Tasty Minnesota Brews and the Magnificent Mall of America!

Can you imagine a mall with 520 stores, over 50 restaurants and a theme park with 30 rides at the center of a shopping mecca? I couldn’t either until I saw it with my own eyes. The Mall of America is the largest shopping mall in the country, and the scope of this shopping arena is simply staggering. We planned our summer trip to the St. Paul/Minneapolis area of Minnesota just to revisit this amazing spectacle. We spent 2 full days at the Mall of America, and our days were jam packed with lots and lots of walking, shopping, eating and drinking. You might think that a trip to Minnesota sounds boring but you would be dead wrong. There is so much to do. We could have spent another week there and still been entertained. You could spend a week at the mall alone.

This doesn't even come close to capturing the scope of MOA

Underground Aquarium

In addition to the vast array of stores to shop in, there is an aquarium below the mall, which includes a very cool water tunnel where you can walk under the sea and view sharks, turtles and a variety of fish and sting rays up close and personal. There is also a cool exhibit of various types of jelly fish including ones that glow in the dark in various colors!! Andy caught these cool moments with the sharks swimming right over us. I could have stayed in the tunnels all day - so fascinating.

Our first day consisted of a lot of walking and feeling in awe of our surroundings. Everything at the Mall of America is larger than life. There are stores for every item you could possibly imagine. There is an entire store for just large bean bags; a store with flip flops wall to wall in every style and color imaginable and a store devoted to just peeps - that's right peeps marshmellows! This mall is truly unique with a PC store directly across from the Mac store (how funny), 2 Best Buys, Bose speaker store (loud), and my personal favorite – Brighton jewelry!! One of the best perks of shopping at the MOA is that there is no sales tax for clothes or shoes. There is also an 18 hole miniature golf course above the theme park in the mall in case you get tired of the endless shopping. 

Had to try these out and needed a sugar rush to keep my energy up!

Legos anyone? We only have a couple billion!!!

My Brighton Stash!!! Jackpot!

Massive theme park - kids are literally going out of their 

minds in here - very loud due to lots of screaming

There is no shortage of restaurants to indulge in within this 5 mile arena. We did our best to sample food and drinks from as many of the eateries as possible including Bubba Gumps, Tony Romas, Dick’s Last Resort, Stir Crazy and Crave. The Happy Hour specials at many of these eateries allow you to enjoy many beers, wines and menu items at affordable prices so we took full advantage of that.

One of our favorite places was Crave (shown above). With their happy hour specials we were able to order several small share plates to try out their steak bites with blue cheese which was out of this world, Korean sweet and sour bites, edamame cream cheese wontons, and a few mini desserts in addition to wine and local beers. We were blown away by the flavors of these tapas!!! 

Ever since I started planning this trip I knew we would eat at Bubba Gumps since it is one of my favorite places - we totally need on here in Memphis. Lt. Dan's Drunken Shrimp with a bourbon sauce and andouille sausage over creamy mashed potatoes is on my list of top meals ever. I seriously crave and dream about this meal all the time. And boy did it live up to my memory - WOW!! I also tried a Blue Hawaiian for the first time and it was amazing!

Being the movie buffs that we are we couldn’t pass up the chance to try out the MOA’s VIP theater -160 seat theater devoted to adults ages 21 and up which is made to suit us perfectly. For $2 extra you gain admittance into this theater and have a waitress who brings you wine and beer as you request it throughout the movie. You can’t beat that plus we went during happy hour so we kept the drinks coming the whole time - nice!! The seats are plush and large with ample leg room and tables for your drinks/snacks.

We enjoyed watching Men In Black 3 as we were treated to this VIP treatment and practically had the theater to ourselves with just a few other couples. I could get used to this type of theater treatment and I will certainly be contacting my local theater to suggest a similar setup for ages 21 and up. It certainly would entice us to have a few more movie date nights if we were assured that there wouldn’t be kids and teens talking through the entire movie.

Their theater has a Star Bar with happy hour specials before and after movies and the VIP section has it’s own bar and concession stand with no lines, and if you want to order during the movie you just raise your hand and you are promptly waited on without leaving your seat. They are extremely accommodating and are invested in creating an experience that you want to repeat over and over again. We tried out the new D-Box seats right outside the theater lobby. D-Box is the new theater experience with specialized seating programmed for each movie in order to create a full body theater experience. The seats move with the action, shake during explosions and have surround sound speakers attached to the individual seats. They were previewing the new Snow White and the Huntsman in the D Box seats and you could hear the arrows whizzing by your head as they flew through the air. The seats tilt up and around to mimic the action in the movie scenes which was reminisicent of the 4D theaters in Disney and Universal. This experience costs an extra $8 on top of the normal ticket price so that is quite steep especially if you are also adding in a 3D charge. It was cool to test them out though. We were lucky enough to score free VIP movie tickets so we didn’t even pay the $24 normal ticket prices which made this VIP experience even more enjoyable! We were even treated to a free drink at Crave with our VIP wrist bands so we were happy with the overall experience. Plus our feet needed the 2 hour rest during the movie from all the walking. I wrote a similar but more detailed blog about the VIP theater experience if you are interested - it's on my Movie Psychoanalyst blog where I review movies http://moviepsychoanalyst.blogspot.com/2012/06/men-in-black-3-viewing-at-vip-theatre.html

If you are in to thrill rides there are plenty to chose from at the Nickelodeon theme park. This area was packed with hyperactive kids screaming their heads off as they were tossed in the air and spun around on the roller coasters. We rode the log chute water ride which looked fun and calm at first but ended up being a little bit more terrifying than I originally thought. The ride concludes as you drop 40 feet over a water fall. Whew! We were pretty soaked afterward. It certainly got the blood pumping.

Video of the drop

Log chute drop

Summit Brewing Company

After spending two days at the mall we were eager to try out some of the local hot spots in St. Paul. We enjoyed a free hour tour at the local Summit Brewery which included a thorough tasting of their 9 current beers. Each individual on the tour is allowed 3 samples and the pours are very generous. We found several beers at this brewery that we liked and even ordered at the local pubs on the rest of the trip. Andy loves pale ales and Summit has no shortage of IPA’s. One of their most popular is the double pale ale. My personal fav was the Dunkel Weizen which is a limited brew. Summit allows each of their brewers to experiment with new recipes quarterly and they produce a limited supply but this keeps things interesting and offers variety for regulars who get the option to try out new beers every few months. 

Pics of the Tour

Time for Tasting!

They give good pours for samples. Each person gets 3!!

Summit Tasting Room/Tap Room

Walking Tour of St. Paul 

After our tour we headed over to Mickey’s Diner which is a small diner car from the 40’s and is one of the first to be decorated in Art Deco style. This establishment has been featured on numerous television shows including Unwrapped, Feasting on Asphalt, and several films. I had the One Eyed Jack - grilled ham and cheese sandwich with a fried egg in the middle - it was delicious!

James Hill Mansion

Afterwards we set out for a walking tour that I put together from research of some of the most notable spots in downtown St. Paul including the Landmark building, the capitol, St. Paul’s Cathedral and a drive down the famous Summit and Grand Avenue strips. This area is considered the most preserved Victorian residential area in the country. It was interesting to see the houses from another era.

Inside the Landmark Building

The breathtaking St. Paul Cathedral

The Cathedral of St. Paul was jaw droppingly gorgeous inside and outside. We spent time perusing the chapel during a small mass for the deaf. It was more like a museum than a church. Andy took the cool pics of the cathedral from the outside shown above. We didn't take any pics on the inside since mass was going on, but I found a few online to share to show how beautiful it is. It was a humbling experience just to walk inside this place. It's unreal!!!

Cathedral Ceiling

Minnesota History Center

Soda Fountain

Our walking tour landed us at the Minnesota History Center which had free public hours Tuesday evening which was a great find for us. I really enjoyed their retro exhibits featuring a fully functioning old time soda fountain with original menus, soda jerk machines and décor from the 50’s.

Retro kitchen - hilarious

A highlight for me was the "Get to the Basement" exhibit which recreates a tornado that struck Fridley, MN in May of 1965 during the worst tornado outbreak in the Twin Cities history. Six destructive tornadoes hit this area that day with 4 of them rating an F4. For this exhibit, you crawl in to a basement to replicate the feeling of weathering that massive tornado that destroyed much of the small town. It felt very real as the lights flickered, the windows rattled and the sound of the swirling wind surrounded you and shook the house for several minutes. As you emerge from the basement, you can see what the damage looked like after this tornado passed through Fridley, MN. Cars were in trees, rooms of houses were left exposed and house objects were scattered across the lawn. As someone who is fascinated with severe weather and tornadic storms this was a cool experience for me without the actual danger that comes with weathering a real storm.

One exhibit that really stood out was the Open House - If These Walls Could Talk. You walk through and explore a replica of a house from St. Paul's history that spanned 118 years and housed 50 different families throughout that time period. You see how the times changed as you walk from room to room and catch a glimpse of their daily life. The look and feel of the house changed as you walked through different decades. A lot of time and thought went in to this particular exhibit as they had audio discussions playing that could have been actual conversations at the dinner table during those particular times in history. The children’s rooms had objects from those time periods that they would have played with and clothes that they would have worn. Portraits of the different families and histories of the prominent family members were displayed throughout the house. I wish we had more time to explore this exhibit as you could spend an hour or two pouring over the small details sprinkled throughout the different rooms. It’s always fun to learn about the history of the places you visit on vacation. It makes it that much more interesting.

Andy took this cool pic of the capitol in downtown St. Paul from a viewfinder in the History Center

Granite City Brewery 

We stopped in McGoverns pub for appetizers and a local brew before heading off to a late dinner at Granite City Brewery. Granite is a brew pub with a nice variety of craft beers including their Northern Light Ale, Brother's Benedict Bock, and Duck of Wellington IPA, etc. The beer cheese soup with their own Northern Light Ale was delightful. An interesting find at Granite included their fusion beers or what they call Two Pulls where they mix two of their craft beers to create a whole new taste. I loved the amber bock with northern ale.

Overall we tried around 20 local beers and 10 wines that we had not sampled previously. What a nice change from our usual brews. We definitely need some breweries in Memphis that make their own beers. It's crazy how many of these places are in Minnesota. We came back wanting to start brewing our own!

Other trip highlights - we sampled local brews at Great Waters Brewing Company and followed that with a high energy interactive play called Bye Bye Liver - The Twin Cities Drinking Play. This improv group hosts a social gathering at the Caberat stage at the Camp Bar. This fun, fast paced play includes hilarious sketches about the effects of alcohol in social events and the differences of the effects of alcohol between men and women. It was very fresh and fun. You are encouraged to toast with your favorite beverage throughout the play which makes it more of a party or drinking game than a play.

We concluded our trip with a very relaxing and delicious lunch at Pardon My French wine bar and café in Eagan MN. This was definitely one of the highlights of the trip. We spent a few hours that afternoon sampling French red wines and even a sparkling rose along with a delicious lunch. The Haute Ham Crossiant was one of the best things I’ve ever eaten. The Bechamel sauce was unbelieveably savory and mindblowing. The pretzel cheese Danish was the perfect complement to my 2 wine flights of the French reds and Bordeaux. This sampling of wine flights was perfectly timed before our 2 hour flight home to relax the preflight jitters. 

And I can't forget to mention our awesome hotel - Staybridge Suites - it looked like a lodge in the mountains. Very impressed with their roomy and cozy suites with the fully stocked kitchens. We will definitely be staying there again! Overall, it was a great trip!