and Addison and I bacon cheeseburgers. The cheese stick appetizer wasn’t bad, though. The waiter gave Addison crap about being on his phone some during lunch and made paper hats for the kids to wear during the meal. They obliged, surprisingly!
Dick’s Last Resort in Mall of America
(Supposed) World’s Largest Pac-Man, impressive!
Despite its size the shopping wasn’t that much different than any mall at home. In addition to the theme park, however, it did have an aquarium, the “Crayola Experience” which lets you create your own crayon color (sadly we were a bit too old to do that), and a few surprises in addition to the GameStops (yes, they had two), Caribou Coffee, Fossil, and the like. They had a store dedicated to selling Mall of America merchandise (we got a magnet, of course!), one featuring all alpaca products (Genetta got a pillow), one selling gelato (they were out of coffee, grrrr!), etc. Neatest of all (to me, at least) was a store called Brickmania. This store repackages authentic LEGO pieces and some custom molded additions to produce military kits, mostly focused on World War Two but also some Gulf War and other conflicts. They had an amazing diorama of the Battle of Stalingrad complete with muzzle flash LEDs and a crashed Messerschmidt fighter! They had some — dare I say it — adorable minifigs from various conflicts. Finally, there was an amazing Stuka JU-87 dive bomber kit on display that was thankfully out of production. I totally would’ve succumbed!
Brickmania store in Mall of America
Brickmania’s diorama of the Battle of Stalingrad
The Stuka dive bomber, thankfully out of production!
Speaking of LEGOs, they had a really impressive LEGO store. It was fairly open air on the first floor adjacent to the theme park. Above the store were very impressive scenes made out of LEGO — a mech, an explorer with a globe, a Neanderthal fighting a saber-tooth tiger, etc. Along the outside wall were all of the LEGO logos (say that ten times!) as well. And the wall with all of the different pieces you can buy individually was massive! Very cool.
LEGO store in Mall of America
LEGO logos through the years
Detail of a shield held by a LEGO Greek warrior
Detail of the Explorer and globe — check out the feather!
A LEGO Neanderthal facing off against a saber-tooth tiger
We left the mall around 6p and drove a while to St. Cloud. Genetta chose a place for us to eat, Mongo’s Grill. Like our local Crazy Fire it was a Mongolian grill. The main difference was that eggs were an option that you could ask for at the grill rather than having to waste precious bowl space. Nice! The food was excellent and we hit the road again a little after 8p. Before leaving down we stopped by a gas station and Walgreen’s for medicine, DEET, and Whoppers (the candy, not the hamburger).
One consequence of travelling over the fourth is we weren’t going to be able to go to our local fireworks display. In addition, the road between Minneapolis and Fargo was three hours of farmland. Being dusk that meant it would be decidedly boring. It being July 3, however, we were in for a treat that killed both birds with one stone — we witnessed over twenty separate fireworks displays! We just happened to be chasing the dusk line west and as the sight lines are incredible in the prairie of western Minnesota we could see displays from miles around in all directions. Really neat. Finally crossed into North Dakota (#45!) and arrived in Fargo between 11p and midnight. Fargo is the largest city in North Dakota but at 115,000 people smaller than many of the towns around where we live. The Holiday Inn Express was right next to a funky looking restaurant that we were sadly too late to go to.
Space Aliens restaurant in Fargo, North Dakota
Took a little time to offload and upload pictures and went to bed, another big day of driving ahead.
Route for July 3, 2017