The primary reason for visiting Minnesota last week was for Susan to attend a business meeting for her new company. The location of her meeting was about 10 miles away from the Mall of America, so we decided to stay at the Marriott hotel that connects to the mall. We spent several hours at the mall Tuesday afternoon, and while Susan was at her meeting on Wednesday I walked back over the mall and spent several more hours exploring the biggest mall in America.

This was my third time to visit the mall. My first visit took place back in the late 90s as part of a work trip, and we went as a family while on vacation in 2015. Even though I was familiar with the mall and knew what to expect, it’s easy to forget the sheer size of the place. The mall currently has approximately 520 stores and 50 restaurants. The theme park is still there in the center of the mall, and while I didn’t ride any of the rides, I spent some time walking around the area watching them to go and listening the screams of children as they passed by.

The Peeps store I remembered from last time was gone and had been replaced by a massive M&M store that came close in size to the one in Las Vegas. In the middle of the store was a video display of M&Ms moving around that was being displayed on a matrix of 90 flatscreen televisions (3 wide and 30 high). Just like Vegas, they had M&Ms sorted by color in gigantic clear tubes available for purchase, along with plush dolls, clothing, pillows, collectibles, and more. We couldn’t resist having our picture taken with the roaming yellow M&M who was making his way around the store.

I also spent some time exploring the LEGO store, which is surrounded by LEGO statues that are ten to fifteen feet tall. The store had every franchise and type of set you can think of, from cars and basic building sets to Star Wars, Harry Potter, and Spider-Man sets. They even had 3′ tall versions of Mario and Luigi made from regular LEGO bricks but with cutouts where their eyes and mouths went, revealing an LCD screen that allowed them to smile, blink, and talk.

One of the neatest things we did on this trip was visit the aquarium at the mall. The majority of the aquarium consists of walking through a tube with fish, sharks, manta rays, and turtles completely surrounding you. It was very disconcerting to watch a shark swim toward you, glide directly over your head, and continue on to the other side.

On Wednesday, I spent multiple hours walking through the mall in an attempt to see as many stores as I could. During my walk I spotted an escape room, a room of illusions, a blacklight putt-putt course, a hall of mirrors, not to mention all the toy stores, game stores, and restaurants. I ate at a few different places, which I’ll be discussing later this week in a separate post. I was so disappointed on Wednesday when moments after eating lunch, I discovered a place called Mason’s Lobster Rolls that looked (and smelled) delicious. Around the corner from that shop was a novelty candy shop called “It’s Sugar!” with a tagline that read, “You Know You Want It!”

During the four hours I was at the mall on Wednesday, I believe I walked the length of the mall’s second floor, part of the the third, and the amusement park. I never explored the first floor, and never made it up to the fourth. This mall would be a great place for power walkers, especially knowing there are coffee, candy, and ice cream shops every few feet in case you need to refuel.

It doesn’t take long for me to get my fill of shopping inside a mall. There are a ton of things to see and do at the Mall of America, and by the time Susan’s meeting had concluded I hadn’t seen everything at the mall, but I had seen enough.