23 March 2024 - With Felix heading to Europe with his high school German Club, we decided to stick closer to home for our own spring break plans. Iris and I had plans to go to the Mall of America during winter break, but my mom's passing cancelled those. So instead, we decided to take the trip now, one Felix wouldn't miss too much.
We left home around 9:15 am. We had to make a quick stop in Marshfield for Nick, then we were off. We stopped to charge and eat at Noodles & Co in Eau Claire. The weather was cold (in the 30s) but clear. Once we got near the Twin Cities, Nick dropped Iris and me off at the Trader Joe's in Woodbury while he went to charge the Tesla. We stocked up on food and drinks, then Nick picked us up. We drove to IKEA first, as Iris had never been to one. She was impressed by all the stuff, but we walked out of there an hour later with only a few small things. After that, we checked into our Airbnb in Minnehaha Falls. Iris immediately fell in love with the first floor apartment in the bungalow. It's a quaint 1920s house, and she loves having her own queen-sized bed. After we got settled, we all drove over to see the Falls themselves, because the weather was good today. It wasn't a huge cascade at this time of year, but it was pretty. We then drove up to Surly Brewing Co. for dinner. Despite it being around 4:45 pm on a Saturday, we had to wait a while for a table, much to hungry Iris' chagrin. Once seated, we ordered food and drinks on our phones and had little interaction with waitstaff, which was different. Iris got a burger while Nick and I got grain bowls. We enjoyed our dinner, then headed out. Nick dropped Iris and me off at the Mall of America so Iris could get her first taste of it. We walked about half the mall and just got her a black tank top. She took a look at the rides and made a plan for tomorrow. We took the train back to our rental around 8 pm. My feet were very tired by then, so it was nice to just put on Spaceballs and relax before bed.
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| Visiting Minnehaha Falls |
24 March - Despite my intention of sleeping in, I was awake by 7:30 am. Once everybody was up, we got ourselves breakfast (bagels and cream cheese, with smoked salmon for us). I did some Italian lessons (in preparation for our next trip). We all got ready and walked to the train station around 9:30 am, and then took the next train to the Mall of America. Iris wanted to do the rides right away. We bought some points, then let Iris decide what rides. She chose the Fairly Odd Parents rollercoaster that we could do together. She was nervous, but the line moved pretty quickly and soon we were on. It was a lot of fun, especially because it was just the three of us in the car, which spun on the track. After that, I left them to do a little shopping of my own. Iris rode the Ninja Turtles ride and was in line for another spinny ride when I tracked them down. (I did buy myself a fall/winter coat from Columbia, on sale for $130). Nick and I watched Iris spin around
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| Iris on the Brainstorm ride |
After Iris got off, we were hungry. We went up to the 3rd floor and found a quick ramen place, where we each got different types of ramen and boba tea. Once sated, Iris wanted to see one more time if the high ropes course was finally open. It was, so we walked back across the mall to get in line. She ended up waiting about an hour in a slow moving line (very much testing her patience) to finally get her chance, then spent about 15 minutes actually on the course (there weren't too many elements that made her pause).
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| Iris on the highest level of the course |
After she was finished, we walked back to the train station and barely caught the next train. It had started snowing while we were in the mall, and it was coming down pretty heavily when we got off the train. We got back to our rental around 2:30 pm and relaxed. At 3 pm, we put on the UW Badgers women's hockey National Championship game versus Ohio State. Alas, they lost 0-1. Iris was sullen because she didn't want to watch the game and was bored. Sigh.
We made a feast of dumplings from Trader Joe's for dinner. Afterward, we taught Iris how to play the card game Dominion, then watched Ghostbusters: Afterlife.
25 March - We again had a quiet few hours in the morning, working on Italian and eating a light breakfast of scones. It was raining, which made the snow we got yesterday even slushier. We drove over to St. Paul to do the Trapped Escape Room I booked the night before. (We did our first this past fall in the Dells and Iris really enjoyed it, so we decided to do another). We had an hour to do the Wizard's Tower room. We finished in 49:15. :D
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| We did it! |
It was about 11 am when we finished. We noticed that there were several Middle Eastern restaurants nearby, so we went to one (Shish) for an early lunch. We got falafel/schwarma/fattoush deliciousness, plus gave Iris her first taste of a Turkish coffee (she wasn't a fan). Once finished, we looked for something to do next. I saw on that there was a waterfall nearby. We parked near the Mississippi River, put on our boots, and attempted to find Shadow Falls. We walked to the edge of the gorge and down the path toward the creek. Thankfully, we were following fresh tracks in the snow so we could tell where to go. Once we reached it, the waterfall was little more than a trickle, but out it was still pretty.
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| Shadow Falls |
Nick wanted to get some work done, so we headed back to the rental. Iris and I hopped on the next train heading downtown to do some looking around there. There were some interesting characters on our train car, but we made it without incident. It was raining harder when we got off the train. We made a nearby Target store our destination, five wet blocks away. Iris found some yoga pants and a paint set. From there, we walked a few blocks back towards the train stop, where I found a crepe shop. We warmed up with some crepes and coffee, and got one for Nick, too. Our Metro tickets were still good, so we caught the next train back to the rental and got in around 3. We spent some time relaxing, then went out to get dinner from Poke House in St. Paul. We brought them back to eat at the rental. Iris's stomach wasn't feeling well, so she waited a bit. After dinner, we played another game of Dominion.
26 March - We woke to snow. We decided to stay in for a while so Nick could get some work done. Iris and I did lots of Italian and put on a recent UW Badgers softball game. We headed out shortly after 11 to Himalayan Restaurant. We were trying to find an Indian buffet, but, alas, those seem to be a thing of the past, at least around Minneapolis. Anyway, we each got a different thing and made our own mini-buffet of appetizers, noodles, and chana masala. It was very tasty.
Next we drove through the snowy streets to the Midtown Global Market. I was looking for some spices and hoped to find them there (I did not), but we did buy a few treats for that evening. From there, we went to the Minneapolis Institute of Art. We spent a couple hours wandering through the galleries, looking at the various collections. Iris started feeling a food coma after the big lunch, so we didn't see everything, but the Asian exhibits were interesting.
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| Tired Iris, pretty pottery |
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| Trying to identify the skyline through the snow |
From there, we started our drive to Shorewood, stopping on the way to charge. We arrived at 3:30 pm and spent several hours at the home of my friends Kendra and Paul from high school/college, and their daughter Eleanor, who is a year old than Iris. Unfortunately, Paul was off on a trip, but we had a lovely time catching up with the ladies. We got Thai food delivered and played Midnight Party and Forbidden Island together, before we left around 7:30 pm. Once back at the rental, we started to get our stuff packed up and put on some softball to watch.
27 March - After our last night in the Airbnb, we were up, packed and out around 8:30 am. We woke to a clear, sunny morning, which was a novelty for this trip. We did some charging in Oakdale, then more in Eau Claire, but we were home at 1 pm. It was nice to see the kitties in person (we had peeped in on them with our Echo Show a couple times during our trip, which probably freaked them out) and be back home.
Trip cost: $
License plates: 30 of 51
