Thanksgiving '12

Last year we started a new Learish family tradition.  We take the family on a little mini trip somewhere.  Last year we visited Chicago and this year we headed to Minneapolis.  We got off to a pretty late start on Wednesday and had to call the hotel so they would not give our room away.  As we pulled into the city it was like a ghost town!  No cars or people.  It was almost eeerrrryyy.  Then I saw "the fishy building".  It was a HUGE sky scrapper building and the top like 10 floors was all lite up like a fish tank!  The fish were swimming around and it looked very real.  I tried to take some pictures of it but my camera did not have the proper settings to do it.  Anyway, we got checked in and headed to our room.  We were on the 22nd floor and as luck would have it, we have the perfect view of the fishy building!  The kids were pretty wound up at this point but we all managed to go to bed.

Click to see a video of the fishy building (Target Building).

Thanksgiving day we had planned on going to the Mall of America to see Lego Land and the Aquarium but when we double checked the web site it said they were closed on Thanksgiving day.  So, plan B.  It was such a super nice day we decided to take a walking tour of an art garden that was close to the hotel.

This is Acacia trying to eat the extra large cherry we found on this enormous spoon.

After the park we walked back to the hotel for our Thanksgiving meal.  The hotel had this KILLER spread!  All the appetizers, salads, shrimp, cheese and crackers, etc were on a buffet. We just helped ourselves and when we were ready for the main course we just let the server know.  They brought out family style turkey platter, mashed potatoes, stuffing, gravy  green beans, etc.  It was just like being at home (but no cooking or cleaning)!!  They kept bringing out more and more until we said we were done.  Then it was back to the dessert buffet.  Once we had our fill and asked for the check the server realized we were hotel guests and told us that he would save us a bunch of left overs so we could have turkey sandwiches or whatever later that night or tomorrow.  He also set aside an entire apple pie for us!!  We must have done something really nice because the also gave us two free in room movie passes!!

In an attempt to burn off some of the tryptophan we just consumed we walked to the river to see this amazing Stone Bridge and then go ice skating.  It started snowing while we were ice skating (like blizzard like conditions) and our walk back was a bit chilly!!

We took advantage of the swimming pool, hot tub and sauna before retiring to our room for more turkey, apple pie and an in room movie and then off to bed!

Day two - BLACK FRIDAY!  Of course, this is the day we go to the Mall of America. Once we arrived and found the Aquarium we realized that it was in fact open the day before.  This was a bit of an irritation but we got past it since the weather was so nice the day before for our walk through the park.  The aquarium was pretty cool with this super long under water tunnel.  We were allowed to go through as many times as we wanted and ended up going through at least three times.

Underwater tunnel

This is Chris at the Lego wall in Lego Land.

We spent the entire day at the mall.  Between the Aquarium (part of the mall), the indoor theme park (ride all day wrist bands), Lego Land and the least amount of actually shopping I've ever done at a mall we filled the entire day, easy.  Back to the hotel for more swimming, movies, etc .... 

At the hotel, in the lobby.

Day Three - we checked out of the hotel and walked to Macy's to see Santa Land.  WOW!  This was like It's a Small World but with a Christmas theme.  We were not in a boat either ... We walked through these amazing scenes of Christmas.  Then watched a puppet show.

Macy's Christmas Land

Hay!  It's a requirement to get your photo with Santa!

After Christmas Land, we drove back to the river to go to the Mill City Museum.  THIS was sooooo cool!  What an amazing piece of history!  We started with a tour of the mill by sitting in a huge freight elevator that traveled 8 floors.  Each stop educated us on a different part of the mill and the history of it.  I never knew that flour dust was highly flammable ....

Biggest box of Bisquick I ever saw.

On our way home we stopped at a Best Buy and spent a bit of money on some tech stuff as we thought there was not sales tax in the state of MN.  Turns out, there is.  But, we bought stuff anyway!  :)

To see the slide show of all the pictures from our trip, click this link.

Slideshow of Minneapolis