Shopping at the Mall

We were so happy that we were going to be in the same room for two days in a row. This is the first time this vacation that we have not had to pack up and move out. We enjoyed a great breakfast in the hotel dining room.

We are staying at a Ramada that is right across the street from the Mall of America. However, you can tell that this hotel was not originally a Ramada. It was formerly the Thunderbird Lodge. The cross street is Thunderbird Drive. The shower has a Thunderbird design on one of the tiles. The outside doors have a Thunderbird logo etched into them. The hotel dining room has an Indian type oven in the middle of it. But, the best thing, is the names of the rooms. There is the Arapaho Suite, the Choctaw Suite, the Comanche Suite, the Chippewa Room, the Cherokee Room, the Navajo Room, the Pawnee Room, and, best of the all, the Peace Pipe Gift Shop with doors made to look like bows with arrows in them. We are having fun enjoying our surroundings.

We went over the mall around 11:00 am, thinking that we would stay for a couple of hours and then go back to the room for some relaxation and maybe a nap. The next thing we knew it was after 6:00 pm!

What did we do all that time?

We shopped level two.
We had a diet coke break at Subway.
Christie purchased a piece of artwork - it is a bronze sculpture of a small boy in a tree, lying back, reading a book. It will go well with her other pieces of "people reading".
Christie and Lorie had their hair cut and styled at the salon in the mall.
Elizabeth purchased an American Girl doll, Emma Lee Grace (Emily)
We had tea at the American Girl doll bistro - this was such a fun experience.
We shopped level one.
We had a diet coke break at Cinnabon (this one included a snack of Cinnabons!)
Christie and Elizabeth both wanted to purchase something at Barnes and Noble because both of them had gift certificates and they thought it would be fun to get something from there while at Mall of America, but neither of them could find anything, so they are waiting. Maybe they will find a Barnes and Noble further down the road.

It was a fun, full day. We did a little planning tonight for the rest of our trip. Tomorrow we will be in Wisconsin. We still aren't sure which way we are going. If we take one route, we can visit another Laura Ingalls Wilder site - the location of the little house in the big woods. If we go the other way, we can visit a replica of an 1890s logging camp. We decided we will decide in the morning.

We hope you all are doing well!