Can't wait to go back

Maybe it wasn't the vacation to Miami or Myrtle Beach Doug and I talked about before I lost my job, but Minneapolis was the perfect place for a mini-vacation before Allie comes. Its just a shame we didn't have enough time (or money) to do more.

Doug and I loved Minneapolis, though the interstate system and driving there in general was very confusing. I'm not sure what we would have done if we didn't have our GPS.

First thing on Friday, we headed to the Mall of America. We wanted to go to the aquarium there, which was supposed to be the largest.

Well, it wasn't the largest aquarium itself but the largest of with the walkways through the water, like at Sea World. I guess I should have realized that, since its called Underwater Adventures. That was fine, but for the price, we were kind of disappointed that it only took about 45 minutes to get through it.

We did see a lot of cool things though, including display of seahorses, which I'm not sure I've ever actually seen before.

Also pictured above is a stingray and a sawnose shark, at least I think thats what it was called.

After the aquarium, our mission was dinner. We couldn't believe all the restaurants there were to choose from in this mall. We had a pamphlet listing everything in the mall and there were so many stores to choose from for just dessert! There were three Starbucks and many other multiples. We chose a place called Kokomo's Island Cafe for dinner.

And after dinner we did a lap around the mall, on the third and fourth floors. It was just one lap total, thats all we had energy for. The view from the third floor was really neat. Check this out:

At the Lego store, they had a bunch of huge lego creations hanging from the ceiling.

They had small planters of grass lining each floor in some places. That wasn't really something we were expecting to see.

In the middle is the theme park, Nickolodeon Universe. We knew about the theme park in the middle of the mall, but it was quite a sight to see. There were a lot of rides crammed in this space! Doug tried telling me the mall wasn't that big, but he finally changed his mind.

Unfortunately I accidentally wore my flip flops to the mall on Friday night. Here's what walking a lap around the Mall of America does to feet wearing flip flops that are already swollen anyway!

It was nice to get off my feet, for sure.

On Saturday morning, we started with a sightseeing and lock cruise on the Mississippi.

The highlight of the cruise was that we actually traveled through one of the locks. The Upper St. Anthony Falls Lock and Dam is the largest lock on the river. It took us down and then up 50 feet. It was really cool and made up for the disappointment of the aquarium.

This picture was taken from the bottom of the lock. The boat went into the lock and was tied up, doors closed and then the water drained out of it to take us down. The line at the top of the picture above was the water line where we started.

Once the water was drained out, the doors on the other side of the lock opened and the boat sailed out. The cruise took us a little farther down the river, then we turned around and went up back through the lock.

There's this big old stone pedestrian bridge that is part of a network of recreational paths through the Riverfront District. People stood on the bridge to watch boats go through the locks. The water fall behind the bridge is part of the lock and dam.

Here's a view of the skyline from the cruise. We drove around downtown on Sunday morning.

After the cruise, Doug and I used the recreational path to walk down to the other end of the Riverfront District, where we had lunch and did some more walking around. It was exhausting but also very cool. We walked a total of about three miles.

Part of the path was on a little island, called Nicollet Island, very picturesque.

We walked down on that pedestrian bridge and got some really neat pictures of the lock and the skyline.

This is part of the Riverfront District. The umbrellas are part of the restaurant where we ate lunch, called Tuggs Tavern. It was a bit slow, but Doug and I enjoyed relaxing outside on such a nice day, though I did end up with a little sunburn. Who worries about sunburn in late September?

Minneapolis was so pretty and there's so much to do. Doug and I are looking forward to going back, and bringing Allie with us!