So, we said goodbye to Wisconsin and started driving west towards Minnesota. When I think of Minnesota, I think of when I was in college and even though I can't remember who was from Minnesota, I remember thinking people from there seem to be really nice. The second thing I think of is Mall of America. I remember women from work taking a girl's vacation to go shopping there. The world's largest mall? Well, what good is it if you don't have money to spend?
Nonetheless, I like malls. I like window shopping, looking at what's in style and getting ideas for what have you!
We checked into a hotel for the evening and then headed over to the mall to get some dinner and look around. We did have some shopping to do, like swim trunks for Patrick. The Mall of America seemed to look like any other mall I've seen, just plus-sized. We walked around the many floors and the multiple food court areas.
After we ate dinner, we found a Marshall's and bought the swim trunks for Patrick. The kids found a mirror maze. Tommy and Anne both wanted to spend some of their money getting through the maze together. They took the video camera with them. They had a lot of fun. Afterwards, we found a toy store where the kids had some fun buying things with their own money.
Then we decided to stop by the Nickelodeon amusement park that was right smack in the middle of the mall. I couldn't believe they crammed roller coasters in a mall. Since Anne just did a zip line ride at the zoo, she found another zip line adventure where you are harnessed and you walk across many rope courses and basically try not to fall. Also, you are high above ground - of course! Joe, Tommy and Anne did this together. The rest of us watched. Joe & Tommy were more timid than Anne and finished a bit earlier. Anne kept on going and had a blast.
The little ones found a ride they could do. I believe it was bumper cars? Geesh, don't remember.
We all went back to the hotel. The kids played with their new toys while also getting ready for bed.
Bye, Mall of America.
We woke up, loaded our van and headed west toward South Dakota. We were headed towards the Porter Sculpture Park in Montrose, SD. I've never heard of this place nor did I even pay attention to the itinerary when we stopped in the middle of no where surrounded by miles of long green grass. In the middle of no where appeared these art sculptures made of metal.
The pieces of art were sculpted out of metal by Wayne Porter. He learned to weld in his father's blacksmith shop as a child and now has his art displayed in the middle of no where off of I-90 exit 374! We stopped to check it out. The weather was so beautiful! It was late afternoon where the sun is just golden. The wind was blowing a warm breeze and the skies were blue. The best part was being surrounded by miles of green!
I have to say, his art is really odd but interesting. Made of mostly junk metal, he came up with some of these sculptures.
A giant hammer. Odd, huh?
I wonder what his inspiration was here?
This one, I get.
This one seemed to be the most prominent sculpture.
Some of them were a little disturbing, but fun to imitate.
I think this one was my favorite - I like happy.
I think of Sting's Field's of Gold when I look at this picture.
Ahhh, so beautiful! I don't get to see this every day.
We all got into our very messy van. We trashed it! I wish I took a picture of it. Our next stop was Murdo, SD and Wall, SD not too far away from each other. We were going to 1880's Town, Wall Drug and the Badlands!!
