Mall of America 2008

So, today was Mall of America day. We were up at 5:30, showered and out the door a little after six. After a stop at Starbucks (for me) and McDonald's (for Adam) we got on the road. Shockingly, we ran in to no active construction zones and the whole trip was pretty smooth. Adam's going with this new "drive slower to get better mileage" thing so even at 70 the whole way tons of people were zooming past us. We made it out to Bloomington a little after 11. First stop: Food! We ate at Bubba Gump's again since we liked it last time. Since it was relatively early it was not busy and we were done and out of there by 11:45.

Then it was time to shop. I had gone online a few days ago and printed off a list of the stores I wanted to go to. We tried to work our way through the mall in an organized fashion. We started with Bow Wow Meow, which, as the name would indicate, is full of cat and dog related items. While I was tempted to buy the "crazy cat lady" shirt, we went with this pillow instead:



Then we headed to our favorite store, Marshalls. Especially liked in Minnesota where there's no sales tax on clothing. Both Adam and I found some good stuff. But it was awfully hot in the store. We checked out a few more stores including Godiva (yum!), Claire's (where I bought some scrunchies so I could put my hair up) and DSW. We stopped at Harry & David's where, in addition to some onion relish and multigrain chips we picked up some martini mixes:



We wasted no time cracking them open when we got home. Delicious.

We ended our shopping rampage at Le Gourmet Chef. Adam bought me the 12 quart stockpot with pasta and steamer inserts I'd been eyeing for awhile.



It's my early anniversary gift. I got some totally cute cow corn holders



and we also bought some whimsical chip and dip dishes.



We found our way back to the car and headed to Mecca. I mean IKEA. We wound our way through all the showrooms even though I was pretty sure what I was looking for would be found downstairs in the kitchen section. Sure enough, the first thing in our cart were some smaller, deeper plates to match the sets we picked up last year. We also got some garbage cans for the bathrooms that have covers since the cats seem to determined to tip them over and play with the contents. Last item was this cat toy:



Yes, it's a dead mouse pillow. Classic. I put it on the chair when I got home and the cats immediately checked it out.



But then they saw the other pillow and went nuts.



Our best guess is that it was on a shelf in the store with something catnip laced. Or our cats are even more insane than we thought.

Anywho, we made it back home around 7:45. All in all a good trip. And total spent (including gas, which was $3.99 in MN) was just over $200. Not bad. Probably less than we would have spent if we'd gone down to the Dells.