Today we left the cheese state and had a 5 hour drive into Minneapolis, Minnesota to see The Mall of America! It was Sunday, so we had to be sure to get there in enough time for Brett to shop for his new "interview clothes" before they closed at 7pm.
This was the Indy 500 race day and the son of Rich’s good friend qualified as a rookie to race!! We pulled into a rest stop along the way to fix lunch and try to see the last ½ hour or so of the race. NO TV SIGNAL!!!!!!!!! So, we got on the phone and had a blow by blow update of the race from my sister, Barb. Way to go Barb, you saved the day J Long story short; JR Hildebrand was in the leading pack for most of the race, was in 1st place by 3 seconds going into the final lap of the race, just short of the finish line he hit the wall! A car passed him, but he was able to limp over the finish on three wheels!!! It was second place for JR. As a friend of ours was quoted to say at that very moment, “That was a 10 million dollar wall”! So close, but what a race! Way to go JR!!!!!!!
We packed up from lunch and continued to Prior Lake, MN where we found a campground for the night. We parked the RV, jumped into Brett’s car, and drove into Minneapolis. We had a little more than two hours before the mall closed so we headed right to H&M. He found the perfect outfit! Be ready Apple Execs, Brett is ready for you!! I know it goes without saying, but this is a HUGE mall! As soon as we walked in, we were faced with a zig-zaging escalator that went up 5 floors! It has over 520 stores, and 50 restaurants, free shuttles to hotels and the airport, a Nickelodeon Universal theme park with 24 rides, an underwater aquarium, flight simulators and a 14 theater multi-plex! It is the largest fully enclosed retail and family entertainment complex in the world. Some fun facts; 7 Yankee Stadiums would fit inside the mall, built with over 13,500 tons of steel (more than twice that of the Eifel Tower), it has over 30,000 live plants and more than 400 live trees in the theme park area alone!
When the mall closed, we went into downtown Minneapolis to see what it was like and to find a place for dinner. We were surprised to see so many corporate headquarters in one place, especially in Minnesota! The buildings here represent some of the most interesting architecture that we have seen. For the most part, the downtown seemed deserted, maybe because it was late on a Sunday night. We found a really nice Indian restaurant, the “Bombay Bistro”. Not sure if Lindsey was a big fan, but the rest of us chowed down!
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