Minneapolis Adventures

Over Columbus Day weekend, we took our annual trip away with just the 4 of us. This year we chose to take the kids to Minneapolis after reading about this great city in a magazine and getting some outstanding advice from a friend who lives nearby. The first day we headed to a great zoo, Como Zoo. I compare it to Lincoln Park Zoo for it's wooded areas and exhibits located near each other. One of Adam's favorite animals to visit is the Lion. We headed over to check it out and explored the outside areas where Mom and Dad lions were basking in the sun taking a nap. We follow the path along and see that there are more large cats inside. As we go in, we notice a small crowd gathering around the windows of a lioness cage, thankfully behind glass rather than bars. As you can see from the picture, this lioness was right up against the glass and as we arrive, we notice a few young people slapping their hands on the glass, their parents watching. The lion became quite agitated and was leaping through the air against the wall of glass. She was standing on her hind legs, pawing at the glass, trying everything she could think of to get out at the people that were only separated from her by 1/2 inch of whatever this glass window was really made of. I had visions of that scene in Free Willy when the orca began ramming itself against the underwater viewing and broke through. Lucy became very frightened and I took her outside. Mark and Adam stayed behind for a few more minutes. It was very upsetting to witness an woman come running out of the lion house screaming for a staff member while using *the F word*, I remember thinking "did that lion break out somehow? where are Adam and Mark?" Well, the lion was safely inside it's cage, but this woman was IRATE over the way it was reacting and how the few young men inside were treating it. She had apparently just went OFF on the crowd inside and was now on the rampage for a zoo manager to come arrest them all, she wanted them charged for a crime and was looking like she needed to be sedated herself. I have to say, that even though we left because Lucy was frightened of the lion, she was even more frightened now of this woman. She refused to walk on the ground, or be put down in any way and she kept looking over her shoulder for the crazy person. So we moved on far away from lions.

These little guys helped her mood quite a bit! Loved them! After the zoo, we went back to the hotel to swim and rest. Our next day, brought us to the iconic Sculpture Park across from the art institute. Lovely warm day to run around the park, explore the conservatory and just be outside! Adam the artist had a lot to say about each piece, and Lucy enjoyed playing on and around them too. It was hard to pick a favorite piece!


Here is a view down the aisle of the conservatory in the park...fun ivy structures. Fun plant items were tucked in everywhere! An orchid growing from a wall here, a coconut monkey hiding in the ivy there, lovely vines, beautiful flowers....just gorgeous, wish my mom had been there to see it.










At the end of the walkway we come to an atrium with this awesome glass panel fish sculpture. Amazing! In this room, there were scuptures under glass floor panels as well. Pretty fun!



The day moved on with a trip to Mall of America. When we first talked about visiting, the plan was either to avoid the Mall altogether, or to choose wisely. I think we came closely to a happy medium! We started with our trip to the Underwater Adventure Aquarium. This is very cool to walk through the "tube" while sharks, rays, giant sea turtles and fish of all kids swim over your head! Some sharks were just laying right there ON the tube! Very awesome! The kids were able to touch starfish, sea urchins and such in the touch pools after our walk through. The rest of the aquarium blew us away with the clean, healthy looking critters. After lunch, we went on to explore the Mall. We checked out Disney, Lego and more! Everyone bought some new treasures and we went back to the hotel on our last night with great memories, tired feet and lots of fresh air! This trip will be hard to beat next year!!