Minneapolis - Mall of America

About two years ago, I took a 6 hours drive down with my friends to Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA. Because I was travelling so much, 6 hours was really easy-peasy.

Our first stop, was to have breakfast at a pancake house (can’t remember where it was). We headed to our motel much later (after our shopping trip). It was quite a hilarious sight squeezing 6 people into a tiny room. The girls had the beds, and the boys had to sleep on the floor or any available space in the room.

Thereafter, it was a FULL day of shopping at the biggest mall in America, “The Mall of America”. It is suppose to be huge, but to a shoppaholic, I had secretly hoped it was bigger. We had about 6 plus hours to conquer the entire mall. We left the mall at about 1900? I can’t remember why, even though the closing time for the mall is slated to be at 2130.

In the Mall of America, there are 4 departmental stores - Nordstorm, Macy’s, Sears and Bloomingdale’s. There is also Barnes and Nobles.  I still remember that we parked near Bloomindale’s. The stalls were all so alluring, I bought quite a lot of stuff - even though I was a broke student.

I bought this pair of slippers for US$2 from Charlotte Russe - wore it to death as my dorm slippers. And I bought the forever 21 top from the flagship store for US$29 (I think).

I also bought a pair of pretty flats for US$19.90 (sale!) from famous footwear, which I also wore to death throughout my adventures in Canada, US and even in Singapore - I only had 2 pairs of sports shoes and 1 slipper when I went on exchange - how dumb ehz?

I didn’t buy any knickers from Victoria Secrets. but I remember spending a good amount of time in Abercrombie and Fitch - I was so tempted to buy this US$80 hooded jacket. Sigh, I was such a poor student, that I didn’t visit the Club Monaco store in MOA - wait, I think I didn’t know of its existence till 1 month later. J Crew didn’t leave an impression on me, so my friend and I didn’t go into the store. I didn’t remember seeing a H&M store then, if not I would have bought lots of stuff. We did stop by Auntie Annie’s to grab a pretzel. And I so should have gone into True Religion! The jeans would have been such great buys at such cheap prices, given that it was the sale season. Darn.

I was also a Chanel-idiot then - can you imagine, I actually gasp at my sister for buying the Chanel classic pearls necklace - If not, I would have spend most of my time getting my hands on one of the 2.55. When it was WAY much cheaper. Who cares about lugging 3 luggage bags, 4 paper bags, and one laptop bag? A 2.55 would have been puuurfect.

Other sights worth mentioning is that there is this a Nickelodeon Universe right smack in the middle of the mall. There is a roller-coaster, a mini-pet farm and a mini underwater world.

Nickelodeon land in the day

Nickelodeon land at night

Oh there is Lego shop too! And did I mention, level 4 is a theatre wonderland. Plus a hooters.

Food-wise, there are plenty to choose from. My friends and I ate at this cutesie place called Kokomo’s Island Cafe (level 3). We ordered a big palette of seafood and pork ribs. What joy.

Notice the braid in my hair? I did it Disneyland in LA. I would do anything to have it done again.

Coming up sometime this week, a continuation of my adventure in Minnesota - to the lovely St Pauls.