HIGHLIGHT OF THE DAY: SHOPPING
BUMMER OF THE DAY: SPENDING MONEY ON SHOPPING
WORD OF THE DAY: You betcha (yes Teegs you were caught out)
Today was going to be a day, well the morning shopping anyways and the only thing we had to be at was at St Paul Port for 1.45pm for a cruise on the Mississippi River which sounded just magic. I received an email from Delta about online check-in this morning, which I don’t normally bother with, especially with such an early flight tomorrow but I did check my seat allocation and they had me sitting next to some-one when the back half of the plane was empty, so I changed my seat allocation to 37A and hoped that I picked the right side of the plane to see the strip as we come into land. I remember a client once asked me what side Mount Everest would be seen from on her flight to London. I thought at the time what a weird request, mine was more of a normal one I think, but I now can see her point of view.
The Mall of America was a 20 minute drive from Teegs house and we thought it best that we have a good/big breakfast so that we could bypass lunch and not waste time eating once we got the shopping centre. We had IHop for breakfast which is America style food with biscuits, gravy, eggs and all the usual breakfast meals.
Then it was time to SHOP. The Mall of America certainly lived up to its name at first sight. It was MASSIVE. There were a few shops that I wanted to get to that Jenny had recommended for the 14+ lady and I was keen to definitely get to them to get some new wardrobe heading to Tippy’s and then through to LA for the week and thank goodness Teegs was happy to come along for the shopping ride with me today and not really on a mission for herself to shop. She mentioned she comes here all the time so was happy to window shop.
The Mall of America, also called MOA and the Megamall, is a shopping mall. Opened in 1992, the mall receives 40 million visitors annually. The Triple Five Group, owned by Canada's Ghermezian family, owns and manages the Mall of America, as well as the West Edmonton Mall. The Mall of America has a gross area of 4,200,000 sq ft (390,000 m2) or 96.4 acres, enough to fit seven Yankee Stadium’s inside, with 2,500,000 sq ft (230,000 m2) available as retail space. The mall is nearly symmetric, with a roughly rectangular floor plan. Over 520 stores are arranged along three levels of pedestrian walkways on the sides of the rectangle, with a fourth level on the east side. Four anchor department stores are located at the corners. The mall is organized into four different zones, each with its own decorative style. Despite Minnesota's cold winters, only the mall's entrances and some below ground areas are heated. Heat is allowed in through skylights above Nickelodeon Universe. The majority of the heat is produced by lighting fixtures, other electric devices, and people in the mall. In fact, even during the winter, air conditioning systems are still in use during peak hours to ensure a comfortable shopping environment. Although the common areas are unheated, the individual stores do have heating systems. Two nearly identical seven story parking ramps on the east and west sides of the mall provide 12,287 parking spaces. Overflow parking north of the building provides an additional 1,200-1,500 spaces in addition to parking provided by IKEA (1,407 spaces) that is part of the currently under construction Phase II expansion of the mall.
The mall opened its doors to the public August 11, 1992. It became the second largest shopping mall in total area and largest in total store vendors in the United States when it opened. The Mall of America is the most visited shopping mall in the world with more than 40 million visitors annually (or roughly eight times the population of the state of Minnesota). The mall employs over 12,000 workers. Nickelodeon Universe is an indoor theme park in the center of the mall, formerly known as Knott's Camp Snoopy, Camp Snoopy, and The Park at MOA. The park features roller coasters, among numerous other rides and attractions, and is the largest indoor theme park in the United States. Unlike many indoor amusement parks, Nickelodeon Universe has a great deal of natural foliage in and about the park, and its floor has a wide variance in height - the highest ground level in the park is 4.6 m above the lowest. The park features two new roller coasters, SpongeBob Square Pants Rock Bottom Plunge and Avatar Airbender, and a new thrill ride called Brain Surge. The latter roller coaster bills itself as a "rather peculiar" ride. It also has a miniature golfing section called Moose Mountain. This miniature golf course features eighteen holes and a relatively fast astro turf surface. We had plans of riding some of the rides in the park but after my shopping spree in a few of the shops we were fast running out of time, so we decided that after the cruise we would come back and then try and get them slotted in on our second visit. After a visit to the LegoLand store with massive Lego figures soaring high about the main selling floor, visible as you traipse the second and third floors of Mall of America. The play area is actually a giant Lego connector and the front of the store is filled with plastic bubbles across the entire wall with specific Lego pieces in them that you can buy in bulk. If you need a green six block or a red four block, you can go there and buy them like produce in the grocery store. Great place to pick up those pieces that have disappeared from the sets at home. A big kid at heart and I have always been a fan of Lego. I love the stuff.
We had a time that we had to start making our way back to the car and we stuck to our guns, even though it was easy enough to get caught up in the shops as we walked past them. I stopped in at Noble and Barnes to get a book light for my Kindle and we made it back to the car with 5 minutes to spare on our timeline. Perfecto. We drove the 20 minutes to the capital of Minnesota, St Paul and to their small port where we were to board the paddlewheel boat for our 90 minute cruise. We arrived bang on time and with a visit to the bar for a cocktail, we found seats on the lower deck outside to catch some rays and to enjoy our trip on the Mississippi River. We were on the narrated public excursions that departed from Harriet Island. The historically narrated public sightseeing excursions runs for 1 1/2 hours. Sights along the way include: the St. Paul High Bridge, Pig's Eye's Cave, Minnesota River mouth, Pike Island, Fort Snelling, and the timeless splendor of the mighty Mississippi River. Our boat was called The Anson Northrup. Named for the Minnesota pioneer who operated one of the first boats above St. Anthony Falls the boat was designed to fit under the low bridges in Minneapolis and put in service in 1988. The side-wheeler's overall height had to be kept less than 22 feet because of the low bridges in that area of the river. It is 92 feet long and 33 feet wide.
The Mississippi River is the chief river of the largest river system in North America. Flowing entirely in the United States (though its drainage basin reaches into Canada), it rises in northern Minnesota and meanders slowly southwards for 4,070 km to the Mississippi River Delta at the Gulf of Mexico. With its many tributaries, the Mississippi's watershed drains all or parts of 31 US states between the Rocky and Appalachian Mountains and even reaches into southern Canada. The Mississippi ranks as the fourth longest and tenth largest river in the world. The river either borders or cuts through the states of Minnesota,Wisconsin, Iowa, Illinois, Missouri, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, Mississippi, and Louisiana. The Mississippi River Valley is one of the most fertile agricultural regions of the country, which resulted in the river's storied steamboat era. During the American Civil War, the Mississippi's capture by Union forces marked a turning point towards victory because of this very importance as a route of trade and travel, not least to the Confederacy. Because of substantial growth of cities and the larger ships and barges that have supplanted riverboats, the decades following the 1900s saw massive engineering works applied to the river system, such as the often in-combination construction of levees, lock sand dams. It was a gorgeous day and we steamed upstream for an hour before turning around and getting back in 25 minutes downstream that had taken us an hour to go up. The water was apparently quite high and downstream was really pushing a current. It was great to be out on the water and I am glad that we went, not sure if there really was that much to see at the end of the day but to be on the water, cocktail in hand, great company, great weather how can you go wrong?
We were back at the Mall of America by 4.15pm to continue shopping till 5.30pm where we had an appointment to see Jori, Tegan's sister who works in the mall, to get our makeup refreshed for a dinner that we had been kindly invited to that evening by Jori and her husband Steve. So needless to say we didn’t have enough time to get on any of the rides but after the 4 hours in total at the mall I left with 4 dresses, 5 tops, a pant suit, 2 pairs of pants, a knit cardigan, a light for my Kindle, a bag of Doc Popcorn and a pack of 6 Peeps (marshmallow ducks which are apparently big here). Where the hell is it all going to fit is the question I have now, but I think if I pack a little more smart (roll the clothes in the smaller checked bag) then I think it all may just fit. I do have my small red backpack as backup so I figured there was no need to buy an additional bag today and just hope that it will all fit. There were a lot more shops I could have gone into including the Pandora shop, but I now need to be a little smart in my spending as there is no point in buying things that just wouldn’t make the cut to Ethiopia or that I won’t be wearing there. I would have loved to have gone into the Pandora shop, but there would never be an opportunity for me to really wear that sort of thing in Addis. This leads me think that I probably won’t be taking any of my mums jewelry with me it just make sense to wearing expensive shiny things in a country that struggles each day to put food on the table for more than 60% of its population, if not more. So no need in buying more shiny stuff to have that just sitting some storage in Brisbane. I’m smart aren’t I. There were also clothes I passed on as I thought they would not be too well received either in Africa as I want to blend in as much as I can without bringing more attention to myself with my attire.
With our make-up done (thanks Jori) we headed home with 45 minutes for us to get ready and get to the restaurant by 8pm. I spoke to Tippy this afternoon to confirm my pick-up time for tomorrow and it was so good to hear her voice and will be good to see the boys. The Icehouse had just opened the night before and with Steve being a chef he gets a lot of invitations and this was one of them for the soft opening/second night for family and friends. Teegs and I didn’t realize till after we sat down that the meal was complimentary which was a nice surprise and totally unexpected. The service was a little hap hazard to start but the waiter pulled it together and the food was fantastic as Teegs and I shared our main meal and desert and with a starter there was plenty of food floating around the table. A deli by day and a lounge by night, Icehouse is a gorgeous, large space with red brick walls, and reclaimed wood floor to ceiling. The wood ceiling was a conscious choice to improve the room's sound quality, compared to the many ornate tin ceilings around town. And, it boasts an excellent full PA system. The restaurant is called Icehouse as the place was known as the Icehouse Studios, where it had many a band and business conduct video/photo shoots and music rehearsals here.
I also met Tegan’s Aunty who is quite well travelled and had a lot of questions for me, which I am always happy to answer. It is interesting to note when people know how long I have been travelling so long what questions they have. Alot of people ask the same ones:
How can I afford to do the trip for so long?
What has been my favorite place?
What has been my favorite food?
Do I buy things and if I do what do I do with them
The shock of travelling with one bag
And probably the one question I got off the cuff was how I pay all my bills while I’m away. There are so many more I get asked but that are pretty much the main ones that keep coming up when I meet people. We were there till 10.30pm and the music hadn’t started yet, but we were ready to leave after another BIG day and another 12 hours out and about. This has been my days for the last 2 weeks and I am looking forward to Las Vegas and a little down time as weird as it sounds for being in Las Vegas. I am lucky I have been to Las Vegas several times and seen a lot of the ‘tourist’ traps so I am happy to play family and just spend some quality time with Tippy and the boys.
I had an understanding that my international package for my phone included 500 minutes to overseas numbers. I kinda knew that Ethiopia wouldn’t be included but I did check online and Australia was on the list. So I decided to call Shellbell back home and use up some of the credit. As luck (nor not) Shelly was at home with my sick god-daughter’s home from school, so my luck I was able to speak to Zoe first and then the phone dropped out, this is when I checked and the call wasn’t for free. I couldn’t talk to one GD and not the other, so I phoned back to talk to Tess as well and they now sound so grown up. I can’t wait to see them in 2 weeks and just see how much they have grown and how their personalities have changed in my absence.
My night wasn’t over as I still had to pack all my stuff that was strewn in one corner of Tegan's lounge room. I had an early flight the next morning, like 7am departure so we had to be leaving home at 5am. I booked this early flight on purpose so that Tegan didn’t have to take an extra day off work and that Tippy was able to drop the boys at school and then come and get me on the other end. The implication of getting up at 4.15am was lost when I made the bookings back in March. I told Tegan I would be happy to catch a taxi that early but being the friend she is would have nothing of it, so we decided on a 5am departure from home and with a hug good night she headed to bed and I started the arduous task of packing. As I hadn’t unpacked a lot of my clothing cubes, it was pretty much just a matter of just fitting in my new clothes into the smaller checked bag. I did this first and threw anything else that would fit till that bag was as full as a goog. I also managed to fit in my red backpack (the backup bag) and with everything rolled packed and zipped I just had to hope that my big backpack was less than 50 pounds tomorrow. This flight was not on my round world ticket, I had to buy this one additional to that, so I knew that I had to pay 35USD for the first bag and 25USD for the second bag. So I had a 60USD charge to pay tomorrow. These things can’t be avoided in the States, they really enforce this rule and this is all airlines across the board, I guess this is where they make unless you buy a more expensive ticket. That would then allow you to have checked baggage but that was 150USD more expensive, so I was better to pay the cheaper fare and then the baggage on top of that anyway. So I was all done at 12.15am.
So with 3 days of Minnesota sun I am preparing for a 10 degree difference in weather for Las Vegas. As I close my eyes and think of the time I have left of my World Odyssey it really is hard to comprehend now that I am leaving for my second last stop, my second last week, my last 14 days, my 3rd last flight till I am home with Shelly and the Elkins again. Up again in 4 hours and I am totally knackered.
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