Planes, Trains, and Running Shoes

Hello and welcome to another edition of "Oops, I spontaneously traveled somewhere."

Confession: My last few "Oops" posts weren't really "Oops." Well, not all of them. when I went to Texas in August, that was a total oops...especially since I had taken a vow against traveling for at least 2 months. My 2nd Oops trip to Texas wasn't an oops at all...I just hadn't told y'all about it. Maine? Wasn't really an oops although we had decided to take the trip less than 48 hours before takeoff.

This? Was definitely an Oops.

Let's back track to Monday. I had been anxiously awaiting news for almost a week that still hadn't come. When the news finally came, it wasn't good news at all. Something I really wasn't expecting. I was devastated. I spent the next few hours in tears questioning a lot of things about the next few months. At 2:00, I was still in my pajamas and still hadn't eaten breakfast.

The Pilot texted me around 6:30 from Jacksonville and said that he was about to fly to Newark and then to Minneapolis. I said, Hey! You're coming to Newark? I want to see you. I knew he would probably be in Newark for all of 20 minutes so this was very much a joke. But he turned around and said, "Do you want to come? The flights to MPS and back are wide open."

There was one small issue. I had to work on Tuesday. I texted my boss and said...Hey, if I stay late Wednesday and Friday, can I take tomorrow off? Her reply? Yes, you deserve it. Go do something fun. 

15 minutes later I was dressed, packed and on my way to the airport.

By 9:00, I was standing in the cockpit flirting with the pilot...The Pilot...my pilot.15 minutes later, I was sitting in my seat and my very own boyfriend came over the loudspeaker and said, "We're number 3 for takeoff." This was the first time I've ever flown with him commercially and it was the most exciting thing ever.

So I went to Minneapolis. We landed around 1am and checked into the very...very nice crew hotel. The hotel was right downtown and our room was super nice. Since it was late, we went straight to bed, woke up the next morning and started our adventure!

Beautiful!

First up? The Mall of America! We found the Light Rail quite easily and hopped on it to the MOA. Holy goodness, y'all. I don't know if any of you have ever been to the Mall of America but it is insane! Wikipedia says that 7 Yankee Stadiums can fit inside the mall...now, I don't believe that for a second but wow. This place was huge. They have an aquarium, a bowling alley and a theme park inside. 

An Ugly Christmas Sweater store...for all your Ugly Christmas sweater needs

I LOVE The Pilot for spending so much time in this store with me...reliving all of my childhood.

At Nickelodeon Universe...I have a major crush on Pablo from The Backyardigans.

A wedding chapel...I'm not kidding.

See what I mean? They have everything.

After spending the day shopping, we made our way out to Target Field because well, if you don't recall Minneapolis has a baseball team! Unfortunately, the Twins ballpark only does tours through November so we couldn't actually check it out but we roamed around, took some pictures and stopped in the Team Store so that I could pick up my pin (which I collect from every ball park I visit). I'm gonna go and say that yes, I have been to Target Field but I 'm not going to write up a "Ballpark #16" recap because it wouldn't be fair to judge the Twins on looking at their stadium from the outside. So, come back during baseball season for that because I loved the Minne-Apple (such a cute name!) and will definitely be back.

MLB's newest ball park...well until the season starts up again.

The Golden Glove!

We had a little bit of time to spare before we needed to be back to the hotel so naturally, we went to Target Headquarters. Meh, I wasn't that impressed to be honest. I've seen nicer Targets. Although we did accidentally walk in through the corporate section and the corporate office has its own personal Target store...and THAT looked nice.


After Target, we went back to the hotel so The Pilot could put on his fancy uniform and we could head back to the airport. A few hours later, I was nestled all snug in my bed recapping my amazing super spontaneous trip to Minneapolis in my head...and had completely put the bad news from the day before behind me.

So tell me: Have you ever been to Minneapolis? Did you go to the Mall of America? What's the most spontaneous thing you've done lately?