The Mall of America

Had to happen sooner or later -- one of us got sick. That would be me. I have no idea if it was something I ate, or a bug, but I felt like death warmed over for several hours last night. Mother Nature didn't feel much better. Around 10 o'clock, the owner of the campground was going around to all the sites saying that the sheriff had just stopped in to let him know that trucks were being blown off the interstate near Fargo because of a nasty thunderstorm. If we wanted, we could go take refuge in the (cinderblock) washroom building until the storm passed. I really didn't feel like leaving the bed, so we stayed behind. There was some wind, and a good bit of rain, but the worst of it apparently passed us by. The storm was still going on in my innards, and that kept me up until after 1 a.m! By morning however, all was well again, both with me and the weather!

I woke up about 8 or so -- sleeping in for me these days! -- and made a pot of coffee. Since we only had about a 3 hour journey today, I decided to let Ger sleep for a bit. When he finally rolled out, we took our time packing up and left the campground around 11:30 a.m. Late start for us! I hadn't eaten anything and my belly was reminding me of that fact, so we stopped for fuel about halfway through the trip, and I got some salt and grease into my system, courtesy of McDonalds. Gotta love salty fries on a tender tummy!

We pulled into the Lebanon Hills Park Campground around 3:00 p.m., got set up and then headed out for the Mall of America. The guy working in the campground office told me it's smaller than West Ed -- and he's been to both. He's right, it's smaller, but it's still impressive in its own right! The amusement park in the middle of the mall is quite amazing. My son would love the roller coaster that pivots in all directions as it goes around the track. My tum was getting queasy again just watching! Then there was the Lego store, with the huge Lego sculptures on the roof.

Just outside the store, there was a play area with several tables of blocks for kids of all ages to (re)discover their inner child. We could just imagine our son-in-law there, playing with his daughter! I apologize for the quality of the photos -- someone (who shall remain nameless) forgot to check the battery in the camera and couldn't even take one photo with it! All the pics we have are off my Blackberry. Oops.

I did have to chuckle when we realized the Microsoft store is right across from the Apple store. People walking from one store to the other; both stores seemed to be quite busy. We checked out some prices, and the actual numbers are the same here as what they are at home. Which means it's *gasp* cheaper at home, because the tax here is 6.25%, where at home, we just have the 5% GST. I did have to check out Nordstroms, Nordstrom Rack, and Coldwater Creek, just because those stores haven't yet made it to Canada. Soon, though, from what I hear!

We stopped for dinner at the mall in a restaurant called Cadillac Ranch. The food was good; typical burger/steak/salad type stuff -- rather hard to screw up. We did amuse ourselves watching a couple women try to ride the mechanical bull. Ger tried to talk me into trying. I think the boy has been driving to much -- his brain has gone mushy!

Now we're back at our motorhome, and Ger has a buddy visiting him. Looks like we might be in for some more thunderbumpers tonight. It will be an early night though because tomorrow looks to be about 7 hours of driving as we head east and north to Escanaba, MI, on the shores of Lake Michigan. Three more sleeps until we're at Lindsay!