August 27, 2026 - Bloomington, MN to Prior Lake, MN

We headed over to the Mall of America this morning after making a stop to pick up a few things we forgot at home. The mall doesn't officially open until 10:00am, so we had breakfast and did some chores in the RV before walking over from the "oversized" vehicle lot about 9:30. This is not the fancy Mall sign with flags, but it was the north entrance and folks were going inside.

Inside the first thing we saw were these huge football helmets. This is a kind of tribute to the two Super Bowls that were in Minnesota - the last in 2018. If you don't know it, the Mall of America is built on land where the old Minnesota Vikings' football stadium stood - and that is only about 2 miles from our old house!

Of course, we think this is the best helmet there!

To say that the mall is large would be an understatement. There are 3-1/2 levels with food courts everywhere and more stores and entertainment shops than you can imagine. Nickelodeon has a HUGE amusement park inside the mall, too, with roller coasters, a water ride, Ferris wheel, and kiddie rides. Folks were waiting for them to open at 10:00 and kids were having a blast!

We also enjoyed seeing the HUGE Lego builds outside of their store. You certainly need patience to build those!

You could spend several days there and there is a hotel that actually opens to the mall. It is definitely a tourist attraction! If we had walked around all 3-1/2 levels we would have covered about 4-miles, but opted to head back to the RV after about 1-1/2 miles. We headed over to the Mystic Lake Casino campground and are spending the night here. We relaxed and are heading over to the casino after dinner to see Deep Purple and Kansas in concert. On the walk back we hope to see the lunar eclipse. We will let you know tomorrow!