Vacation Part I

Hello from Minneapolis! As I type, it's about 39 degrees and raining like crazy. BUT, it's really not as bad as we'd anticipated, which I'll just chalk up to humidity.

Since we'd made last minute plane reservations, we got tagged for the ultra security check, all of us. So we had to empty all our carry-on stuff, get the wand and pat down treatment, etc. I have to say, however, that they were really good with Maddy. They decided not to wand her and freak her out, and just opted to pat her down. The lady pretended she was tickling Madison so it was really quick and painless.

Madison rode the plane like a trooper - she definitely doesn't have flight issues - and an older couple commented when we landed that she was really well behaved, especially for her first plane ride. I had all kinds of keep-the-high-energy-kid-entertained stuff and she fell asleep for about an hour of the three-hour trip.

We are still on Vegas time so at midnight last night she still wasn't asleep, so that was rough, cause we were really ready for serious sleep after all that travel. But we didn't get up until like 9:30 this morning, so no biggie, I suppose it's better than changing her routine all around.

Today we spent the day at the Mall of America, which is SOOOOOOOO huge. We didn't do any shopping but did visit Nickelodeon Universe, and the Underwater Adventures inside the mall. For those of you in Vegas, they were much like the Circus Circus Adventure Dome and Mandalay Bay's Shark Reef, but a little bigger.

Driving here is very different, thankfully we got a GPS system for the car. I'd be absolutely lost otherwise, and it's giving us the ability to venture out more for what we'd like to eat, etc.

The funniest part of being here is some of the huge cultural differences, and I have the perfect example. I went out last night to get a few things at a local convenience store, and I looked all over for beer. There was... uh... no alcohol in the store. I asked and apparently it's a little different in these parts - can't just buy this stuff anywhere - and good luck if you're wanting to buy it on Sunday.

We are supposed to get snow tonight and tomorrow morning, but Sunday and Monday are going to be beautiful - thankfully - I'd really like Madison to get a good look at how green and beautiful it is here!

I'll leave you with this, but there is more at Flickr:

The picture isn't the best quality (think the batteries are dying) but if you look closely, you can probably tell the movie theme this display is all about.