Meet Me at the Mall - July 5, 2010

We set our alarm for the first time this vacation because we wanted to be on the road by 8:00 - we were actually pulling out of the hotel parking lot at 7:45 am. (Are you impressed, Uncle Wes?) Because we were all tired, Elizabeth's backseat "cave" became a sleeping place. Each of us slept for about a third of the drive. It worked, because we were all wide awake and ready to go when we arrived at the Mall of America at around 1:00 pm.

We parked and walked in and were immediately bombarded by the sights and sounds of the mall. Elizabeth said it was like South Coast Plaza on steroids. We had called our friend, Gary, who lives about an hour from the Mall, when we were thirty miles from our destination. We called him now and told him where we had parked. He said he would meet us in about 20 minutes. We went to the American Girl Doll store (our reason for visiting the Mall of America) and began to look around. Gary met us there and we all decided to go eat some lunch.

The Mall of America has more shops, places to eat, little kiosks, etc. than a person would think possible. Over the next few hours, we ate lunch and walked and talked around two floors of the mall. We took a break and went and checked into our hotel room and talked some more. We really enjoyed seeing Gary. It is funny - we have gone several years without seeing each other and this year, we have seen each other twice - earlier this year when Gary was visiting his mother in California and now. We were so sorry that Gary's wife was not home, but she was with their daughter in Idaho. We went back to the mall for dinner at Famous Dave's. Gary had eaten there before and he recommended the family meal. It was served on a trash can lid and had some of everything they serve. It was so tasty and an unbelievable amount of food. Luckily, Gary has a sixteen-year-old son at home who will eat the leftovers!

It was a wonderful day of visiting with an old friend and enjoying being together.

On top of that, we were in a new state that none of us had been in before, we saw some beautiful lakes, and we enjoyed a short walk in the woods at one of the rest areas. Life is good!