Tuesday, July 25, 2017, Woodbury, MN (Minneapolis/St. Paul)
Day 75

We began our day in the big city with a visit to the Normandale Japanese Garden, nice and peaceful but small at only 2 acres. Then a stop at the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden which features Spoonbridge and Cherry by Claes Oldenburg.  Lunch at Safari, a Somali restaurant, was as good as I remembered when we ate there 10 years ago on a visit to Aaron while he worked at Medtronic one summer. We shared the Goat Mandi and the Chicken Mango Curry washed down with delicious mango juice. Not wanting to have leftovers, we did not eat the bananas served as a condiment and took them home instead. The afternoon was spent at the Minneapolis Institute of Art. Enjoyable museum but we actually did not close this one down but left at 4:30, 30 minutes before closing. Next stop was the Mall of America, the nations largest covering 96 acres. It even has a 7 acre amusement park inside with roller coasters and many other rides. Included was a Lego play area which had huge Lego structures above. We attempted to walk the entire mall and all 3-1/2 floors but pooped out after about 2/3's of the way. After a big lunch, we decided to eat light and had teriyaki at Little Tokyo. More walking lead to Paciugo Gelato. So much for eating light!

Monday, July 24, 2017, Woodbury, MN (Minneapolis/St. Paul)
Day 74

After breakfast before we departed Taylors Falls Interstate Park, we decided to go for a walk but ended up hiking the one mile Sandstone Bluffs Trail. About 25 minutes in we were among the sandstone bluffs and we came to a fork in the trail with one sign marked “trail” with an arrow pointing one way. We follow the arrow and up we went over some very steep rocks which sort of formed a staircase. After awhile we no longer were among sandstone and felt like we were on the wrong trail so we turned around. When we got to the very steep rocks which sort of formed a staircase, it was obvious that the way up was doable but going down was not. So we turned around again. Ultimately, we found ourselves on part of the Railroad Trail and managed to get back to the coach and our short goodbye hike turned into over an hour. Nevertheless, it was fun. We departed and drove one hour to the St. Paul East RV Park and checked in. Surprisingly, we pulled into our spot right next door to our Tiffin Travelers friends, Nick and Ann. We decided to stay put in the afternoon while I did some work and we did some laundry.