MIA in MOA

Just before we left Lincoln, Steve introduced me to his friend Terry, who is a car guy, and has a pretty awesome Camaro. He said he’s a little bummed because it only puts out a bit under 800 hp now. But he’s working on it!

On our way back to Minneapolis from Lincoln, we had planned on stopping somewhere for a 2-3 mile walk. But where would we find a nice place that seemed rural and wasn’t just along a highway? After we drove through Omaha, we found a great spot – Iowa Western Community College. They have a pretty campus and lots of room to walk and explore. And the next day we found out that is where Angie, a hygienist who used to work for me, is now teaching! How cool!

Above are pictures of campus walkways. They have a stadium dedicated to the “Reivers”. So I had to know what a Reiver was. I had to look it up… the short answer is a river pirate. So I learned something at the college!

We spent some time at the Mall of America in Minneapolis. MOA is supposed to be the largest mall in America, but I guess it depends on how you count… MOA has 2.5 million square feet, where the King of Prussia Mall in Pennsylvania has 2.9 Million. But the King mall has only 450 shops and MOA has 500. Aren’t you glad to know that? Both have far more stores than I need, but we spent most of our time in the amusement park in the center. Being a weekday, it was all but abandoned! No lines, and some fun stuff. One coaster goes straight up 3 stories, then straight down and inverted several times. Gotta Love It!

I know I’m just a big kid when it comes to Lego… an almost life sized helicopter, a three story robot thing, and many other huge sculptures. Amazing.

This life sized girl was wearing an “I voted” sticker.

My favorite was the huge Saber Toothed Tiger.

So here’s a quick video tour of the park…

Just north of the Mississippi River I saw a nice looking old building dusted with snow:

Then time for a bit of internal architectural work…

Becky told us about a little Swedish Bakery, so we met an interesting baker and relieved him of some sourdough bread, Limpa bread (aka Swedish Rye) and several pastries!