Day 31 & 32- Minneapolis – Shop till you Drop

We got up at the crack of dawn on Sunday and left Rapid City for Minneapolis. This was our longest drive of the trip with 600 miles to cover. The Midwest is the Midwest – “nough’said. The only highlight was when we passed the blimp where the PGA Championship was being played. Tiger was being slayed by a terrific Asian golfer who was calm and in balance like ying yang. We passed Hazeltine CC outside Minneapolis while they were on the 16th hole. Dad desperately wanted us to sneak onto the golf course to see the last two holes. We said NO!!

The next day we got to do something that I have missed… SHOPPING!!!! But not just any shopping… shopping at the Mall of America. We started off the day with a scooter ride to the sculpture garden in Loring Park. It featured the famous, oversized Clay Oldenburg ‘Cherry on a Spoon’ sculpture. It was really big and looked juicy. While we were there we saw a bunch of different other sculptures. When we got back to the hotel, we met Dad; he had 2 business meetings that morning and we informed him that we had to switch rooms. We moved every bag to another room (Ugghh), and then finally, we got to the good part… SHOPPING! We had some troubles getting to the mall but we pretended that never happened. The one bad part about being on a trip and going to the mall is having the thule on top. It was almost impossible to find a parking spot because of our giraffe like height. Finally, we found one and we were off to the shopping mecca. When we walked into the mall, you wouldn’t have ever noticed that there was an amusement park in it. The park was ginormous with plenty of rides. Although the park was in the middle it was secluded from the shops which circled the fun and games. We started out our venture with some food and then shopping. The shops were nice but no different then what we have in New York. The only difference was that sometimes there were two of them – 2 Abercrombies, 2 Aeropastales, 2 Justices and so on….After some serious back to school shopping, we got to go to the amusement park. There were so many rides - 5 different rollercoasters, a flume, ferris wheel, swings, and so many other rides. We started off the rides by all going on the flume, It was fun and although we didn’t get wet we got a photo of our teeth and excitement. Next, Lea and Erin went on the swings, while Dad and I went on the Pepsi Orange Streak Roller Coaster that traversed around the entire park. It was really cool. We didn’t have much time left, so we grabbed something to eat and headed off back to the hotel. If you saw the car today, it would look more like a blimp than a suburban. It’s stuffed with so much, it could explode. When we got back, everyone was tired. We relaxed than fell asleep. Another great day for me and my sissies. Let’s keep it going.

Can’t wait to see everyone back home,
Torey