Mall of America - Minneapolis, MN

We have arrived at shopping Nirvana: Mall of America. Simply reading about it doesn’t do it justice. Our waiter at Napa Valley Grille told us that each of the three levels is one mile in circumference. He recommended sitting down with a map to identify the stores we wished to visit and crossing off the stuff that we should avoid. That way we could shorten our hike. But we needed the exercise! Plus, it is the stores that I don’t know about I’d like to see. The ones I know, I can visit / shop at home.

It was an experience. We saw lots of “mall-walkers”, folks out for their daily constitutional. At one mile per level, you can get in a pretty good walk while seeing American consumerism at its best.

With few exceptions, every brand name store in the USA is here. Missing are the big box stores: Costco, Sam’s Club, Lowe’s, and Home Depot, and Wal-Mart weren’t there, but they're in the shopping neighborhood. Ikea, a large home furnishing store has a huge venue across the street from the Mall. We may visit them tomorrow.

You can see from the photos that Mall of America is a destination in itself for the kids. Lots of amusement park rides including a couple that would definitely make me toss my cookies! Plus water sluice rides and a LEGO pavilion that was pretty cool. The amusement park occupies the entire central atrium and certainly keeps the young folks occupied. And when they’re thru riding, there are the “teen” stores: Quicksilver, WetSeal, Aerospatiale, and lots of names I didn’t recognize.

And then there were the restaurants. Beside the usual fast-food (but no MacDonalds, Burger King, or Wendys), there were lots of coffee shops, smoothies, taco, oriental, and their ilk, there was a Wolfgang Puck express, Napa Valley Grille (wonderful food and atmosphere), California Café, plus several other high-end-looking establishments that we didn’t have time to try. If they had a hotel in the complex, one could truly spend an entire vacation there and never go outside! But no ice-skating rink? Maybe in the winter.

M. Neither Wayne nor I are "shoppers" but we had a great time! We walked miles. Many of the stores were the size of our malls! There was no end. Lego-Land was amazing with everything, including the clear store walls /dispay space made of large Lego's. Atlantis and the space station hung from the rafters along with a flying saucer and planets; a nest with four very large, hungry-looking chicks; a full-size motorcycle rider on his cycle (with helmet); a multi-story clock tower -- you just wanted to sit down and make something! They had gears and connections, anything you'd need or want.

Our lunch was fantastic, what a delightful oasis in retail land. I had cucumber vichyssoise, crab cake with and Caesar salad -- small perfect portions of each, garnished or dressed deliciously and beautifully. Wayne ordered Hass Select chardonay which was delicious. We intended to return for a chocolate snack but the feet gave out and we returned to marinate a steak for dinner.

It is surprisingly hot. Why should we think "hot" is restricted to the south? Everything is so very green and lush. We could see the corn grow by the day. We even saw cranberry bogs driving up. Lots of cows, calfs, horses and foals. Silos and barns dot the hillsides. Everyone couldn't be nicer.

Went to an Indian casino down the road last night for dinner and to try our luck. I played five dollars on the nickle slots and won thirty, Wayne won as well. So we took our loot and headed for the door! We may try that again as it is a fun diversion. We are both cheap so there is no change of incurring large loses.