Exploring Minnesota: A Mill, A bridge, and the Mall...again.

Last week the kids were surprised that we had two visitors come to our house.  Grannie and Papa had called early in the week to let me know their schedule had opened up and they were coming to visit. I chose to not tell the kids and they were VERY surprised to see Grannie and Papa's car pull into the driveway Thursday after supper.

It was a good time to once again venture out and explore our new state.  On Saturday we went to The Mill City Museum. It is in an old flour mill that mostly burned down in 1991.  In 2003 the ruins were made into an interactive museum.  It is a family friendly time to be sure.  One of the activities is a ride on an old freight elevator that has been made into bleacher seating.  It goes up and down 5 stories stopping at different levels to show scenes and video of the milling history of Minneapolis. There are voices of the mill's past telling about what it was like to work there.  Imagine filling train cars with sacks of flour.  Sweat and flour...ewww.  At the end you are let off at the top of the building which is an observation area to look out over the beautiful Mississippi.

JD with Grannie and Papa looking out at the Mississippi.
Well, I'm not sure what Papa is looking at.

JR looking at the beautiful stone bridge where we would wrap up our day.

The museum is child friendly and has lots of learning opportunities.  You can observe flour milling from farm to flour in the main area.  There is also a baking room and a water room where we learned about the river, the falls, and locks.  We ended our museum time watching a 20 min. video about Minneapolis history that was quite entertaining and then going out through the courtyard that was once the main milling building.

An old train car loaded with barrels of flour.  Papa said much of the museum
experience reminded him of when he did similar work with soybeans a few
years back.  The equipment and procedures are still very much the same.

JD reading the caption on an old grinding stone.

JR designing a cereal box.  There were several stations and it is all felt.
The kids all enjoyed this activity and came back to it a few times.

JJ "cooking".

An example of a thresher's table. Each chair and each plate had
information and quotes about what it was like to be a thresher and
what it was like to feed them.  One said that a hog and a cow had to be
slaughtered each week the threshers were there to feed them.  One said it would take
three hours for two ladies to just wash all the dishes daily. Another told
that if the women was a bad cook the threshers tried to hurry that job
so they could move on to the next farm.  But if the women was a good
cook they might take their time.
 This might have been a good time to be a bad cook and get them moving on.

This describes how the water was used to power the mill.  The children are trying it out below.

Steel beams in the courtyard twisted by the heat of the 1991 fire.

In the courtyard.

A view of the mill building from the bridge.  It had been unused for many years
before the fire that destroyed it.  How nice that it was turned into something useful.

After the museum we walked partway across the beautiful stone bridge to view St. Anthony falls and the Mississippi river.  The kids thought it was neat to feel a little bit of the mist. 

Grannie, Papa, and the kids.

Observing St. Anthony falls.

On Monday Erin took a day off work.  Daddy, Grannie, and Papa got a chance to watch the kids at swim lessons.  Then we headed back to the Mall of America.  Hey, that's why people visit us right, to say, "I've been there", about the MOA.  Well maybe that's just one small reason.  Papa decided to treat the kids to a couple of the rides.  Because of height restrictions there were only a few that all three could ride.  One nice thing is that if a child is too short to ride alone a chaperone is allowed to ride free. Since Papa was treating, he got to ride.

JJ was sure she was going to ride a Ferris wheel this summer...and she did.

We ended with a nice treat of lunch at Bubba Gump shrimp company.  That was a fun and filling experience.  I ordered shrimp dipping broth.  It came with jasmine rice and french bread for dipping.  It was spicy but sooo yummy.  Not something I would normally order but it was fun to try something new.

Grannie and Erin with the Bubba Gump paging system.

JJ was the only kid who ordered fish.

JR was original with...pizza.  Each kids meal came with fries (yes, even the pizza),
an orange wedge, and blue jello.

I thought the paper boats that the kids meals came in were super cute.
 The papers are like newspaper with Forest Gump related news stories.  Fun, fun, fun!

Photo op, the kids haven't seen the movie but they still thought the bench and shoes were fun.

Notice the bench is complete with suitcase and box of chocolates.

Of course it was photo op x3. 

We had a fun time with Grannie and Papa.  There is so much to do at the MOA that we would be glad to tour it again with anyone else who wants to visit us in the Twin Cities.