Vacation Day 3- Minneapolis (Mall of America)

June 15th 2012- Day 3 of Vacation- Mall Day!!

Day 3 of the trip was planned to be the dedicated Mall of America day.  So after breakfast in the hotel we headed across the street to start the mall fun.  It took as about 3 hours to go through the entire mall.  We went to many sports stores, we love looking for stuff with obscure team names on them such as a random San Diego Charges onesie in Illinois.  They had these cool piggy banks designed like the sports teams and I want the Phillie one.  Unfortunately they only had the huge one in the mall and I wanted the little one. 

Also my hunt for random college team clothes at the semi annual Victoria's Secret sale was a bust.  But I did get 3 new skirts at NY&CO, cool Twins undies at Victoria's Secret with my $10 birthday card, Lion King 3D blueray, and a few other things.

For lunch I got my free birthday meal from Noodles and Co.  After that we went back to the hotel and I went and sat in the hot tub for awhile.  For dinner it was back to the mall and a yummy meal at Buffalo Wild Wings.  We even played the trivia game there and watched lots of baseball. 

PhiPhan that's me.  I even won a round

They had my favorite soda machine so I got Strawberry Sprite Zero then Peach

After dinner it was back to the pool for a bit then we watched a little tv before heading to bed.  For tomorrow we would leave Minneapolis and head to our next destination, Madison WI. Badger town!

Vacation Day 2- Minneapolis, MN

June 14th, 2012 Day 2 of Vacation.

Day 2 started out with breakfast in the hotel at 9am.  I had yummy Belgium waffles that were both regular and chocolate.  Afterwards we headed back to the room and relax in which I promptly fell asleep.  After a little while we decided to get up and head to the pool for a few hours.  Then we headed for the 5-8s Club for our first every Juicy Lucy's.  This is where you take two pattys of beef and put melted cheese in the middle.  It was so good.  Both Man versus Food and Food Wars have been to this restaurant.  It used to be a speakeasy back in the prohibition days.

 I got the blue cheese Juicy Lucy and Justin had the Cheddar, we split the Onion Strings, very tasty!

After a quick trip to Super Target (Minneapolis is the home to Target) it was off to prepare for the Phillies/ Twins game. 

Richfield Super Target

Now this day it rained... A LOT.  So I was very worried the game would get cancelled.  None the less we put on our Phillies gear and headed to the lobby to board the bus to the train station.  In the lobby we met some people we had seen at the pool the night before that were from Alaska and their cousin played for the Phillies.  All 19 (20 with Phil) of us got on the Best Western bus and headed to the 28th street Hiawatha Station.

Waiting to board the Hiawatha

Hiawatha

Where the Vikings play

Train ride was only about 40 minutes and it went pretty smooth.  We got to Target Field and pretty much walked right in.  First stop was to one of these cool little booth Best Buy had set up where you can get a free photo taken.  I did it twice.

The one I did during the game

The one I did before the game

I liked the ball park and all but I felt it was lacking some of the charm parks like Citizens Bank and Miller Park had.  Maybe because it was still new but we'll see what happens in the future. 

Go Phillies!

T.C. Bear

I did like the little Minnesota sign that lit up when the Twins hit a home run.

Thankfully in the end the Phillies won, this continues our streak of 3 Phillies games and 3 wins.  After we got back from the Hiawatha to the 28th street station we had to wait almost 45 minutes for the hotel bus to pick us up which was no fun.  We did run into a couple who were also Phillie phans from Iowa and talked to them because their hotel also abandoned them.  After we got back we watched Gabriel Iglesias' stand up on comedy central, he is a pretty funny dude.  I feel also when the roast of William Shatner Roast began.

Our Vacation Day 1- Minneapolis, MN

 I have a lot to say about vacation so I will create one post for each day.  Mainly because they are super picture heavy.  Enjoy!

June 13th, 2012: Time for the much anticipated vacation to finally begin!  We headed on the road at 9:30am on Wednesday with our final destination being Minneapolis, MN, well the suburb of Bloomington.  A place Justin has been to once 15 years ago and I have never been.  I started reading a pretty good book on the way call the Night Circus.  

I am not super far into it but so far it is a pretty good read.  About 3/4 the way there we stopped for lunch in Black River Falls at KFC.  Now you might think this is weird but this indeed was my first trip to KFC.  I had a grilled chicken sandwich which was pretty good.  This one had a buffet and on that buffet was fried okra, needless to say I was disappointed you had to buy the buffet to get the okra, damn.  

This was inside the KFC

We finally pulled into Bloomington, MN around 3:30pm that afternoon.  We stayed at a very nice hotel called the Best Western Plus, it certainly exceeded my expectation.  I got a good deal on it at only $119, this seemed really reasonable because it was directly across from the mall and it had a pool and full complementary breakfast.

After we checked in we walked across the street to the largest mall in America... the Mall of America!!

Our hotel was right outside the Macy's so it was a simple walk right across the way.  At first I did not realize how big the mall was.  The area near the Macy's is only 2 floors.  Then you turn a corner and it is 4 stories high.  Then you see the amusement park, which is unbelievable. 

Microsoft Store

Lego Store

Spongebob Statue

Spongebob!

Flying Dutchman

I really wanted to see Spongebob while we were there, I always loved the cartoons and was so happy when I got to see him.  Some of the fun stores we went to were the Vikings Store:

Not a Viking Fan but the hat was fun.

This sports store seemed to be where all the Giants v Patriots left over tee shirts went to die.

and the Peeps store where I got my mom this haul:

She should be set for awhile with 8 boxes worth.

I also got these two charms from Fossil.  I really wanted the lobster and I did not even know they had the NYC one.

We only spent a few hours at the mall since I knew we were going back Friday.  For dinner I had Quiznos and Justin got Burgerking.  After the mall we headed back to the hotel to go relax in the pool and hot tub.  This awesome indoor pool was part of the reason I picked this hotel and it was worth it!

It had a kiddie pool with zero deepth, a full size adult pool, and a 14 person hot tub all indoors.  We just relaxed there for a few hours then headed to bed to watch XMen First Class, it was pretty good.