Places visited: Mall of America, Minehaha Waterfalls.
Date: 13/10/2018 to 14/10/2018
Persons: Harshal, Juilee, Radhika, Amol Shinde
This was a sudden planned trip. We wanted to go to Omaha Zoo. But in the fall brake, we will anyway go on that route towards Colorado. So we decided to combine Omaha Zoo in Colorado trip and were looking for an option for spending this weekend.
Mall of America popped up in our mind and we did hotel booking. I asked Amol Shinde if he want to join and he agreed. We purchased Crayola Experience and Fly over America tickets online.
13/10/2018
Juilee took the wheel and we started from home at 8:00 AM. We picked up Amol from his hotel and took the I-74 - I-80 way towards Waterloo. The morning weather was cold but not chilly. It was 4 degrees. Radhika and Amol were at the back seat and Radhika was really enjoying playing with him. On the way we ate TikhatMithachyaPurya for breakfast. It took about couple of hours till we reached Waterloo. We filled the petrol from SAM's club. We always try to find out SAM's club on our way to save on petrol. Then I took over the wheel and started our journey through highway 218 and then I-35. We took a halt at Hy-Vee of Mason City. We parked in the gas station and ate the MatarBhat staying in the car itself. We used Thermos and Casserole boxes to keep it hot.
I think due to this Hy-Vee diversion, it took us 2 hours extra to reach to Minneapolis. It was like 7 hours journey (it should have been just 5 hours). Amol took the wheel from here till we reached hotel.
We reached to the hotel at 3 PM. It was cold and chilly there. We did check-in formalities and without wasting time in putting bags in the room, we headed to Mall of America.
Opened in 1992, it is the largest mall in the United States in terms of total floor area (including Nickelodeon Universe), the fifth largest mall in North America in terms of lease-able space, and the twelfth largest in the world. There are East and West parking ares (5 floors, I think). You might always get a spot on the Level 1. Level 1 is best place to park as it has direct entry to the mall. If you park on any other level, then you have to come down again to Level 1 to come inside the mall. The parking is free and safe. Make sure to note down the Column and Row number of your car parking.
Once we entered the mall, we were gone crazy with its size and numerous shops and food options. The restrooms were clean. There were benches to seat after every 1000 steps. There are electronic directory screen that tell you how to go to a particular shop or parking spot.
We started to look at some initial shoe stores like Payless, etc. There we got some good snow-shoes for Radhika. Then as usual, Radhika got bored and wanted to do some fun stuff. Before that we wanted to real masala tea desperately. There was a "Hot Indian food shop" on the 3rd floor, so we went there but found out that they stopped serving the tea. Thankfully I had packed my Girnar Premix tea bags with me, so I asked for just 3 glasses of hot water to that hotel owner. He was shocked by my order, but gave he it to us. He asked me multiple times "Are you sure you want tjust the hot water?" Hahaha. Using this hot water and the tea premix, we prepared real good tea and then Radhika also ate some Bakarwadi before we were ready for the next fun stuff. Then we went to see the Crayola Experience and Amol went to do some other shopping. Crayola was an amazing experience. It is a activity based shop (obviously the last section is a gift shop of Crayola). In the first section, you can create your own crayon with your own printed label
on it. In next sections, you can take your photo and color it; you can melt the crayon and paint the picture; you can create a butterfly and watch it dance on a magnetic stage; you can melt the crayon and form a different shape using a mold. There is also a kid's play area with slides. We were there for two hours and those were not sufficient (for Radhika). We thought that we should have spent at least 4 hours there so that Radhika could have enjoyed to the fullest. As the shop was about to close at 8:00 PM, we had to leave by skipping the last section. And yes, they do stored our stroller and shopping safely at their counter for free as we were inside enjoying the Crayola Experience.
After this Radhika really got tired and hungry. So we decided to wind up for the day and went to the food area on 3rd floor and had some falafal as a dinner. Then we came back to hotel and took a good sleep.
14/10/2018:
The morning was chilly and breezy. Snow was in forecast. We did the breakfast at 8:00 AM and went in to the room to pack the bags. As we came out of the hotel after doing check-out, it was already
snowing. And we enjoyed to the fullest, after all this was the first snow of the season and first snowfall for Radhika and Juilee. We danced, laughed, shouted and shivered together. We also did video call to our families to show the fall. (By the way - "Family" for a Indian person means his/her mom + dad + brother + sister + ..... not just his/her spouse) It was real fun and we will never forget those moments. After enjoying snowfall for half an hour, we headed to Minehaha waterfall - for which Amol was little bit reluctant to visit (because he said "Mi Niagara pahilela manus ahe...."). Still we wanted to give it a try. This place was suggested by Bhupinder (my friend).
It was 20 minutes drive from hotel. We reached the place and there were very less people due to the snowfall. The rate and size of snowfall was increasing by every minute. It took us couple of minutes to find out the parking spot. We were looking for a free parking spot, but eventually got a paid one (any way it was ju
st 1 dollar per 2 hours). The parking spot was closest to the fall. We could here the roaring sound of the falls in the parking lot. We walked for couple of minutes through the trees looking at different fall colors. And as we reached to the falls, mother nature presented us the jaw-dropping beautiful view of the Minehaha falls. It was snow from the sky, water falling from the hills and cool breezy winds on the background of fall colors. Once again (after Niagara falls) I felt like a small and poor creature in front of this beauty of mother earth. These moments were the Climax of this trip. There was no sound except the roaring falls. We stayed there for 15 minutes to fill our heart, ears and eyes with that scene and then had to head back to the car as Radhika (and we too) started shivering with cold. We came back to car and spent 15 minutes in the car itself to come back to the normal body temperature. Mall of America was nothing in front of this experience. Need to check with Amol what does a "Niagara pahilela manus" thinks about this experience.
We headed back to the Mall and went straight ahead to Fly over America ride (There is also Fly over Canada ride). We enjoyed the ride and then Radhika wanted to play some lego so had to enter the lego store. We spent some 30 minutes there. There are work benches where kids can play with lego blocks as and how they want to. After that Radhika was not in the mood of accompanying us for shopping. So Amol went ahead for some shopping and we headed to the Nickelodeon Universe. It is quite expensive being inside the mall. We somehow convinced Radhika to do just two rides (as we already did such rides multiple times in open-air amusement parks). Surprisingly this time, she did not want Carousel. She enjoyed the Mary-go-around and after that we went to food court. We tried the "Noodles Company" and it was quite good food. After that as I promised to Radhika, I took her to the Candy Shop. She picked up many candies. This shop has insect-candies as well - there are real dead insects like cockroach, ants, larva inside the candies.
It was 3 PM when we started our journey back. Amol and Radhika were playing in the ba
ck seat and we stopped only once for 15 minutes at a gas station. It was 5 and half hours of drive till home. We dropped Amol at Staybridge and came back home at around 9 PM. We all were exhausted - ate Maggi (a life-saver food) and slept like a rock. Because of Amol, Radhika enjoyed a lot and she remembers how much she enjoyed with Amol a lot.
Details:
Hotel:
LivINN Hotel Minneapolis South/Burnsville, 13080 Aldrich Ave S, Burnsville, MN 55337
Expenses:
Hotel: $98 (2 Adults + 1 Kid, Premium Two Queen Beds. 1 Night)
Food: $30
Shopping: $100
Rides: $17
Crayola: $41 (2 Adults + 1 Kid)
Fly over America: $52 (2 Adults + 1 Kid)
Petrol = $43
Date: 13/10/2018 to 14/10/2018
Persons: Harshal, Juilee, Radhika, Amol Shinde
This was a sudden planned trip. We wanted to go to Omaha Zoo. But in the fall brake, we will anyway go on that route towards Colorado. So we decided to combine Omaha Zoo in Colorado trip and were looking for an option for spending this weekend.
Mall of America popped up in our mind and we did hotel booking. I asked Amol Shinde if he want to join and he agreed. We purchased Crayola Experience and Fly over America tickets online.
13/10/2018
Juilee took the wheel and we started from home at 8:00 AM. We picked up Amol from his hotel and took the I-74 - I-80 way towards Waterloo. The morning weather was cold but not chilly. It was 4 degrees. Radhika and Amol were at the back seat and Radhika was really enjoying playing with him. On the way we ate TikhatMithachyaPurya for breakfast. It took about couple of hours till we reached Waterloo. We filled the petrol from SAM's club. We always try to find out SAM's club on our way to save on petrol. Then I took over the wheel and started our journey through highway 218 and then I-35. We took a halt at Hy-Vee of Mason City. We parked in the gas station and ate the MatarBhat staying in the car itself. We used Thermos and Casserole boxes to keep it hot.
I think due to this Hy-Vee diversion, it took us 2 hours extra to reach to Minneapolis. It was like 7 hours journey (it should have been just 5 hours). Amol took the wheel from here till we reached hotel.
We reached to the hotel at 3 PM. It was cold and chilly there. We did check-in formalities and without wasting time in putting bags in the room, we headed to Mall of America.
Opened in 1992, it is the largest mall in the United States in terms of total floor area (including Nickelodeon Universe), the fifth largest mall in North America in terms of lease-able space, and the twelfth largest in the world. There are East and West parking ares (5 floors, I think). You might always get a spot on the Level 1. Level 1 is best place to park as it has direct entry to the mall. If you park on any other level, then you have to come down again to Level 1 to come inside the mall. The parking is free and safe. Make sure to note down the Column and Row number of your car parking.
Once we entered the mall, we were gone crazy with its size and numerous shops and food options. The restrooms were clean. There were benches to seat after every 1000 steps. There are electronic directory screen that tell you how to go to a particular shop or parking spot.
We started to look at some initial shoe stores like Payless, etc. There we got some good snow-shoes for Radhika. Then as usual, Radhika got bored and wanted to do some fun stuff. Before that we wanted to real masala tea desperately. There was a "Hot Indian food shop" on the 3rd floor, so we went there but found out that they stopped serving the tea. Thankfully I had packed my Girnar Premix tea bags with me, so I asked for just 3 glasses of hot water to that hotel owner. He was shocked by my order, but gave he it to us. He asked me multiple times "Are you sure you want tjust the hot water?" Hahaha. Using this hot water and the tea premix, we prepared real good tea and then Radhika also ate some Bakarwadi before we were ready for the next fun stuff. Then we went to see the Crayola Experience and Amol went to do some other shopping. Crayola was an amazing experience. It is a activity based shop (obviously the last section is a gift shop of Crayola). In the first section, you can create your own crayon with your own printed label
After this Radhika really got tired and hungry. So we decided to wind up for the day and went to the food area on 3rd floor and had some falafal as a dinner. Then we came back to hotel and took a good sleep.
14/10/2018:
The morning was chilly and breezy. Snow was in forecast. We did the breakfast at 8:00 AM and went in to the room to pack the bags. As we came out of the hotel after doing check-out, it was already
snowing. And we enjoyed to the fullest, after all this was the first snow of the season and first snowfall for Radhika and Juilee. We danced, laughed, shouted and shivered together. We also did video call to our families to show the fall. (By the way - "Family" for a Indian person means his/her mom + dad + brother + sister + ..... not just his/her spouse) It was real fun and we will never forget those moments. After enjoying snowfall for half an hour, we headed to Minehaha waterfall - for which Amol was little bit reluctant to visit (because he said "Mi Niagara pahilela manus ahe...."). Still we wanted to give it a try. This place was suggested by Bhupinder (my friend).
It was 20 minutes drive from hotel. We reached the place and there were very less people due to the snowfall. The rate and size of snowfall was increasing by every minute. It took us couple of minutes to find out the parking spot. We were looking for a free parking spot, but eventually got a paid one (any way it was ju
st 1 dollar per 2 hours). The parking spot was closest to the fall. We could here the roaring sound of the falls in the parking lot. We walked for couple of minutes through the trees looking at different fall colors. And as we reached to the falls, mother nature presented us the jaw-dropping beautiful view of the Minehaha falls. It was snow from the sky, water falling from the hills and cool breezy winds on the background of fall colors. Once again (after Niagara falls) I felt like a small and poor creature in front of this beauty of mother earth. These moments were the Climax of this trip. There was no sound except the roaring falls. We stayed there for 15 minutes to fill our heart, ears and eyes with that scene and then had to head back to the car as Radhika (and we too) started shivering with cold. We came back to car and spent 15 minutes in the car itself to come back to the normal body temperature. Mall of America was nothing in front of this experience. Need to check with Amol what does a "Niagara pahilela manus" thinks about this experience.We headed back to the Mall and went straight ahead to Fly over America ride (There is also Fly over Canada ride). We enjoyed the ride and then Radhika wanted to play some lego so had to enter the lego store. We spent some 30 minutes there. There are work benches where kids can play with lego blocks as and how they want to. After that Radhika was not in the mood of accompanying us for shopping. So Amol went ahead for some shopping and we headed to the Nickelodeon Universe. It is quite expensive being inside the mall. We somehow convinced Radhika to do just two rides (as we already did such rides multiple times in open-air amusement parks). Surprisingly this time, she did not want Carousel. She enjoyed the Mary-go-around and after that we went to food court. We tried the "Noodles Company" and it was quite good food. After that as I promised to Radhika, I took her to the Candy Shop. She picked up many candies. This shop has insect-candies as well - there are real dead insects like cockroach, ants, larva inside the candies.
It was 3 PM when we started our journey back. Amol and Radhika were playing in the ba
ck seat and we stopped only once for 15 minutes at a gas station. It was 5 and half hours of drive till home. We dropped Amol at Staybridge and came back home at around 9 PM. We all were exhausted - ate Maggi (a life-saver food) and slept like a rock. Because of Amol, Radhika enjoyed a lot and she remembers how much she enjoyed with Amol a lot.Details:
Hotel:
LivINN Hotel Minneapolis South/Burnsville, 13080 Aldrich Ave S, Burnsville, MN 55337
Expenses:
Hotel: $98 (2 Adults + 1 Kid, Premium Two Queen Beds. 1 Night)
Food: $30
Shopping: $100
Rides: $17
Crayola: $41 (2 Adults + 1 Kid)
Fly over America: $52 (2 Adults + 1 Kid)
Petrol = $43
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