Day 4 (2014) - Mall Rats (and Debbie the Good Sport - you will see why)

When we told the kids that we would be spending most of the day today at the Mall of America they looked at us like we were nuts, probably thinking something like "Why in the world would our parents have us spend a day of our annual trip at a mall?"  Well, as you may or may not know, the Mall of America isn't your everyday mall.  Sure, there are stores galore (at least three Lids stores, a few Foot lockers and multiple food courts), but this is much more than just a mall.  In addition to the stores, there is also an amusement park, an aquarium, a flight simulator, Barbie's Dollhouse, a CSI adventure, and various other entertainment locales.  When they told them this, their reaction went from "We're doing what today?" to "Oh, we get it now."

When we arrived, and they saw what was there, it made even more sense.  Pretty much right when we walked in we encountered the Nickelodeon-themed amusement park, with rides of all kinds.  When we eventually found where to buy tickets, we purchased 85 points worth of tickets.  Since the rides ranged from 3-6 points per ride, we figured this would be enough to satisfy the crew.  When we asked the kids which ride they wanted to go on first, Amanda immediately suggested the roller coaster.  We pointed out that the roller coaster started with a pretty steep initial drop followed by a few loops where you go upside down. She said she didn't care, and wanted to go on it. Brian passed on it, but Ethan said he would go with her.  As they waited in line, Debbie watched as others went on the ride, and became quite concerned that the ride was too much for Amanda.  It was at this point that Brian noticed the faces Debbie was making every time the ride took off, and asked for Ethan's cell phone.

[Commentary from Debbie, before you look at the photos:  Are you going to explain that I have a fear of roller coasters and misjudging how scary a ride can be, especially since Amanda's comment was "It's a Sponge Bob ride, how scary can it be?"]

What you will see next are some of the (real) faces he captured (and this was BEFORE our kids were even on the ride):

Not exactly "Livin' on the Edge."   Miraculously, they survived the ride (and went at least 3 more times throughout the day).

The Survivors

After this experience, Amanda felt emboldened and went on two other rides that brought back the fear in Debbie.  On one they flew around and ended upside down for much of the ride, and on the other (which Amanda did alone), she was on a winged car that she could control to do flips.

Can you call this "hair raising" if you are upside down?

The daredevil herself

While Amanda enjoyed her fearlessness, Debbie - not so much.  Eventually, we moved on to tamer activities, including the Aquarium, which was an OK aquarium, probably not worth the price I paid for admission.  We also went to a CSI exhibit where you had to pick a crime, review the evidence, and then try and figure out whodunit.  We all enjoyed the CSI exhibit, and clearly Debbie much prefers murders to scary rides.  Go figure.  We grabbed a food court lunch (Brian was able to get his coveted Chipotle, which is usually off limits during family trips), and went off to find more mall fun.

We paid to go through a mirror maze, which is like a corn maze, but with mirrors.  At first it seemed hokey, but once you got through the maze it merely felt, well, hokey.

Mirror, mirror on the walls, how do I get out of here?

We also went on a Buzz Lightyear type ride, where you had to shoot at targets.  Clearly my time in the Wild West did me good, because I was the runaway winner for most points (by more than double everyone else, but who's counting - I am!).

Fastest gun this side of Kolbeh

Before we wrapped up at the mall for the day, Debbie and Amanda hit the American Girl store for a new outfit for Amanda's doll (regrettably, we forgot to bring her doll so she couldn't get a new hairdo), while the boys and I killed time in a sports memorabilia store. 

By late-afternoon we left the mall and headed back to the hotel, where the kids relaxed for a bit, Debbie took a power nap and I started writing my blog.  Eventually I woke up sleeping beauty and we started discussing where to go for dinner.  I had looked up a few places online, and had also gotten some recommendations from a friend of Alan Nadel's, but when presented with all of the options and a vote was taken, it was decided that we would simply return to Cowboy Jack's next door.  So across the parking lot we went for another nice, easy meal.

If it ain't broke...

After dinner we just headed back to the hotel and called it a night.  Tomorrow's (final day) agenda includes brunch in Minneapolis (the Mall of America and our hotel are in Bloomington, about 15 minutes from Minneapolis), then we are going to play it by ear for the rest of the day, with an eye on the Twins-Tigers game at night.