Day 43 (The land of the 3-days-long vowels)
Day 43
August 3, 2006
Mall of America
Heavy dew fell in central Minnesota last night, giving the grass and all other surfaces a delicate, silvery sheen. There was even some mist in the early morning air. We are definitely closer to home!
The day dawned cloudless and chilly (60 degrees), the bright sun streaming into the east side of our trailer. Elliot and Frank woke up early and read their books while Sessy and Emily slept a bit longer.
Simply put, the Mall of America (MOA) is a retail Mecca with 520 stores on four levels plus the nation’s largest indoor amusement park. Built near the airport on the land formerly occupied by Metropolitan Stadium, where the Twins played before their current Metrodome was built, the mall has a simple, practical, yet attractive design. Basically, it’s a square; there are four, 4-story legs with open atria lined on both sides with stores (like every other mall in America). 
Department stores, Bloomingdale’s, Macy’s, Sears, and Nordstrom, are located at the four corners of the square, and the courtyard, also four stories tall and enclosed by a glass roof, 
contains the amusement park, complete with a flume ride, 2 roller coasters, Ferris wheel and many other smaller rides. Wrist bands for the amusement park cost $25 each.
In the morning, Frank took the kids on the rides while Sessy shopped. We met up for lunch at the Rain Forest Café, complete with robotic animals, mist, and thunderstorm/rain effects.
Sessy said that although most of the national chain stores were represented at MOA, she was disappointed that some weren’t. In general, MOA was not as high-end as the Mall in Columbia.
While at Super Target last night and again today at the Mall of America, we heard lots of long vowels— especially O’s, but E’s and A’s as well. Elliot has the accent down and spent some time in the car on the way to the mall amusing us with his antics. Just like in the movie “Fargo,” it’s not just the accent, but word choices, sentence structures and nouns, that combine to make Upper Midwest speech so endearing. “Sack 
(grocery bag),” “Buggy (shopping cart),” “Ramp (parking garage)” and “Pop (soda)” are commonly used. We were hoping to hear an “Any who ha” or a “Yah sure, you bet” today, but, unfortunately, didn’t. Elliot did hear a “You betcha” near the Lake Woebegone Store on the third level, north side.
We left the mall at 4 PM and went to an airport park near Minneapolis-St. Paul International where we watched planes, mostly Northwest because it’s a hub, land and take off.
We then drove to a huge and beautiful outdoor municipal swimming pool in Apple Valley, near our campground, where we swam before returning to the trailer. While driving back to the campground, we turned over 7,000 miles since leaving home.
August 3, 2006
Mall of America
Heavy dew fell in central Minnesota last night, giving the grass and all other surfaces a delicate, silvery sheen. There was even some mist in the early morning air. We are definitely closer to home!
The day dawned cloudless and chilly (60 degrees), the bright sun streaming into the east side of our trailer. Elliot and Frank woke up early and read their books while Sessy and Emily slept a bit longer.
Simply put, the Mall of America (MOA) is a retail Mecca with 520 stores on four levels plus the nation’s largest indoor amusement park. Built near the airport on the land formerly occupied by Metropolitan Stadium, where the Twins played before their current Metrodome was built, the mall has a simple, practical, yet attractive design. Basically, it’s a square; there are four, 4-story legs with open atria lined on both sides with stores (like every other mall in America). 
Department stores, Bloomingdale’s, Macy’s, Sears, and Nordstrom, are located at the four corners of the square, and the courtyard, also four stories tall and enclosed by a glass roof, 
contains the amusement park, complete with a flume ride, 2 roller coasters, Ferris wheel and many other smaller rides. Wrist bands for the amusement park cost $25 each.In the morning, Frank took the kids on the rides while Sessy shopped. We met up for lunch at the Rain Forest Café, complete with robotic animals, mist, and thunderstorm/rain effects.
Sessy said that although most of the national chain stores were represented at MOA, she was disappointed that some weren’t. In general, MOA was not as high-end as the Mall in Columbia.
While at Super Target last night and again today at the Mall of America, we heard lots of long vowels— especially O’s, but E’s and A’s as well. Elliot has the accent down and spent some time in the car on the way to the mall amusing us with his antics. Just like in the movie “Fargo,” it’s not just the accent, but word choices, sentence structures and nouns, that combine to make Upper Midwest speech so endearing. “Sack 
(grocery bag),” “Buggy (shopping cart),” “Ramp (parking garage)” and “Pop (soda)” are commonly used. We were hoping to hear an “Any who ha” or a “Yah sure, you bet” today, but, unfortunately, didn’t. Elliot did hear a “You betcha” near the Lake Woebegone Store on the third level, north side.We left the mall at 4 PM and went to an airport park near Minneapolis-St. Paul International where we watched planes, mostly Northwest because it’s a hub, land and take off.
We then drove to a huge and beautiful outdoor municipal swimming pool in Apple Valley, near our campground, where we swam before returning to the trailer. While driving back to the campground, we turned over 7,000 miles since leaving home.
posted by Hazzard Family | 20:40
1 Comments:
This is where I vacationed each summer during my youth; all of those family reunions my mom's family had were on one of those lakes (Lake Okoboji). Now you can envision it. And now know why teens have a hard time visiting there - there's nothing to do and nowhere to go.
~ Beth
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