A tale of Twin Cities

We left Madison, headed to Minneapolis, but we had a stop planned at a place called House on the Rock.  House on the Rock is an eccentric home built by a guy named Alex Jordan that was built into the side of a rock formation in Wisconsin.  It was amazing to walk around in this home and I imagined it would have been really fun to run around and play hide and seek in that house for a kid.  There were all sorts of nooks and pathways throughout the house.  There is also a room called the infinity room that is a ledge off of the rock that looks like it goes on forever.  Another thing that Alex Jordan did was create a fun-house type museum right on the rock, with all sorts of attractions like animatronic bands that play songs and there's an entire old timey street, a huge whale sculpture and the largest carousel in the world... All inside!  There was so much stuff around that it is impossible for me to remember all of it.

After we left House on the Rock, we made our way to Minneapolis.  Minneapolis is one of the two cities known as the Twin Cities.  The other is St. Paul.  These two cities are separated by the Mississippi River.  St. Paul is the state capital and Minneapolis is the largest city in Minnesota.  We went and saw the state capitol building and the Cathedral of St. Paul in the City of St. Paul, and then we headed to Minneapolis and saw the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden, and went by the Mall of America.

The State Capitol building has a huge marble dome.  It is the second largest marble dome in the world.  The only one that is bigger is the dome of St. Peter's Basilica in the Vatican City (you know... where the pope does his thing).  It was under construction which wont be finished until 2017, so we weren't able to see the inside of the rotunda, but the outside was still impressive.

The Cathedral of St. Paul, also impressive is the third largest church in the US.  It looked just like one you might find in Europe, inside and out.

The Minneapolis Sculpture Garden is a park that has a bunch of sculptures including one called "Spoonbridge and Cherry" and that is one of the iconic images of Minneapolis.

The Mall of America can only be described as overwhelming.  It is the most visited mall in the US, and it is the second largest in terms of size.  There is a Nickelodeon theme park in the middle of the mall that has 5 roller coasters in it, it's three stories tall, and you can find just about any type of food that you would want there.

I've got the body of a god...Haha!

Infinity room

Old Timey Street on the rock

Calliope machine that plays music by pneumatics going through the pipes and hitting and blowing on jugs.

Giant whale in the middle of one of the rooms.

Carousel was bright and ornate.

Minnesota State Capitol

Cathedral of St. Paul

Inside the cathedral

Looking up into the dome of the cathedral

Spoonbridge and Cherry

Fish sculpture in the sculpture garden

Busyness at the Nickelodeon theme park at the Mall of America

Cool Lego display at the Mall of America