by We surprise found ourselves with some extra time in our travel plans, and we found out we could house and pet sit for our friend Heather, we made an unexpected visit to the Twin Cities (Minneapolis and Saint Paul) in Minnesota. The cover photo is a double rainbow we saw from Heather’s house — who said van life is rough?
Heather’s boys, Henry (named after Henry Tilney in Jane Austen’s Northanger Abbey, naturally) and Victor, are super sweet, and they let us pet and love them right away. Victor, it was clear, would let a honey badger pet him if it came to it, but Henry took a bit more wooing. It didn’t take long before I was plotting how to accidentally pack one or both of them in the van. What a treat for us!
The Mall of America
The Mall of America is the definition of “sensory overload”. Lots of people, very chaotic, loud, flashing lights, etc. The mall is 5.6 million square feet in overall size, and has more than 500 stores on 4 levels. It has nearly 15,000 parking spaces, a hotel, a full-blown aquarium, the largest indoor theme park in the United States, and much more.
I can’t remember the last time I shopped in a mall, but this one is a “destination” — and it included a Lego store — so we made a “one and done” visit. Of course Doug walked in saying he did not need any Lego sets, but did not walk out empty handed.
One of the food items that came on my radar for Minnesota was Vietnamese Pho. I’d never had Vietnamese food before, so this seemed like a good time to try it.
We went to a very well-rated hole-in-the-wall restaurant, but I found the food just wasn’t my thing. This could possibly be because true Pho would have been made with beef broth and not the vegetarian version with shrimp and fishcakes that I got.
Doug got a banh mi sandwich, but in a vegetarian mock duck version so I could try that. The shrimp spring rolls were very good, but I think Heather enjoyed her broken rice dish the most of any of us.
Amazon Fulfillment Center Tour
We’ve had “take an Amazon warehouse tour” on our list for a while. There are — no surprise — many Amazon fulfillment centers around the country (380 of them around the world!), but the tours fill up fast and we’ve not been able to get one scheduled. That string ended when we toured the facility in Shakopee, a suburb southwest of Minneapolis.
It was pretty amazing to see all the automation. 2,000 employees work in the 855,000 square foot facility, which has more than 14 miles of conveyance tracks. The robotic storage system was jaw-dropping to see — you really need to see it for yourself, honestly.
My only complaint is that we weren’t allowed to take any pictures. Given that Doug and I are probably the reason they built a distribution center in Connecticut, I thought the least they could do was let us take a few snaps. I’d love to do a tour closer to the holidays when it must be absolutely insane inside, though I’m not sure if they run the tours then (but I’ll be checking!).
A Cubano Porketta Sandwich from Iron Ranger. “Iron Range Porketta” is a traditional food item from the Iron Range area of Minnesota.
The famous Jucy Lucy burger from Matt’s Bar & Grill, with molten cheese in the center of the patty. Yes, I spelled Jucy correctly. This is a nationally-known iconic burger, and Doug was very happy to be able to try it.
Old Dutch Foods was founded in Saint Paul in 1934, and they’re still in business today.
