Mall of America aka. the "Mega" mall

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Seeing as I wrote about malls, I forgot to tell you about the Mall of America. I am fortunate enough to live an hour and half drive from America's largest indoor shopping mall, the Mall of America - located in Bloomington, Minnesota. It had been open a few years by the time I went the first time. My fondest memories of it are of when it was first opened. I remember really liking the "Planet Hollywood" restaurant. Real movie props encased in glass. Recipes from stars. I remember liking the chicken fingers that were coated with Captain Crunch cereal. From there on we would usually go shopping. Of course there were the big chain stores. But my favorites were the little unique shops. Like the hologram store. The had hundreds of holograms hanging on the walls and it was all lit such that you could really see the holograms well. I remember one that was a Victorian ladies face, it looked like her eyes followed you. There was one where you put your eyes up to binoculars and could see a parrot. The binoculars were part of it - the appeared to stick out into the room but they were hologram. There was a similar one that you could put your eyes up to marked "adult only". I was a kid at the time, so I can only imagine what was in that one. My personal favorite was the water faucet that appeared to stick out in to the room. Look at it from on direction, it was off. Look at it from the other, it was on, with hologram water coming out. Then there was the Sanrio store which I adored. Sanrio is Japanese company which specializes in stickers, paper, little items adorned with their famous characters. Puppies, Kitties, frogs, deer, mice, penguins, people, those are just a handful that I can think of now. Of course, maybe it's not that unique of a store, but it was the only in person store to get a lot of the stuff at the time. Wildly exciting to me. There was the place that had all the Russian nesting dolls. In more recent visits I am sad to say that the above mentioned stores were not there. My appreciation of the place dropped, greatly knowing that. Some years later we were there and I fell in love with the Rainforest café gift shop. I wanted the brightly colored coffee mug with jungle animals. However they were all personalized with names on them. Naturally my name wasn't there. There was one emblazoned with "you're special". My mom told me to get it. I resisted. Buying "you're special" for myself seemed lame. Mom got the mug for me. I love it. Dad got me a t-shirt as well, though he was the reason we didn't eat there. To his mind it was "too expensive" and we had to go eat at some fast food place. It is a difference of how we look at things I am sure. But little did he know I would have much rather had the experience of eating there. It was all decorated with animated animals and jungle scenes. But... that was not to be. So.... More things I would love to do there but haven't - the Crayola crayon experience and underwater world aquarium if it is still there. Article :