Mill City Museum, The 'Human Habitrail' & The Mall Of America

All of us headed over to downtown Minneapolis to visit the Mill City Musuem and then took a long jaunt to the "Candy Store" via adjoining walkways between the buildings in downtown Minneapolis that Jody and Jenn call the "Human Habitrail". Afterwards, we stopped off for pizza before heading home. The next day, we visited the Mall Of America. Boy, is it huge! Let's take a pictorial stroll, shall we?

So, here we are at the Mill City Musuem (http://www.millcitymuseum.org/) This train car is located inside the Museum, and is right next to the coat rack where we hung up our jackets (a very important item when you live in 'Snow Country').

Next, we went on a video ride and guided tour of the old flour mill and the guide talked about the fire that burned down about half of the mill.

This placard explains about the mill fire.

After the guided tour, we were let loose upon the museum to see what other possibilities were available.

This device is a roll mill, where a pair of knurled rollers are used to break apart the wheat kernels, rather than using grist stones that need constant attention to keep the stones in good shape.

In the water room, there were different demonstration tables that showed how old flour mills used to harness the river for power to run the machines in the mill.

At the upstairs area, you can see the river and water ducting systems that the mill used.

This image shows the ill-fated 35W bridge that had collapsed and the reconstruction work.

When we finished up with the Mill City Musuem, it was time to find 'Candy Land', via the Human Habitrail.

As we were going along, we stopped by the Wells Fargo building to see the displays they had put out for visitors. The kids tried out this replica stagecoach.

Meanwhile, this fine example rests in the main lobby, safely out of reach of the children.

There was even a place where you could see what the stagecoaches were all about and what the bank tellers used to work with in the days of Wells Fargo's beginnnings.

Yep, it looks like Treesie has just about had enough of the children's 'chaos theory'...

Here is a view of one of the habitrail "Skyways", taken as we were walking down another one.

Hey wait! I wanna visit Candy Land too!

Ahhhh! The object of our desires...

After satisfying our sweet tooth and making the long march back (for some of us), it was time to head out for some real food. We decided to stop by the Broadway Pizza Station.

Time for some chow!

So Jody, is it good?

Whoa! It looks like Dad had an allergic reaction to the pizza!

On the next day, it was time to visit... the Mall of America...

Time for lunch. Always something of a logistical nightmare due to so many family members in one place.

With lunch over, it was time to start the exploration. We broke off into groups with everyone having their own specific mission to accomplish.

Man! There is a Ferris Wheel in the middle of the mall!

Actually, it's a complete theme park in here...

Kaylee, Katrina, Luann and I decided to play a round of goofy golf.

And here is a shot of my world-famous, "Butt-Putt" technique. There isn't any other way to score that ever-evasive eagle.

So, we had a bunch of fun running around, seeing several nice places in Minneapolis with Jody & Jen working overtime to be gracious and generous hosts. We are very thankful that they welcomed us into their home as they decided to take on the small army we call: "Family".