Walking at the Mall of America -- Again!

The temperature for yesterday, February 18, was to be somewhere around 40 degrees ( 4 C). That's like 50 degrees warmer than some recent days, and I wanted to get outside and do something. However, the day before we had received a rather substantial snowfall and I thought the walks and trails might be quite snow covered or else with the temperature very slushy, and I didn't want to do a long walk wearing boots. So I decided to do the walk at the Mall of America.

The walk box for this is at the Country Inn and Suites across the street to the south from the Mall of America. When I pulled into the parking lot I was amazed at the amount of snow -- the area to the west of us had received even more snow. Right now for snow fall, the Twin Cities are lagging just a bit behind New York City, which I assume makes New York City quite a mess with more than 50 inches of snow this winter.

I walked into the Mall about 11:30 and was amazed to see some many little children. Then when I got around to the rotunda I figured out why-- it was Toddler Tuesday.

The rotunda had tables set up for craft projects for little ones. Never had seen Toddler Tuesday before.

My goal was to do 7K on this walk. My distance book was sitting at 828 kilometers and I wanted to even it out for easily adding 5 or 10 K for a number of future walks. Walking in malls is not my favorite activity; I find it rather boring, even though one can window shop or really shop at the same time. And since it was lunch time and I was hungry walking was even less delightful.

I noticed how easy it would be to stop at Ruby Tuesday, since there is an escalator right beside it that takes one between the second and third levels. So I finished a round on Level 2, went up to Level 3 by the rotunda and then came down the escalator at Ruby Tuesday. I had never eaten there before, which was another reason for picking this restaurant.

When I saw the menu I thought perhaps I had made a mistake, because it leaned towards many dishes with shrimp, not my favorite. Then I noticed a dish with sirloin steak which sounded good...

and it was!!!

On a walk by Columbia sporting goods store I found interesting signs.

First I noticed the company supports the Canadian Freestyle SkiTeam. Then in another couple steps I found this sign..

support for the U.S. Freestyle Ski Team and finally...

support also for the Russian Freestyle Ski Team.

Around on Level 3 I found this VW

This is part of an exhibit for Barbie House, which I made no effort to find.

Looking up I found an airplane.

 This is part of the decor for a restaurant on Level 4. This picture doesn't give one much for reference as to the size. This is not a toy airplane. I think it could surely fly outdoors.

So I did find a few new things at the Mall of America.