Minnesota, the land of 10,000 lakes, was a quick stop for us on our way back West to be at a business meeting in Idaho. Our things to do list initially included visiting Itasca State Park, Paul Bunyan’s birthplace in Akelely, the Bakken Library, and Walnut Grove to the childhood home of Little House on the Prairie author. The one activity we made it to though was The Mall of America. It was a blast.
Mall of America
This mall is huge and we didn’t even shop. For those of you who don’t know, there is a full-on amusement park inside, in the middle of the mall. Nickelodeon Universe.
We went straight to the attractions. The hardest part for me was deciding if we were going to buy points to use collectively as a family or buy an all-day pass. The great thing about Nickelodeon Universe is if the child needs an adult to supervise, I could ride for free. It was perfect. There were a few rides that my 6 and 4-year-old wanted to ride but Saylor was too small and Colter was working.
The poster explaining what size rides each size kid can ride is very helpful. This made it possible to map what rides we wanted to make it to by the end of the day. Knowing what rides the girls could ride also helped me calculate that the girls would need to ride at least three rides each to make the day pass worth the money.
Purchasing the day pass paid off because the first ride we did, bumper cars, Blakely and Tessa wanted to ride three times in a row. The Ferris Wheel, Dora the Explorer Ride and carousel were next. We could all ride these together which made it really fun for the girls but slightly made my stomach turn.
The Seashell/teacup ride was the ride that got my stomach the most. The whole spin in a circle while having the ability to spin in another circle as fast as you can is a little over the top for me. Blakely and Tessa rode again while Saylor and I watched from the sidelines. They loved every minute of the ride and spun and spun.
Ghost Blasters was one of our last rides before we left to meet a high school friend for a playdate. It was a fun ride. I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to shoot a gun at ghosts with my three musketeers.
The girls didn’t want to leave Nickelodeon Universe so I told them we could come back to the mall after we met up with friends. It was so fun to talk and catch up with Michelle and her family. We ended up having a lot of fun and the girls played and played after they warmed up to each other.
Michelle left to pick up her husband from the airport, he is a pilot, and grab some pizza for all of us while the girls continued to play.
I had mentioned to the girls that we may be able to go back to The Mall of America after playing with friends. So after we ate and our friends left, we jumped in the car, raced to the mall and then ran to catch the last half hour before all of the rides closed. Colter was able to go on a roller coaster with the two older girls while Saylor and I rode the carousel. There is something magical about riding up and down on a huge rabbit or horse imagining you are a fairy or flying through the air on a unicorn.
Our last 20 minutes flew by in a hurry but upon leaving the rides, we found out that the Internet connection was fantastic at the mall. We stayed a little longer on the benches to upload some pictures and videos of our adventures. The girls were so tired they sprawled out on the benches right by us.
We left the next day we left for North Dakota.
Our time in Minnesota was short and we didn’t make it to all we had planned but that just makes for a good excuse to go back! The Mall of America was definitely worth the money. The rides certainly were tailored to kids and my three girls loved our time spent here.