And Now Back to Our Minnesota Trip

 

Well, day three was rather pictureless. Except for these sleeping beauties, I falied to capture a single moment of our day. And that, my friends, is because our day was qutie an adventure. I will never forget that day... and I only wish I had pictures to show you the craziness!

We set our sights on the Mall of America for Friday. Brownie had a friend who, a month earlier, had moved from our town to Wisconsin. So we decided to meet them at MOA for a day of fun. We just needed to figure out how to get there.

 So if you know me, you know I'm not a "big city driver." I despise it. I hate it. The traffic. The waiting. Ugh! I'm not a city driver. AT ALL! Thank goodenss I'd heard that we should take the light rail to the MOA--which would only be about a 30 minute ride. It was a 6 block walk--stroller and all--to our boarding destination. So I figured it'd be a nice 30 minute sit-down-break after our walk. And after walking around the mall, I knew 30 minutes of sitting again would be handy on our way home. Well, that was my first mistake--thinking we'd be sitting! HA!

We arrived to our boarding site on time--a little early actually. I got my ticket and we waited for the "train(???)" I don't know what it's called, but the vehicle that carries us around. After a few  minutes it came and we boarded. I even found a nice handicap spot that had a two-seater next to a big empty spot for wheel chaiirs--or strollers. We were enjyoing our ride for about 5-10 minutes when all of a sudden they kicked us--all of us riders, not just my girls and me--off the "train." Something about getting on a bus was all we were told.

Honestly I wondered if this was sometimes par for the course in city traveling. I didn't know any better! So we get off the train and look for the busses, which happen to be down some stairs--I HAVE A STROLLER. I looked around and found an elevator (thank God), and we made it to a bus. And then I had to ask some nice strangers to help me lug my sit-n-stand (with a baby and loaded diaper bag in it) up the bus stairs while I prayed that we'd find a place where we'd fit to sit all together.

Thankfully we found a tight squeeze near the front of the bus. We sat down and I thought we were headed toward the mall (which was the last stop on the light rail), at which we'd arrive in roughly 20 minutes. Guess what? I was wrong. We rode around on that thing for over an hour. I'll spare you the very boring detials, but suffice it to say it was hot, I felt we were lost, and I was late for meeting our friends. So I get out my phone.

But oh, this is the day of fallacies! My phone was nearly dead. I saw some missed calls from our friends, so I tried to get one text into to say that we were late and I wouldn't know when we'd arrive. BUT my phone died mid-text. I didn't even know where we were meeting her and here I was leaving her stranded with unanswered phone calls. And in this day and age when you program phone numbers and never memorize them... let's just say I had no idea what phone number to call even if I did find a pay phone (in a very large mall).

Then I remember one of Matt's co-workers saying that they spent time in the Apple store at the mall (it might help to know at this point that I have an iphone). So I decide that's where we'll head first when we eventually get to the mall so I can hopefully charge my phone. But that's too far in the future because right now I'm riding around on a hot bus full of people trying to get to work on time. But eventually we end up at the airport and the bus drops us off. They tell us that we can ride another "train" to get to where we need to go. And we do. We catch our next "train" within about 10 minutes and once again we're on our way to the MOA. Along the way we see another "train" stopped dead in it's tracks on an overpass. It is empty because the people on it were un loaded once they realized some power was down and it couldn't go any further. It was blocking the way for all other "trains" and that was the reason we couldn't ride our "train" all the way to the mall.

It's now over an hour past the time we said we'd meet at the mall and I'm worried that our friends have forgotten us since we are a no-show and not answering phone calls. But we finally make it and we of course have to find a bathroom immediatley (three littles and one in diapers=fun). We found one and then headed to the map of the mall--which in all my stress I couldn't figure out how to read for the life of me. So I decide to just ask somebody to point me toward the Apple store.

A ten minute sprint later I'm in the Apple store begging for help and the college kid points me over toward the one charger that'll work the best--but it doesn't have a cord. It's just a docking station--so if I want to talk I have to bend down and press my ear up against the phone. HA! Meanwhile, my kids are in awe of the cardboard cut-outs of people with various iproducts. They nearly knock them over as I'm performing my "bend down and talk" dance. I decide for plan B and just text her saying... "long story. can't talk. can text. we're here, sorry we're late. Where to meet?"

She answers back with "the carousel" and I have no idea where this is. I know we talked about meeting in the Nickelodeon park, so I'm assuming that's where a carousel is. We sprint another 10 minutes to the park and find a dozen little carousels. But since she said "The" carousel, I'm assuming we'll see a nice-sized one somewhere. I look all around, check maps but can't figure out where we are let alone anything else. I'm telling you, I don't deal well under pressure. I'm much too frazzeled.

Out of sheer dumb luck we stumble upon this carousel and one of the girls shouts out "there's Mary." Ah, yes! There are our friends who didn't give up on us. I'm so happy because my little Brownie would've just been terribly sad if we didn't get to see Mary.

They got off the ride and we decided it was time for lunch. Together, the other mom and I figured out where to go to eat. We had a nice lunch and even stopped at the Disney store (Boushka and Bug needed some presents). Then we headed back to the amusement park where we were amused all afternoon. We rode Diego's bus. Drove around in Rugrats' bumper cars. Rode the carousel again! Ventured onto a Blues Clues ride that resembles Dumbo's ride at Disney World. And of course we pottied about twice an hour. I think by the end of this day, we all knew where the bathrooms were!

We finished up our nice day with a cookie from the Nestle store. Mary and Brownie had a blast playing together and it was nice to see her mom and siblings as well. It turns out they had a rough time arriving at the mall as well, so we ended up not being all that late. We both wished each other luck for our trips home and parted ways around 5pm.

Hesitantly, we bought another "train" ticket and waited. Finally we boarded, but this time it was rush hour. On a Friday. Right before a Twins game! "CRAP!" Was my only thought.

We hardly made it on the "train" before it's doors wanted to close. It was so jam packed and we didn't have a place to sit. Luckily, I got the stroller manuevered into a "bike" section that was basically long and empty so the stroller fit. But there were no seats for the girls or for me. But I was able to have one sit between the stroller and the side of the "train" while the other girl sat on the "sit" part of our "sit-n-stand."

We were surrouded by people headed to the game, and here I was a hot, frazzled mom with three kids trying to hold onto the stroller with one hand while the other held onto the handle that hangs from the ceiling. I thought, okay, we've got this! And then Scrunchie lost it. She'd been traveling for three days, and had spent enough time in that stroller--and she chose NOW to let us know!

By the way, she wasn't just crying. She was belting out her best tune that soudned like somebody was hurting her to her core. People started looking at us, but they were full of pitty instead of anger or frustration. I tried holding her a few times, but that didn't help--plus it was nearly impossible to hold her, hold on so I didn't fall, and try to hold the stroller in place so it didn't go rolling around. So for 30 minutes I just prayed she'd stop crying and that we could ride this thing out to our stop and skip the whole "switching to a bus" thing.

A very long "train" ride later we ended up at our downtown destination. I even gave everybody surrounding us a warning at the stop before ours that we'd be getting off next. They were all very nice and made it their duty to see that we could get through. I bet they were ready for us to get off so they could have a little break from the baby cries.

I was worried the doors would open and close without us being able to get off, but we made it safely thanks to the help of our "train neighbors." And now was the easy part--walking 6 blocks back to the hotel with cranky, hot, preschoolers and a screaming baby during rush hour. Oh, and my dead phone!

But we made it. And we even found Matt, which I wasn't sure we would since he wasn't able to reach me. We grabbed a quick dinner at the hotel restaurant because the girls really wanted to go swimming that night. So we ate in a hurry and then ran back to the room. Poor Scrunchie was caput by this point and wanting to go to bed. So I decided to stay with her and finish reading The Help and unwind. Matt took the big girls swimming four a couple hours and I finished the book. That was a relaxing evening and the quiet was very nice by that point.

The girls came back with many stories about jumping off the ladder, swimming under water and playing with daddy. I was so happy to see them so happy spending that time with their dad. That, after all, was the purpose of this trip for us--to give the older two girls some very much needed one-on-two time. And they soaked it up.

It was a crazy day, but we all made it to our destinations safely. We were happy to see our friends and we all enjoyed the rides at the park. Ask me to do it all again and I'd say, YES! But I would make sure my phone was actually plugged in while charging! Oh, and I almost forgot... the reason I had no pictures (other than a dead phone that couldn't take any) was because I forgot to put the battery back into the camera after charging it all night. HA! What a day.... :-)