I almost didn’t make it to Minneapolis. Thunderstorms caused my London-Chicago flight to be diverted to Detroit, and I missed my connection to Minnesota. But I eventually got on a later flight, and arrived in The Land of 10,000 Lakes.
My first stop after landing was the rental car desks. CarRentals.co.uk had offered me a car for my Minnesota road trip, and the people at Alamo set me up with no problems. I even got upgraded since my flight delay caused me to arrive so late that they were out of two-door cars. Sweet.
For the next two days, I explored Stillwater and Red Wing, idyllic towns on the Wisconsin border. Then I made my way back to Minneapolis for my cousin’s wedding.
But I stopped in neighboring Bloomington first. Why? Because that’s where the Mall of America is, and being American, I couldn’t resist a ginormous mall.
The visitors bureau must have known this, because they put me up in the Best Western Plus Bloomington Hotel, which was right next to the mall. Being a Londoner, I couldn’t resist not driving.
As soon as I arrived, I found myself facing a multi-story tower of Lego. It sat in front of a roller coaster, which was surrounded by some of the billions of stores. The place was impressively huge, and reminded me a lot of the Dubai Mall, which I visited in March.
But the main reason for my trip to the Mall of America wasn’t shopping. It wasn’t a roller coaster ride, either. It was a family reunion. Yes, you’re allowed to laugh.
For some reason, everyone in my family needed to buy something, and rather than wait until we were back in our respective home cities, we all congregated at the mall. The Mall of America is the one shopping center in the USA for which this can be justified. It’s the Mall. Of. America. After all.
After joyful greetings and lots of shopping, we piled onto the light rail to get to Minneapolis. 30 minutes later, we were having lunch with aunts, uncles, and cousins at Zelo on Nicollet Mall.
And several hours after that, we were all at my cousin’s wedding, a beautiful and exciting celebration that went late into the night.
Early in the morning, I was awake and off to the airport, but I wasn’t traveling back to London just yet. No, I was leaving Minnesota for Montana and Yellowstone National Park. To be continued…
