Vacation 2008

Soooooo with the economy being what it is we will not being going back to Disney World as we thought we would be this fall. We decided to go simple this year and drove to Minnesota to the Mall of America. Why do you ask would a woman take her husband and two boys to the mall???

• It was cheaper than Disney World.



• We could drive there in less than a day.



• They boasted tons of family activities.



• I could shop while they played (wishful thinking on that part).



• We got a heck of a great package!

We left on a Tuesday morning and got there by lunchtime. The boys were great in the car. I was beyond impressed! We got there by lunchtime, ate lunch and checked into our hotel. The boys were impressed by the pool and Dave and I were impressed with the room. After settling in we swam in the pool and then headed over to the mall. We walked around a little and then someone gave us some tickets for the rides. The boys and I rode a roller coaster and the boys were ready for more. We reminded them that we would be spending a day there so not to worry. We had dinner, shopped some more and then went and crashed.

So my package included:

• Our hotel stay.



• All day passes for one day at the amusement park in the mall.



• Admission to the aquarium in the mall.



• Admission and parking to the Minnesota Zoo.



• Tickets to the IMax theatre.



• Admission to the Science Museum.



• Coupons to various restaurants.

There was a catch though. You had to use this all in 3 days. This wasn't a problem at all. We did the aquarium the same day we did the amusement park. It was our "break" from the rides. The theatre was located at the zoo so we did both of those together. The cool thing was that everything but the zoo was indoors so we really only needed one good weather day.

We really had a great time and would consider doing the whole thing again another time. I did not do any real mall damage since Big Brother (ie Dave) was watching everything I picked up. Driving home we did get caught in every storm there was...but we made it safe and sound. The boys are still talking about it so that says a lot. Now to figure out an inexpensive way to spend a few days away from home (and the boys) for our 10Th anniversary!