LRTrip

To give Shannon a little space to work on her book, I took Thursday off and headed up to Minneapolis with the girls, planning to ride the light rail train from the Mall of America to downtown and back, then hit the American Girl store at the mall and have lunch with a too-infrequently-seen friend. We played pretty loose with this plan, but we had a blast. The girls thought the train ride was great, shifting in a matter of minutes from sitting nervously near me

LRT Riders

to straphanging with expressions ubiquitous to any mass-transit user:

Three stations later, the girls have already assumed the postures and facial expressions of jaded lifelong riders.

Once downtown, they wanted me to point out the building in which I’d worked during my unhappy days as a corporate drone. They marveled at its height, but were disappointed that I hadn’t worked on the top floor. We got off the train and turned down a teeming sidewalk. The girls clutched my hands tighter than they had in a long time, which was gratifying. After a few minutes, we reached the Dunn Bros. coffeeshop inside the (sorta) new Hennepin County Central Library, a gorgeous space. I had some coffee while they downed their snacks and talked about all the people around us. Julia, wide eyed, whispered to me, “There are a lot of African Americans here!” True enough – at least relative to Northfield, kiddo.

Already running behind, I tried to hustle us back to the train for the return trip to the mall, but the girls were enthralled by the escalator and the glass-wall elevators, so we had to take a few trips up and down each conveyance. The escalators were especially amusing, since they really do defy normal rules about moving. Nobody fell or anything, and by the second round trip, both girls were assuredly stepping on and off. Twice in about five minutes, a passer-by asked if the girls were twins!

The second trip on the LRT went quickly and almost silently, the girls studying the scenery as we rode along. The highlight for me was the guy who didn’t even bother to rack his bicycle when he boarded the train, then hopped on the bike and rode it right off the train a few stations later, weaving uncertainly through the other passengers and down the ramp onto the sidewalk. I kept thinking he was bumped handlebar from riding right onto the third rail. Bzzzzzprt!

We found my friend and her adorable daughter right away at the mall, and browsed the American Girl store for a while before finding a food court for an enjoyably predictable meal of McDonald’s. By this time, we were well past the point at which I expected to be heading back home, but Vivi, my little Lego lover, begged to go down to the Lego Store. We played for a few minutes (and I discovered that the store is finally selling something I thought they should have been selling forever: make-your-own minifigs – 3 for $10!), then finally headed back out and home, tired from our suburban-urban excursion.

3 thoughts on “LRTrip”

  1. You should have stopped in at your old building and bought some of that delicious popcorn! I wonder if they still sell it there! Sounds like a wonderful outing for all of you.

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