Monday: MIrror Mazes, Noodles, and Lego. :)

Sioux Falls didn't look too shabby. Getting up and out of of there, Matt got in the car and found a gas station for a quick fill up. Today would be a slightly shorter day as we were planning to just stop in Minneapolis and spend the night, CAMPING. Since that was our original intent, we had to do it at least once, and the time was growing ever shorter. Besides that, we needed to grab breakfast/lunch again and we were feeling something a little more healthy than what he had been eating. Therefore: Subway Eat Fresh! Thankfully Bernard knows were subway food stops are (and not undergrounds). The line was long but we made it through and it was back on the road.

Again, there isn't much to say about farmland. There are...well, farms, and cows...and sometimes horses and quaint houses painted white. Eventually, we reached the town of Jordan, about 30 miles outside of Minneapolis. There, we arrived at a KOA campsite....but this wasn't just any campsite...this campsite had an indoor pool. (How this is camping I will never know. Neither will Matt, we both have very rugged views of camping.) The registration area was closed for an hour break of some sorts, but as we walked around, we found the keepers and they told us just to go hang out in the pool. We had a half hour, why not? The pool felt so good. I got to swim laps again and Matt did his own exercises. It was good to relax and stretch and move around after being in a cramped car for a week now. Well, after that, we went back to the registration booth and ordered ourselves a tent site. It was off in the corner...which turned out to our disadvantage as the trees dropped their dew all over our tent. We stayed dry enough though. However, we set up our tent and hung out our swim trunks to dry and made our way to Mall of America; the epicenter of capitalism.

I remember dreaming of going there as a kid with Jessica all the time. Why, I will never know as it isn't THAT much different stores-wise from any other mall I've been too.....miiinus the theme park in the center. Parking on the East side (New York level.) we checked a few license plates. Apparently, only Minnesotans use Mall of America....I wonder where the rest of America is? Poor Economy I'm guessing. Well, we walked in and around the 4th floor. Which happened to be mainly the food courts...and there they had a NOODLES AND COMPANY. I about died of delight and we both resigned ourselves there for dinner. mmmmm. noodles. Continuing on, we stopped in a store that sold flags from countries all over the world and stickers and such...basically, a touristy sort of shop. What did they have, but a whole area dedicated to old license plates you could buy! We wondered if these counted since we weren't technically on the road, but there aren't any rules...just that you need to find the license plates, and that's what we did. Our map was just about finished then (minus a province of Canada which we found later anyway). Other than that, I learned it was Norwegian Independence Day....but from who they gained independence, the clerk wasn't able to tell me as he tried to sell me a flag. I'm still not sure as to the truth value...i personally think he just wanted to sell me a flag. And while i would have bought one...I didn't think being played for a sucker would be cool. I'll just have to pick one up later.

Down past the other food court (this was fast food rather than restaurants) we came to the Amazing Mirror Maze. The concept seemed interesting, and they had a window for peering in. Matt and I looked at eachother and decided this could be well worth 7 bucks and it totally was. We put on our plastic gloves and started down together. What an odd feeling. You couldn't tell where the mirrors were until you were right on top of them and you saw your own reflection. Eventually there was a place that split up and we both took a different way. BAD IDEA. I got lost around a corner and just stopped and watched. From my view, there were an endless number of hallways that stretched on for eternity any way i turned. Not to mention, i could see Matt far off in the distance, cross over one hallway, than cross back much closer, then TWO Matt's crossing different directions! Twilight Zone anyone? I started moving "forward" and was looking for him. He eventually saw me striaght ahead of him and i told him to come here. He didn't believe it was me and sure enough ended up hitting a mirror. I was just around the corner. WHAT IS THIS MADNESS?!? We got stuck in the back as we thought we had reached a dead end...really we had just missed an opening that looked like another mirror. After finding the end of the maze...we back tracked a little bit to have a little more fun with the mirrors. I realized that this place would be exceptionally difficult if there were more people in it. You would NEVER be able to find your way. Coming out at the end, the guy asked us how it was. Simply, it was hysterical. We recieved our "you made it" stickers and came to the end of our loop of floor 4. Time to decend one floor and go around again. About half-way around again, we ended at a Disney store. I really wanted a Stitch plush toy. So we went in. There was a huge Stitch animal, but that was before we saw the rack full of mini ones. Matt found the Bolt plush and gave a resounding "Awwww" of affection. I asked him if he had seen the movie....and he hadn't. WHAT? We are SO watching it. How have you not seen it? We thought the toys were a little expensive and were about to exit when we realized the sign saying they were 2 for 12...which marks each on at 25% off. So....two plush toys from disney store later, we decided to go get noodles. Matt got their Pad tai, which I've never had. He remarked that he likes Jeff's better, (which isn't surprsing to me ;) ) and i got their stroganoff, a safe bet and one i just wanted to have as a delicious reminder of the scrumptious dishes noodles tends to serve. :)

Having seen a Lego bag, we decided to go on a search for the Lego store because quite simply, Lego is awesome. So, at this Legostore they had this new software thing. Quite simply, you chose a boxed set and brought it to this tv screen. Once you showed the box the TV (which acted as a mirror for you and showed yourself holding the box, would build the set on top of the box in 3D. Then you could turn the box every which way and see the Lego set that was inside. It was incredible and sheer genius. After running around the store like kids finding boxes to test, we ended up fooling around with the bricks in the play area. Oh, what happy days. A little tired and run down, we decided to call it a day and head back to camp. It was dark out but that'd be ok.

Returning to the campsite, our tent was still standing, which was impressive considering it was half held up with sticks. Getting out our sleeping bags, i rolled them in while Matt was searching around the car for stuff. First try, I put them in the wrong way....fail. So i switched them around and we both climbed in. From there, we were both so awake that the better part of it made it feel like we were little kids in a blankets and pillow fort. The tent was a modest size...best for two people but rather close quarters. Matt was a bit hyper and couldn't stop laughing either. It was all so highly entertaining, I wasn't sure either of us would get much sleep. But eventually, we both wound down and started to close our eyes. Jessica called as i was settling down and we talked for a bit, but then it was a rather peaceful night in the tent, which was what we intended from the start.