Mall of America Visit

It was only lightly snowing when we arrived at the Mall of America.

We awoke to snow flurries and news that a blizzard warning was in effect for the Minneapolis-St. Paul area. Not exactly news you want to hear when you will be doing a bit of driving on unfamiliar roads. But Lauren and I knew we only had a few commitments on our schedule, so we made plans to allow for plenty of drive time.

First up was a visit to the Mall of America. Lauren had asked about it and I knew it would be fun to spend a few hours there. We arrived to find it nearly empty and not many more people were there when we left (as the snow continued to fly).

We visited the Disney store, a couple T-shirt shops, a hockey team apparel store, both Oakley stores (who knew the mall had two of them?), the lululemon athletic shop and we ate at Burger King in the food court. The highlight – at least for both of us – had to be the Oakley store. "Chelsea," the associate, didn't realize she was helping me put together my custom prescription glasses order without a chance for a sale. That's because the BMC Racing Team will work with Oakley – a team sponsor – to produce the glasses for me at no cost. What I needed was an idea of which frames looked best for me and what was able to be customized.

Formerly "Camp Snoopy," the amusement area at Mall of America is now a Nickelodeon property.

I thought this was a cute photo – until Lauren told me she posed here last time.

Lauren and I agreed Julia would have loved this store.

There are dozens of Lego choices on offer at the Lego store.

This seemed like an appropriate T-shirt to purchase.

Lauren enjoyed an Oreo shake at the food court.