Roadtrip Part 2
October 2, 2008
It took us about 5 hours before we reached the border of Minnesota but we still had quite a ways to go before reaching MOA. We crossed a bridge and there was THE sign.
Minnesota welcomes you!
At this point I was really happy and excited while Rob was really close to throwing me into the river we were crossing. HEH Here’s why…
S: We’re in Minnesota!!!!
R: Yes we are
S: So where is the Mall of America?
R: Ummm honey, we just reached the border.
S: I know, we’re in Minnesota!
R: MOA is a third of the way up the state
S: Oh ok, that’s not too bad. How far are we?
R: Pretty far…
S: Ok….how long of a drive left?
R: 3 or 4 hours
S: What?! But we’re in Minnesota!
R: …….
(Ten or fifteen minutes later….)
S: Are we there yet?
R: No…
S: How about now?
R: No…
S: Now?
R: No
S: NOW????????
R: NO!!!!!!!!
S: Why not?
R: 
Repeat the above conversations, oh let’s say about 10 times, throughout the journey. I’m sure at SOME point Rob would’ve driven off a cliff somewhere. Lol.
It should be noted that I’m actually not THAT annoying. I was having some fun and trying to make Rob laugh because most of the time he had the look going as he was concentrating on the driving. All I wanted was to get a 
from him.
The scenic, although longer, route took us across the Mississippi River. That was the whole purpose of the scenic route.
Side note from Rob “The first time we crossed the river, you didn’t get the pictures you wanted. So I drove back to Wisconsin for a couple minutes, turned around and crossed the bridge again so you can have your pictures, remember???”
Heh, thanks honey. I owe you one. 
The view after the bridge was so breathtaking that even the pictures doesn’t do much justice.
One of the many dams along the Mississippi River
We stopped so many times during the first hour or so on this track across the Mississippi River, one of the longest rivers in the United States and fourth longest in the world. I remember reading somewhere that it runs through like 10 states.
On a highway lookout stop
Oh so pretty!
Not so pretty but must camwhore a bit lah!
Along the Mississippi River are naturally formed and man-made lakes. Lake Pepin is a naturally occuring lake and the largest lake on the river. After reading up some information about it on Wikipedia, I’ve been zooming in my pictures to see if I caught a lake “monster”. Apparently, there have been sightings of Pepie, a version of the Loch Ness Monster throughout the years in that lake.
Anyway, no such luck lah. Thought that if I did capture a picture of Pepie, I could make some money selling the picture to a magazine or something and be rich! 
Lake Pepin
We stopped by a town called Winona for a quick bite at McDonald’s. At this point I remember asking Rob, “Are we going to get to MOA in time before the stores close? I wanna go shopping!”. Of course he laughed at my eagerness to shop and I also remember him using that against me.
S: Oooo let’s stop and take a look here
R: If we keep stopping you’re not gonna get a chance to shop today
S: Oh…ok. Let’s keep going.
R: 
We kept driving and driving until we saw this nice little town by a lake a little over an hour later. There were many sailboats on the lake. I couldn’t ressist, we HAD to stop and take some pictures. I think the town is call Lake City. Heh how creative.
I think the most we spent there snapping pictures was about 30 minutes. I would have loved to dip my feet in the water or something but shopping at MOA was my ultimate goal for the day. 
Ahhh women…Lol
And so about 2 hours later (and after checking in our hotel room), we saw this…
NO not the “Right Turn Lane” sign. Look BEHIND IT, at the humongous building
MALL OF AMERICA!
The journey started at 9am and we arrived at MOA just before 7.30pm. The roadtrip was SUPPOSE to take 6-7 hours but with my constant shenanigans “Are we there yet? Are we there yet? How about now? Now? Are we there yet? How far is it? How long have we been driving?”, “Oooooo! Look at that!” or “STOP!!! Picture op(portunity)!!!” or “Honey, I gotta pee” or “Baby, I’m hungry” or “Ummm I really need to stand up…my ass is killing me!”, it took us about 10 hours. *sheepish grin*