Mall of America

Ah, the trip of a lifetime... to the Mall of America! For four glorious days it was just mall and hotel, nothing else to get in the way.

As we lifted from LaGuardia I got this shot of Central Park and Manhattan: And the George Washington Bridge:
At last, midday and we've reached the Mall!

The mall directory. These big talking directories with TV's are all over the place.

A passenger with a layover (the mall is just across the street from the airport) snapped us when we arrived: First look down into the park Bridget gets pink hair extensions Matty with the Wall of Monopoly

Chris, Matty and I flew the flight simulator. I flew a Japanese Zero and the boys flew American WWII planes.

After A.C.E.S., we had to Oxynate across the hall! Bridget and Matty had their birthday cake at the Rainforest Cafe

Click here to play the movie!

Friday morning we went to the arcade

See the percussion masters!

We played with some Lego

Click here for the car race!

Bridget got a new bag, and had some pictures taken at Glamour Shots

Click *here* to see her Glamour Shots!

Lunch at Kokomo's Island Cafe Now for some rides!

At this point I dropped my camera on the concrete, cry! It split open just a bit, and the power button no longer turned it on. However, the button to review pictures on the back still worked. I did use the camera later to download the pictures, and I sent the camera back for repairs. They declared it unfixable, and sold me a refurbished replacement for $115. Not too bad. But in the meantime, what camera to use to record the Mall of America trip? The phone cam had to be called into action. Pretty blurry most of the time, but serviceable.

Saturday morning we were back in the theme park:

	When Matty jumps, he is just a blur:

We have our big game of Munchkin, which we bought at Games by James:
The aquarium was a bit rinky dink as aquariums go, but certainly the best we've ever seen at a mall.
Somehow the blur enhances these memories.
A few shots to take in the grandeur of MOA
Ah, Sunday at last, time to head out to the airport!

Now, the snowglobe story.

I wanted to get a small souvenir for my desk, so I picked up this tiny loon snowglobe on the way out of the mall. I had quite forgotten it by the time we got to airport security. The security guard very purposefully took the basket containing my laptop bag after it had gone through x-ray and told me to step aside. She had me remove my shoes and fleece jacket from the basket and started searching the bag (the laptop, of course, had been scanned separately). After rummaging through my back three times, she asked me a very odd question: "Do you have a snowglobe?" I laughed, remembering my souvenir, and I said, yes, I did, somewhere. My hands went to my jacket pockets, and I produced a small bag with something wrapped up securely in tissue paper. By now my whole family was gathered around, and they had no idea I had bought this souvenir, so I said as she started to unwrap it, "Hey, it's just like Christmas!". When she had it out and we were all looking at this tiny little thing she announced that snowglobes were against the rules. She showed it to her supervisor and came back. She said, "Well, it's so small we'll let it through, but don't bring any more snowglobles through security." I suspect if enough people smuggled snowglobes onto a plane, they could simultaneously confuse the crew with entrancing snowy landscapes and hijack it.

	Takeoff! Hey, look, we're looking right down at the Mall of America from the air! That's right, the airport is right next to the Mall of America. And IKEA is off to the right.

Heading back home. Hey, there's the Statue of Liberty and Manhattan!
Boy, it was a great trip. We think everyone should go to the Mall of America!