Days 5 & 6

We woke up early Friday morning, went out to breakfast and then got on the road and headed to Bloomington. Minnesota is also a very beautiful state. Lets just say its not called the 10,000 Lakes state for nothing. All this water makes everything so green. Being in the city with all of the people and traffic wasn't that great, but the trees and flowers were so pretty. We stayed at the Hilton Gardens Hotel Friday night and tonight. It was just easier to stay in a hotel that is close to everything than a campground or RV park somewhere outside of the city. On Friday we went to the Metrodome in Minneapolis to the Vikings and Seahawks preseason game. It was fun to see another football stadium, but I did feel that it might be a bit sacrilegious of me, a Packer backer, to be in the enemy's camp.....ha ha. No, we had a good time. The Seahawks kicked the Vikings' butt 34 - 17, YES!!! We rode the Metro Transit train to and from the dome. Nate thought the train was the best part of the night, but that's a 6 year old's mind. It was great not to have to drive, but the train was so packed by the time we got to the dome and back that I now know what a sardine feels like.

We got back to the hotel after the game at about 11:30 pm. The boys had a snack and went to bed. I watched TV with Monte for a bit and then went to bed and Monte stayed up until 3 am watching a repeat of last weeks NASCAR race. Needless to say, he didn't want to get up and go to the Mall of America in the morning. However, the boys made it to 10:30 am that morning before waking him up and getting him out the door to the Mall. Once he got there though he woke up as there is just so much going on at that place. Plus, it was just too fun to watch Nathan's reaction. He was so excited that he tripped over his own feet twice and bumped his head on the metal railing all within the first 15 minutes of being there. It was really great to watch him enjoy himself so much. We ended up staying at the Mall for about 7 hours. We ate lunch at Kokomo's restaurant. Monte had the tilapia fish taco's and I had a grouper fish sandwich. Let me just say that if you ever get a chance to eat at a Kokomo's, do. It was great!

At the mall, we walked all over the 4 floors, rode in two NASCAR simulator races (Monte drove one car with Nate as his passenger and Brady drove another car with me as his passenger), rode a bunch of rides at the Nickelodeon Universe amusement park that's in the mall and bought Lego's at the Legoland store. After the mall, we went to dinner and then came back to the hotel. We let our food settle for about an hour and then I took the boys down to the pool while Monte hung out and relaxed in the room. Needless to say, we had quite a busy day and are, once again, exhausted. The boys crashed a couple hours after swimming, right about the time that they and their dad finished putting all of the Lego sets together.

Well, the blog is all caught up now. We plan on heading out of Minnesota tomorrow via the Skyline Parkway Scenic Byway (i.e. highway 61). It runs along the Missouri river and I believe ends in Iowa. After that, I'm not sure which direction we will be heading. Monte and I will look at the atlas and decide where we go from there as soon as I'm done with the blog. I'll update the blog again when I get Internet access. You all take care and email me or leave a comment if you would like.