Mall of America

I got Aryn up at 9:00 so she could get ready and we could be out of the hotel and to the mall by 10:00.  I’m hoping to be out of there by 12:00 … 1:00 if we eat lunch there, and on the way to Atlanta.  I’ve been there before – it should not take more than two hours to look at the big mall and say, “Wow, big.”

I also hadn’t intended for her to do any shopping, the budget for this trip not including that, but we’re so far under budget on virtually everything, that I decided to give her a little spree.

So I handed her $200, told her to get something pretty, and left her standing at the four-panel list of stores – hands on cheeks, muttering, “… I don’t know where to start … I don’t know where to start …”

I went and got a Cinnabon.

Then I walked around – three levels of shopping, a fourth level with a movie theatre, bowling alley and restaurants, and an aquarium in the basement.  My phone’s pedometer says I did three miles, and that’s without going into many stores or going through the amusement park in the center of the mall.

Three roller-coasters, a log flume, and myriad other rides – used to be branded Peanuts, but now it’s Nickelodeon.

The giant Lego builds.

Saw the Alpaca store (wool items, not alpacas – you can’t buy an alpaca at Mall of America … I think), the oxygen bar, and Corda-boys for all things corduroy.

Also Foot Locker, Ladies Foot Locker, Kids Foot Locker, and House of Hoops (by Foot Locker).

Around 1:00 I met up with Aryn – she had a lot of bags, but no MoA t-shirt, so we went to the MoA store, where the t-shirt rang up $24.99 and she handed over her last $25 of paper money.  With that penny in change, she left the mall with $1.82 in coins. So we did our part for the economic recovery today.

Back on the road, I stopped about 9:00PM to use the netbook to book a hotel in St. Louis.  Priceline got us the Crowne Plaza downtown near the arch for $55 – others on BiddingForTravel had gotten the Hyatt next door for $46 this week.

I couldn’t read the GPS well as we came into town and took exit 248C instead of 249C, which put us in a bad area of town.  It resembled something used for urban combat training. 

The new version of MapQuest sucks, and couldn’t keep up with my driving to get out of there, so the directions were crappy.  We drove toward downtown, backtracking a few times because streets were closed, and worrying about the car that seemed to have been following us from the interstate.

Finally we got downtown and found the hotel, only to have to drive several blocks in a circle due to one-way streets.  Got to the room at 12:00, looked out the window, saw the arch, don’t have to look at it tomorrow, now, so we can get on the road to Atlanta early.

Atlanta

The stop in Atlanta was to see Twelfth Night at the Shakespeare Tavern, if it could be fit into the time and budget.  With Priceline and BiddingForTravel, the hotel budget was no problem at all, and with a short drive Tuesday and then finishing to Atlanta on Wednesday, we wound up in town on one of the days they perform.

Atlanta has a ton of zones for Priceline bidding, and I was seeing rates of $45-$60 in the BiddingForTravel forums, so I was pretty confident of being able to stay within my $75/night budget for Atlanta.

I started with a bid for a 3-star in Downtown at $40 a night and Priceline counter-offered at $57.  I ignored that and added the three other zones around downtown that I’d prefer to stay in, and offered $45, which got us the Courtyard in Druid Hills, 5-miles from the Tavern, at $45/night.  Marriott’s web rate for these nights – $169/night.

We slept late and left the hotel a little before noon, then went to the World of Coca-Cola, where we drank an inordinate amount of carbonated beverages from around the world, and on to the Georgia Aquarium.  I really hadn’t planned anything other than World of Coca-Cola for the afternoon, but we needed to kill a couple more hours and the Atlanta Zoo has pandas – so I got the Citypass that includes the Aquarium and Zoo, since the Aquarium is right across the street from World of Coca-Cola.

Tomorrow, before we leave, we’ll briefly stop at the zoo to see the pandas.

Shakespeare Tavern was awesome, as always, with a great performance of Twelfth Night, one of my favorites.  I’d swear the actress playing Maria was in Dancing at LusomethingIdon’tremember in Orlando, but can’t be, as it was her first performance.

Home

So, after a lunar month in hotels, we’re finally home.

We started the day with breakfast at the Majestic Diner, serving “food that pleases” since 1929.  I saw it on the drive to the hotel and knew we had to eat there before leaving.  It did not disappoint and we had an awesome breakfast.

Then off to Zoo Atlanta for Aryn to see the pandas. 

It took some searching, since they were still in their sleeping areas, but we finally tracked them down.

They offer a panda encounter there for $150, so if anyone’s looking for a gift idea for Aryn’s birthday, there you go.

We had to get on the road, so weren’t able to go through the rest of the zoo, but I think I’ll be going back to see it … as well as for Shakespeare Tavern’s 2012/2013 season. 

We got back to Orlando around 5:30 and I dropped Aryn off at the house before grabbing some groceries and heading home to apologize to the Big Bad Wolf for leaving her for a month.

She was not amused.