She's gonna make it after all!

Hi Friends!
After a very fun and rewarding week in Wibaux, Montana, Loretta and I were headed to Minneapolis, Minnesota. We have been from one small town to the next and it was soooooo nice to be near civilization, stores, movie theatres and a place that had internet. Don't get me wrong, small towns can be nice but sometimes a girl just needs a trip to Target. Haha! I was also excited to go to Minnesota. I really don't know why. I think it might be because I know this girl who is from Minnesota and used to always talk about how it was such a cool place. I wanted to see it for myself. On the way to Minneapolis we drove through the "Bad Lands" again and saw The World's Largest Buffalo and some of The World's Largest Public Art. It's amazing some of the random things we see on the road.

We stayed at this REALLY cheap hotel called the Travelodge in Burnsville, Mn which was 5 minutes outside of Minneapolis. We didn't have any high hopes for where we were stayinging since it was $30 a night but this place was actually really nice. Surprise! Once we got settled in it was off to bed for us girls. Tommorrow was a big day we were going to the Mall of America!

We had to get all gussied up to go to the mall I mean c'mon it's the MALL. We wanted to look like we had style. That morning I felt like I was in the 7th grade again, getting ready to go to the mall with my friends. Haha! That was the cool thing to do in Lynchburg. You got dressed up in your coolest duds just in case you saw someone you knew from your grade which you ALWAYS did. Ha! We found a parking space and the proceeded to go inside. We soon saw why this place was soon categorized as the largest mall in America.


THIS PLACE WAS HUGE!!!

 

There were four floors jam packed with stores and not just your typical stores like claires which can be found at any other mall but really cool and different stores that you wouldn't find anywhere else. One of the first ones we went into was this cowboy place. They sold everything from cowboy boots to chaps to John Wayne coffee mugs. Pretty cool. I love stores like that but Forever 21 will always be one of my favs. Not only was there every store you could imagine but the food court was AWESOME!

There was the typical chinese and pretzel places but there was a Bubba Gumps and fancy restaurants with expensive menus. We went to this cool place called Kokomos Island Cafe, which my Dad would have loved, for dinner. There was also an amusement park and a Lego land inside the mall! We didn't want to spend our money on that when we can buy CLOTHES! We did however go to the Sea Life Aquarium where we saw all kinds of sea life. My favorite was the sea horses. :) We pretty much covered all of the mall on our first day but we went back a second day just to make sure we covered all our bases. Plus we had to finish buying souvenirs for our families just to make them jealous. HA! Just kidding!

The next day I really wanted to go for a run. I ended up going to downtown Minneapolis, good decision. :) The one thing that was dumb about downtown Minneapolis is one theres no parking spots and IF you find one you have to pay at least $6 for two hours. Not this girl! I ended up finding this sort of Jiffy Lube place and just parked the truck there. I guess I got away with it because they were closed until noon and I got there early in the morning and if someone was there they probably thought Ranger Rooney was supposed to be there. Nope, fooled ya Minnesotians! I went for about a two hour jog but I took a lot of pictures so it wasn't that bad.

I found the Mary Tyler Moore statue in front of Macys and took a picture. I'm really proud of this pic, not gonna lie. I feel as if tour has made me a better photographer. You decide. I ran wherever my little heart lead me and it was so nice. I couldn't have picked a better day, it was nice outside. I even went and checked out the Target Field Stadium where the Twins play. I'm not a Twins fan but this place was pretty cool. There were all these statues of past baseball players for the twins and all sorts of public art. I then noticed that there were these guys planting flowers and where going in and out the actual gate that lead to the field. I used my "womanly ways" to get a quick look and picture of the field. It worked! Now I feel like I HAVE to become a Twins fan because the people there were so nice. We'll see. . . :)

If I could sum up the rest of our stay in Minneapolis I would only need to say 4 words: "Panera Bread" and "Movie Theatre". I did take a Zumba class one after eating all those wonderful calories at Panera but other than that not much else happend. We love Panera! I introduced Panera to Loretta while we were in Texas and she loves it too. That week we saw "Mirror Mirror" and "21 Jump Street" both were entertaining and fun. We almost went and saw "Titanic" in 3D but we instead opted for watching silly teen movies in our hotel room. I will say the place we went to watch movies was pretty cool. There were all these greek looking statues all over the lobby. Epic.

For our last night in Minneapolis, Loretta and I went out to see if we could find a place to sing Karaoke. I wasn't really in the mood to sing that night besides I had to watch out for Creeper Creep who wouldn't leave Loretta alone that night. I however recieved a flower from a homeless man but it was then stolen and given to another girl by one of the guys who was talking to us earlier that night. It was just a carnation but STILL!!! Haha!

Minneapolis was a very cool place to visit. I don't know if I'll go back and visit but who knows where the Lord will lead me. I do know that the girl I know was right. Minnesota IS a cool place but I don't know if it's as cool as Virginia. :)

-Jen