"The Ultimate Definition of One-Stop Shopping" - Time Out #122

Thinking outside the box, adventure packed, tackling the unknown, weird, unusual new experiences.........

All these describe an event my bride, Debbie, and I experienced a few years ago, and, as usual, we had an absolute blast doing it.

Simply put, it was a wonderful, short vacation, and a real hoot!

O.K., the mystery is over, readers of Our Town and beyond. We boarded a commercial airliner in Oklahoma City, and flew to Minneapolis/St. Paul (MSP), Minnesota, for the sole purpose of spending 3 days inside the Mall of America (MOA), at nearby Bloomington. This mega indoor mall was opened in 1992, covers 96 acres, has about 530 stores. It is just south of I-494, next to the high-traffic international airport. Bloomington, a city of 83,000, is surrounded by the Minneapolis/St.Paul metroplex.

Yes, yes, and yes, Ms. Debbie and I simply flew to Minnesota to visit, shop, and thoroughly enjoy this incredible American icon. What a wild and crazy thing to do, and we did it, folks!

After gathering our travel bags in MSP's arrival terminal, we took a taxi to a nearby motel, just a short walk from the main entrance to MOA. Shortly after checking in for our 3-night stay, we began our in-mall adventure, fully realizing we would be walking miles and miles inside this super structure during our brief time there.

MOA is the largest mall in the United States in terms of total floor area, and the 12th largest mall in the world. It is owned by the Ghermezian family, the same family that owns the West Edmonton Mall in Alberta, Canada, the largest mall in North America. Each year, the MOA has 42 million visitors, about 8 times the population of the entire state of Minnesota.

So, once inside, our biggest challenge was just which direction to go, as the interior is similar to a giant maze.

The entire structure has basically a rectangular shape. The mall's south and east sides are 4 floors high, and the north and west sides are 3 floors high. Also, on the east and west sides are 7-story parking structures, providing over 12,500 vehicle spaces.

Our plan was pretty simple, start on the upper level and slowly travel down, methodically wandering across the huge pedestrian walkways and visiting many of MOA's varied stores. Fortunately, we were not overwhelmed by crowds of fellow shoppers, and, thus, we were able to explore most of our visited stores, without feeling rushed. The merchandise choices are totally unbelievable! Sure, the usual stores are present, but the shear size of the mall brought many unique and unusual stores to our attention for us to experience for the very first time!

Of course, all that walking and browsing made us hungry. Well, that issue is quickly solved with over 60 restaurants on-site, from fast-food to fancy, sit-down, venues. We didn't participate in the inside theme park options, but Nickelodeon Universe offers 30 rides and attractions, while the Minnesota Sea Life Aquarium allows its visitors to walk underground through an aquarium to closely view thousands of sea creatures.

The shopping experience is divided into 4 zones, and there is an abundance of directional signage to help guide visitors. Even with lots of help, it is REALLY easy to become turned around and confused, i.e., temporally lost! The corner anchor stores--Macy's, Nordstrom's, Sears and Forever 21--- are the huge, principal stores, and we used them to help us keep our geographical bearings inside MOA. , During our 3-day stay, each time we would get overly tired, we would walk back to our nearby motel to rest up, then return for another round of action. Store hours are Monday thru Saturday, 10 a.m.-9:30 p.m. and Sunday, 11 a.m.-7 p.m. We quickly realized it was very easy to buy lots of "stuff' with shopping hours that long! Gosh, we even saw several MOA weddings .and various indoor musical concerts during our stay.

Talk is, Japanese wide-body and 747 aircraft leave Tokyo, flying non-stop for hours to MSP, land, and then the entire passenger load is shuttled to MOA for a 5 or 6- hour shopping experience. After their mall purchases are loaded in the giant planes, the passengers return to Japan. Wow!

My bride and I had a much shorter airplane ride home from our incredible adventure, and the memories are forever permanently etched in our mind's eyes. Thank you for allowing me to share this unusual experience with you!