June 8, 2007

St. Paul

A funeral brought me to the St. Paul area a few weeks ago. St. Paul is where I lived until I was 7. There is something so fond about remembering back to when you are 5-7 years old. I wished I had time to visit my old neighborhood.

Galadriel, Pippin and I had a completely paid "vacation" in a rather lovely hotel, not a luxury a mother of 8 usually enjoys! After the longish car ride we wound down with a bee-line to the hotel pool. It was really nice, a bit of a tropical feel to it as it was very warm inside.

Just enjoying the water.

Pippin made a friend!

But his friend had over-stepped his bounds when he was wearing Pip's shoes! This was by far the funniest "event" I had seen in a while. If one can truly ROFLOL, this is exactly what Galadriel and I were doing. Pip proceeded to "play" with his new found friend and then suddenly discovered the mirror-door opened, he promptly peeks his head around to find out where his friend really was... it was a confusing moment for a 1 year old! But ever so hilarious for his audience!

The hotel happened to be across the street from the Mall of America which I had always wondered what it looked like. I can't stand malls and shopping in general (on-line ordering is a lovely thing) but we were hungry and I thought we'd just pop in to the Mall of America and grab a bite of pizza or something. I never saw anything like it. I spent 15 minutes driving around the desolate building, seeing only a few people and gate guards at every door. I am not sure where the people were, where the cars were but I came to the conclusion that one doesn't simply walk into the Mall of America for a bite of pizza any more than one would simply walk into Mordor. So we went back to our hotel as there wasn't a restraunt in site.
This brought us to the dine-in menu... OUCH! $50 for 1 adult, a 9 year old and a 1 year old. (I did mention this was a paid hotel stay but my guilt for such extravagance was almost unbearable... but not quite... it was a very good meal!)
Their idea of the "Large Cheesecake" and *my* idea of a Large Cheesecake aren't the same, but it was delicious! We took a silly delight in the cute little bottles of condiments....

which we brought home for everyone.. but praytell, what is the *thing* in the somewhat thick mesh bag? It was either a green lemon or a yellow lime, but we never did figure out what we should do with it!
This of course brought us to plundering the hotel room for fancy freebies. Tell me these aren't the cutest little bottles of toiletries. Adding just a few pieces of hotel stationary we had a lovely set of gifts to bring home to the rest of the family!
As we were leaving to head back home we noticed the Harley's were all perched outside the Mall of America.

Then to my delight we drove right into the city to see the lovely capitol building!

And best yet St. Paul's! It's such a grand church!

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