downtown

Downtown Trip

School was cancelled due to snow, so we took the bus downtown for lunch, Candyland, and just to walk around.

There was mini golf, too. We asked some seemingly official people if we could play, so Liam and Ada did. Then we were told that it was for a fundraiser and not to play unless we paid. But nobody seemed to know where to pay, so that ended our mini golf excursion.

Downtown Trip

The kids have been asking to go to Candyland again, so we all (including Helena’s friend Elaina) took the bus downtown.

Ada was talking about getting shoestring licorice all week, but once we got there she decided to get the jelly beans again. She always wants the small (and more expensive) gourmet jelly beans. Helena and Elaina both got popcorn, which is something new for Helena, and Liam did get the shoestring licorice, which he tied into knots continuously.

We then went to Panera to get some drinks and sit outside in the nice weather. I was busy hiding their candy whenever one of the kids went inside for a fruit punch refill.

Ada on the bus

Probably talking about boys.

Lots of choices.

This is what she came for, but then got distracted by the jelly beans once again.

Success.

Eating outside on Nicollet Mall.

Concentration….

Feeding the birds.

This was taken moments before security came and told us to get off the fountain. Oops.

Waiting for the bus.


Downtown again

As soon as I arrived to get the kids they were asking about Candyland.

They never seemed to get bored of doing the same thing each time we go downtown, although they don’t complain if I throw something new in.

We have always gone to Candyland and then walked through Macy’s to get to the Crystal Court, but the girls have been trying on makeup at Macy’s the last couple of times.

This time we did have to walk down to the library where we bought a bunch of books at the children’s book fair for 50 cents each.







Foshay v2

Last time that we went down to the Foshay Tower, Dori was with us but Liam was at a birthday party, so this was his first trip there. And the weather was much, much nicer.

Lyndale Avenue is under construction, so it took us awhile to get downtown. Ada enjoyed it while sitting criss-cross applesauce.

Liam was quite reflective on the ride down. Not a word the whole time. Contemplating life? Probably not….most likely thinking about the kickball game the night before.

We stopped into Candyland first to get Sour Sassy Taffy, Licorice Wheels, and Gourmet Jelly Beans (Ada is particular about her jelly beans). Dad was chatting with a little boy who was quite excited to be there that day. I heard his mother tell him that they’ll get some candy for the movie theatre. It turned out to be his fifth birthday today, so we mentioned that tomorrow was Ada’s and they were both quite excited about that. So I said to the boy, “Hey, you know what you really, really should do on your birthday? You should go to the movies!” Well, the kids eyes got really, really big and he said, “I am going to the movies!”. Anyway, after talking to him for a minute or so (they were ahead of us in line) they left. But then the boy came back in with a dollar and gave it to Ada and told her it was for her birthday. Helena thinks that they must have been rich. (I certainly don’t think that they were, which makes the whole thing that much sweeter, anyhow). As we were walking into Macy’s, which is adjacent to Candyland, Ada was snacking and holding the dollar bill in her armpit. Here’s Ada before she put the dollar bill the only place that she could think of.

My first mistake was taking them to Candyland before eating lunch, but it is summer and we’re downtown, so who cares that only Helena ate her lunch. We went to the Sky Room at about 1:30. Apparently there is a law that nobody can eat lunch that late because there were only five other people there. But we did get a nice table, though, overlooking the city pigeon.

Then we were off the the Foshay. Dad wants a print of this, so he took a photo of it. He’s looked it up, but can’t find much.

We walked around the top for about twenty minutes. They loved looking through the view finders. We couldn’t see the house, but the grass atop Brit’s Pub, the ski jump in Bloomington, the baseball field, and accordion buses were a hit. Helena was nice enough to offer to take a photo of two girls who were attempting to take one of themselves.

 

 

Here’s one with the reflection of the building we were on in the background.

 

And then the bus ride home. It must be said that the waiting time for buses today was great. I think two minutes tops for both parts. And both Helena and Liam got to put transfer cards into the reader, so that was (a little) exciting for them. Helena has done it before, but she always forgets how.

Notice that Ada decided to sit on the other side of the bus by herself!

Foshay Tower

I took Dori and the girls up to the top of the Foshay Tower. It was windy and cold, and the girls couldn’t stand it. Besides, the walls of the observation deck are quite tall, so it is difficult for the kids to see much of anything but the sky, which they could certainly see from the ground. We did get to look at the Metrodome’s collapsed roof, though.

Downtown Trip

Since it was a weekday when we went downtown I got the kids off the bus on 8th Street and stopped them from running in the direction of Candyland.  I told them that because it will be much more crowded, they’ll have to stay much closer to me than usual. Afterward I thought how funny this was, me giving directions to three little kids like it was a field trip with students. But they did stay much closer, and we had more fun than usual because of the hustle and bustle of the street and skyway.

Since the Wells Fargo building was open (it is closed on weekends) we went in there and I took the kids to look around the Wells Fargo Museum. The kids loved it; there is a working telegraph machine, working old-style telephones, pre-Civil War money, and check stamping machines. The woman at the entrance to the museum was chatting with the kids for a few minutes and Helena went back to her to show how she had stamped a “check” with her birth date and then they talked some more.

The fountain at Gaviidae Common was on because it was a weekday and the kids stayed there for awhile eating their candy (after running circles around the fountain at the IDS Tower).

We then ate a quick lunch and then walked around the skyways in places we hadn’t before (they got to see a different candy store which they liked), and then walked down Nicollet Avenue for awhile before taking the bus back home.

Fountain at Gaviidae Common
Stage Coach at Wells Fargo Museum