10,000 Lakes and a Mall

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Geo: 46.8759, -96.7823

Weather: 80 and sunny
Location: Minneapolis to Fargo
Highlights: Mall of America and Continental Divide and Mike & Marne's old house
Lowlights: Only in my hair
#of Swearwords: 0
People we met: A big guy, Joe, at a gas station who ended up being from Niles, Michigan and
now lives in South Bend and commented on our NDP bumper sticker.
Activities: Mall of America, picnic at Lake Calhoun and the Continental Divide (Fergus, MN just off the highway)
Hotel: Fairfield Inn (ND)
Helpful hint: The Amusement Park is nicer and cleaner than you'd expect. Cool rides. New
aquarium (Sea Life) in the mall. Order aquarium tickets online and save $5 a ticket.
Restaurants: Breakfast at Marriott and Olive Garden

Beautiful day today in Minnesota, the state of 10,000 lakes. We did some time traveling back to see Paul's brother Mike (and Marne's) old house in Minnesota where Emily was born. Then on to the Mall of America. I have always wanted to go there since I was a kid. It was intriguing to me though with all of the technological advances and amusement places these days, it isn't as amazing as it used to be to see an amusement park in a mall. I expected a redo of yesterday's indoor kid frenzy nightmare. Much to my surprise, it was really nice. Looked like Great Lakes Crossing inside but safer like Somerset. Nice stores and super clean. It wasn't too crowded either. The rides were well maintained and a decent thrill. Multiple rollercoasters and other vomit rides. The cleanest amusement park I've been to. Really.

We also had to hit the Lego store and the American Girl store. The kids made their purchases (they brought more money than we did) and we headed out. Made a grocery run for a french loaf, lunchmeats, cheese, olives, etc for a picnic at Lake Calhoun where Paul's brother lived first in MN. We ate on the beach and the kids splashed around a bit.

Now we are on our way to Fargo, North Dakota. Ya know. We just stopped for a bathroom run next to a neat picture spot with a big buffalo, a teepee and a little log cabinny thing. Ended up being the site of one of the continental divides where, basically, the water on the continent flows one way to one body of water and the other way to another body of water. This spot was in Fergus, MN just off the freeway. There is another cool triple continental divide 2 hours south of this spot where the water splits in three ways flowing to three different bodies of water. It's not visible so I'd say it's somewhere you go if it's enroute.

We are at the hotel in Fargo. Tomorrow we are heading through Bismarck, ND to Medora (an old western town in ND.) to spend the ngiht, see a show and whatever else comes our way.

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