We started today at the Sculpture Garden in Minneapolis. It is the home of the giant spoon and cherry. This sculpture was commissioned for the garden. The spoon is 52ft long and the cherry weighs 1200 pounds - that is over 500kgs. There was over 40 sculptures in the gardens - a cool swing, a giant hare on a bell and a huge glass fish in the glasshouse. We didn't look at them all but what we saw was good.
We finished at the gardens just before 11am and headed for Mall of America. This is the biggest mall in USA, containing over 500 shops. The parking area is enormous. Every level is a different state to help you remember where you parked. We chose Hawaii.
Our first stop inside was The Disney Store. We both bought things in there. At a shop further along the girl serving us told us each floor is 1 mile around. We did all 3 floors which is about 4.2kms. We were pretty tired by the time we had finished. While the adverts say over 500 stores, there are a lot of duplicates. The same store sometimes appeared more than once on the same floor. There were also restaurants and food courts. In the middle is Nickelodeon Universe which is a theme park for kids. There were rollercoasters and lots of other rides.
The Lego store was another we both spent money in. Above the store there was a helicopter, a transformer and a world globe, among other things, all made out of lego. They were very clever.
We each bought a few other things and had a few bags by the time we left 6hrs later.
When we came out it was overcast with possible rain clouds around. We still hadn't fixed the dead animal smell and now have bits of fur on the windscreen that must have come out of the squirters. We have come to an agreement that we will find a service station with a mechanic tomorrow and ask them to help us. Most of the small towns seem to have them.
We came back to the hotel for a while and then headed out for dinner. We found an Italian restaurant in the visitors guide that sounded nice. When we arrived we could smell garlic before we even went in. It was a really nice place. The atmosphere was fantastic - from the friendly staff to the photos and decorations around the walls. We were asked by the man who showed us to the table and our waiter if we were there for a celebration like a birthday. We soon found out why. There were 5 or 6 birthdays being celebrated in there and each time the staff gathered at the table, clapped and sang the bithday song which was printed on the placemats. It was a bit of fun but I would have been embarrased.
The table next to us were celebrating a 6th birthday and had ordered the celebration cake. It was enormous and covered in white icing. The inside was layers - red, green and plain cake with cream in between. It looked very cool.
The menu showed that everything came in Bupa size and large size. Bupa size fed 3 people. We had to order that but didn't finish all the pasta or salad. Every table was taking leftovers home. It seems that is the expectation in so many restaurants. We had a really nice evening there.
When we came out it was drizzling and 9cold.
We will leave fairly early in the morning as we are driving through to Milwaukee and are going to the baseball tomorrow night.
Happy birthday, Ruthie!!!!!