Until two Fridays ago, Mike had been at annual Army training for
about two weeks. He had the idea midway through training that he wanted to go
out of town. I was a bit taken aback, mostly because I figured that being gone
for two weeks would mean he would want to be home! Of course, that was not to
be! After a little bit of bickering back and forth on where to go (since, let’s
be honest, that’s what happened), we decided on Minneapolis. I hadn’t been since I was a kid,
and Mike hadn’t been for a few years, either. So off we were!
As soon as he got home on Friday night, we took off. We didn’t
stop until we hit Wisconsin Dells, and that was only for a quick bathroom break
and a trip to Taco Bell – I discovered that Sinclair gas stations exist, though!
I had never seen one, and the giant dinosaur coming out of the top of the
building reminded me of the dinosaur that was always stolen from a gas station
in Green Bay
growing up around homecoming.
We had a lot of fun on the drive there, even though we got
pulled over (whoops)! The passenger side headlight of the car was out, which we
didn’t know, and the officer questioned Mike on his car’s modifications, but
Mike only walked away with a $10 ticket for not having his insurance card on
him! That led to a mission to Wal-Mart for the correct bulb, and a bit of a hit
to our planned arrival time.
If I can only give one tip and one tip only to those going
to the MOA, I would suggest this: go as soon as the place opens. 9:30 AM.
Parking is amazing, there aren’t a lot of people getting in your way, and if
need be, you can have an in-and-out shopping experience. We wandered around and
giggled to ourselves at the gaggles of teenage girls lining up to see Cody
Simpson (I have no idea who he even is, but apparently he’s a big deal to those
in the 10-16 age bracket) on the way to the aquarium!
So much fun. I had no idea there even was such a thing in
the mall, but I was proven wrong. Was it huge? No. was it a halfway decent
price for the ability to see a bunch of awesome animals and go through the
crazy tunnel tanks? Yes.
After the aquarium, we just wandered around the mall and got
all touristy. We were there for around two or three hours, and probably went
into four stores. One of which was a new-ish store I discovered called Typo,
where I finally found Washi tape! It is just a small store filled with stationery
and other items like that – think a bit of an Urban Outfitters vibe about it –
and the cashier was awesome and gave me a huge discount for a reason I still
don’t know! And I got this awesome metal water bottle for $5 with my purchase.
Can’t go wrong. After that was the obligatory trip to Lush, and that was about
it!
Out of the three sushi places in the mall, we decided on a
small one on the second floor called Tiger Sushi. It was so great! One place
advertised ‘American Sushi’, which doesn’t even sound good for a second, and
the other seemed a bit too upper crust for what we wanted to pay for a lunch. If
you’re at the Mall of America and want sushi, I would definitely, hands down,
tell you to check out Tiger Sushi.
Making record time and getting out of the mall at around
12:00, we decided to check out the Como Zoo and Observatory – a free attraction
in Minneapolis.
Parking was atrocious so we decided to take the shuttle, which was no problem
at all. Donated a few dollars at the door and walked around with the families,
but were feeling a little disappointed (mostly at how everyone else was
acting), so went to the Observatory instead. So many fewer people and such
awesome stuff to see! Mike was a little disappointed because their Japanese Garden was closed for renovations, but I
told him we’ll have to go back again and see it when it’s finished.
I was getting a bit tired of being around crowds at that
point, so we just opted to drive around and find places (mostly yarn stores and
auto shops), and then wound up back at the hotel for a few hours before setting
out for dinner.
We decided on Psycho Suzi’s Motor Lounge, a restaurant that
we found through random searches on our phones. Our food was great and came out
quick – it was sad to leave half of it there but we got so full so fast! Only
thing I would say I would change would be the waitstaff – our waiter was kind
of a jerk.
Sunday was nothing more than a ride home, taking the long
way to go to Herrschner’s craft factory in Steven’s Point, and in order for
Mike to get his quick driving bug out of the way via the Kettle Moraine Scenic Drive. We got home
at around 6:00 PM, both exhausted, but glad to have had the weekend we did,
because it was absolutely great.
It reminded me that it can’t be all work and no play – there
has to be a break in the monotony sometime. It was so nice to get out of town
for just a couple of days.
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