Barbie at the Mall of America

About a week ago I went to Woodbury to spend a week with Melody, my 8 year old granddaughter.  Her parents were dropped off at the airport to fly to sunny Mexico, and we headed to the Mall of America.  Most people who know me would surmise that malls are not my thing, especially the largest one in the country.  We got parked and both of us made note of which "state" we left the car.  Parking was not easy as I was driving my daughter's car for the first time which is quite a bit larger than my own.  Melody remarked at how crowded it was and why didn't people stay home when the roads were bad.  Good question.

Our first stop was the American Girl Doll store where I resisted the pressure to buy her some thing.  Then we headed to the amusement park where she rode a couple rides before deciding to move on.  The line was too long for the Mine Ride.  A new attraction was Barbie's Dreamhouse so we definitely had to check that out.  I am also not a huge Barbie fan, but when Melody and I are together that is put aside.  We have watched numerous Barbie movies several times.
Let me just say that the Dreamhouse was very PINK and the theme song playing was Everybody Needs a Ken.  So much for feminism.

After touring the kitchen and other rooms, we headed to the area where you could dress up, walk the runway, get makeup done and do Barbie's hair. 

So that was it; we made it through the whole Dreamhouse.  Outside was a Barbie VW Beetle.  My next car?  I think not.

We had some ice cream and for lunch had food court pizza.  The last stop was the Underwater World.  This was my first time seeing that, and I was pretty impressed.  We managed to find the car and get out of the parking lot and made it safely home. 

I am hoping I don't darken the doors of the Mall of America for awhile, but it was great to spend time with Melody, as always.

Thought for the day:  We used to build civilizations, now we build shopping malls.   Bill Bryson