Age of Aquarium

It probably seems odd for three people from Edmonton visiting the United States for the first time in nearly five years to choose to spend some of their limited time in visiting their biggest mall, but that is exactly what we did. Twice.

We had booked our Minneapolis stay at the IHG MSP, which is normally connected directly to the airport by a pedway, but TSA staffing shortages have closed that connector bridge for a while now. It is still less than a 10-minute shuttle from the terminal to the lobby though.

More importantly though, that same lobby is about an eight-minute walk to the local transit hub, where you can catch a Blue Line train downtown (including US Bank Stadium) or in the other direction to the fabled WEM competitor the Mall of America. Tragically the train line to the mall is currently under repair so we had to dismount and jump on a sub-in bus, but the transit schedule was easy enough to figure out that we just used the people's chariot for our return and subsequent trips.

Anyways, we spend much of Friday night exploring the immense shopping and entertainment structure and yes, it is easily as impressive as West Edmonton Mall, and significantly bigger to boot. In fact, with 5.6 million sq ft of leasable area, MoA is only ninth on the list of world's largest malls, while WEM's increasingly paltry 3.8M sq ft has relegated it to a three-way tie for 28th! Our is still the second-largest in North America though. 

We explored a few of the shops and eventually found a Minnesota Vikings hat at the fan store to replace the one I had foolishly left on the hotel shuttle in Toronto that morning. We didn't buy too much but got the lay of the land and got to experience our first meal at the legendary Shake Shack, which was delicious! (Pro Tip: yes, it is totally worthwhile to get your shake malted for an additional charge.)

We also visited the M&M store and while we did not avail ourselves of the opportunity to make custom M&Ms with our own letters or graphics, we did appreciate the whimsy of the place and its immense M&Minnesota M&Mural.

Stand by that mosaic ki- wait a minute...

My God - it's full of chocolate...

Returning to the hotel a bit before 9:00, we rested our weary feet (a lap of one level of the mall is something like 1.15 miles, and did all three floors plus some doubling) and started planning the next day's concert travel. The original plan was to go and explore downtown in the early afternoon, then get an early dinner and try to get to the doors close to the 5 pm opening.

The trouble is, we had no real idea what was downtown to actually see or proximity to the concert venue, and if we made any purchases or got any souvenirs, we would have to either mule them into the stadium for the concert or trek back to the hotel. On further reflection, we decided to have a decent breakfast at the hotel restaurant and then return to the mall to visit the Sea Life Aquarium instead.

I was a bit reluctant initially, as that seemed kind of an expensive way to, essentially, kill a few hours until we could go downtown to eat. But museums and exhibit trips have been a part of both girls' lives since we began travelling with them, and Glory's grade 11 trip to the Bamfield Marine Sciences Centre had a huge impact on her. And the odds of the three of us ending up somewhere else with an acrylic tube for shark-watching were too slim to be estimated, so that is what we did.

And for an aquarium in a mall, it is actually legitimately impressive. Worth checking out if you have any interest in sea life, and it is oriented very well for a variety of age groups.

Two chill garials (alligator subspecies)

Fenya's least favourite exhibit, the emperor scorpion

Bad photo of a sturgeon, but decent one of Fenya!

But the shark tube, a 2.5m walkway passing through the bottom of an enormous tank filled with sharks, sawfish, rays and even a couple of sea turtles was unquestionably the best part, based on the sizes of the smiles it generated anyways.

This is  just one small corner of the enormous tank

Delighted by rays overhead

Yep, totally worth the trip

What a joy to see these creatures so clearly and close!

Dad's obligatory group selfie

Man, I forgot how much I LOVE sharks

Following the shark tube, there are also a number of smaller tanks with clownfish, seahorses and jellyfish illuminated in a cycling swath of colours.

The lighting of the moon jellies even inspired me to get a little (very little) artsy with the Layout tool in Instagram...

And after that, there was still a chance to feed shrimp to hungry rays and a touch tank.

Even lingering the way we did, we were still out of the aquarium before 11:30, which gave us a little more time to shop and grab a slice of DeLeo's NYC-style pizza on our way out.

Sea Life Aquarium ended up being far more than a time-killer, and seeing the girls' smiles in these pictures and videos underscored that for me even before we left the mall that dethroned WEM.

Sadly, no time for actual margaritas...