Saturday, September 2, 2017 - Twin Cities - Mall of America

After breakfast at the hotel which wasn't bad (my husband really enjoyed the eggs), we washed the car and stopped by BitterSweet, a gluten free bakery.   Unfortunately, they had a sign up indicating they were closed for the holiday weekend.

From there, we headed to the Mall of America and found our favorite spot on the fifth level near Macy's.  It is an end spot with a walkway on the other side (so no chance of door dings).

Since we didn't spend any time at the bakery, we were a bit early (about 9:15 a.m.)  A few stores opened at 9:30 a.m. but most didn't open until 10:00 a.m. so we just wandered the mall for a while.  It was nice to be in the mall when it was so quiet.

The mall now has electric go carts on the 4th level so at 10:00 a.m. we were one of the first in line for Sky Karting at SMAAASH and actually the only one in his heat.  He had a blast and one of his best laps was 44.689 seconds.  When he got out one of the workers asked him if he had done it before and when he said he had not, the worker said it was a really good first time.  Here is a video of the lower level (the track was a multilevel track).

Before we left home, we stumbled upon a Groupon for the Amazing Mirror Maze on the third floor of the mall.  We really enjoyed it!

Then we spent some time wandering the mall and starting our Christmas shopping before we had lunch at the south food court at Maki of Japan.  We spent some more time shopping in the afternoon and spent some time people watching.

Nickelodeon Universe seems even more packed with rides and has a few new additions including a zip line and high ropes course.

Before finding dinner, we did FlyOver Canada (part of FlyOver America) which was an amazing experience.  My only complaint is that I felt a bit of motion sickness but it was worth it for the views and camera work.

Then we ate at Freshii for an excellent dinner with fresh ingredients.  My husband had a brown rice bowl with avocado, corn, black beans, chicken, cilantro, spicy bbq sauce and aged cheddar cheese.  I had their Zen salad with chicken and a bottle of Perrier (in a glass bottle!).  Then I noticed that BitterSweet sold some of their cookies, muffins, and pumpkin bars there so we picked up a couple of cookies, a pumpkin bar, and another bottle of Perrier for dessert in the hotel room.  We left the mall about 6:30 p.m. after over 9 hours at the mall!