Tuesday, January 21, 2025

New year; new adventure! We are grateful for another opportunity to travel together as a family in 2025. This time, we’ll be flying across the globe to Australia and southeast Asia … with a couple-stops along the way.

First, we spent one night in Bloomington, Minnesota near Mall of America and the Minneapolis / St. Paul airport. Our flight to Los Angeles, CA departs early Wednesday morning, so Andi and I thought it’d be easier to stay overnight in a hotel by the airport versus waking up so early to get to the airport in the morning.

We left home around 1:00pm Tuesday, and made the 90-minute drive to the Townplace Suites hotel in Bloomington, MN. A couple weeks ago, Andi tasked Tory with the responsibility of booking our hotel for the night. His requirements were that the hotel provide a shuttle to drive us to the airport, our room have a pull-out sofa so Tory and Aden wouldn’t have to share a bed, and the cost to be under $200. Townplace Suites is the hotel she selected.

Andi’s parents were kind enough to drop us off this afternoon so long as they didn’t have to drive home in the dark. So, we arrived at our hotel in Bloomington around 3:00pm with plenty of time this evening to enjoy Mall of America.

Today happened to be one of the coldest days of the year which made the normally convenient one-block walk from our hotel to Mall of America extremely uncomfortable! We didn’t bring coats because we won’t need them in the Southern Hemisphere, so the four of us dashed down the sidewalk and across a busy intersection to get to Mall of America ill-prepared for today’s single-digit temperature.

The first five minutes of our walk felt tolerable, but the last five minutes seemed like torture. Our faces were red and lungs burned from the cold air. The first doors we approached were locked, so the four of us ran into the JW Marriot Hotel and crossed our fingers it connected to Mall of America via skyway. Fortunately, it did.

I haven’t been to Mall of America in years. Surprisingly, not much has changed inside. Our first stop was the food court on the 3rd floor as none of us had eaten since breakfast. Andi and Aden opted for ramen and Panda Express, Tory ordered a cheeseburger from Shake Shack, and I got a falafel bowl from Naf Naf Grill.

After we ate, the four of us walked around the aisles of the mall for a while. Unfortunately, we couldn’t buy anything since we’re leaving on a big trip, but it was fun to people-watch and wander around nonetheless.

Tory and I decided to get pedicures, and were able to get right in for walk-in appointments. Meanwhile, Andi and Aden went to Tactical Urban Combat for a game of laser tag.

We ended our time at Mall of America with boba drinks & an Uber ride back to our hotel. No way we were going to walk back in the cold again!

By 7:30pm, we were all exhausted and ready to rest in our hotel room. We had a busy day closing up our house, finalizing our packing, driving to Minnesota, and walking around MOA. We spent the rest of the evening lounging around our hotel room. Andi realized he forgot his Kindle, so he ordered a new one from Target and had it delivered to our hotel.

We’ve got an exciting day in store tomorrow which begins with a morning flight to Los Angeles.