Busy Day

Today I really felt like a tourist. First I headed down to the Mayo Clinic and had a guided tour, which was really cool. I've seen pictures of the place many times on the news and then standing there in person was weird. Once my Uncle was on his lunch break we all went for lunch at a really nice Italian restaurant, then when he went back to work we headed to the Mall of America!

I'd been there once when I was really young, and barely remember it. It was a huge mall, lol. It's like consumerism incarnate. Not to say I didn't think it was awesome. I bought a necklace and a souvenir shot-glass (SO touristy), and that's it. Pretty proud of myself for not going on a spending spree. I'll probably pass by here on my way back though, so if I have a ton of money on the way back, I may splurge then.

Lego Land, one of the few things I remembered about the Mall Of America, was still there. It was pretty cool. The other thing I remembered, Camp Snoopy, is no longer there. The amusement park is still right in the middle of the mall, but now it's a Nickolodean theme park. Dora, Diego, etc...

There was an Apple store which was cool. They were giving some lectures about future Apple products too, and there were some cool ones. The nerd in me was beside himself, lol.

After that we came back to Rochester and went to a couple places to take photos. Sadly I haven't been able to edit or upload any photos taken with my Digital SLR, only my point and shoot. Hopefully I'm able to at some point, but lack of time makes it hard. I was gunna work on some tonight, but realized I don't have the plugin for my monitor (I can only edit my real photos on my trusted monitor from home, which I brought for just that reason). So on my way to Chicago I'm going to try and find an electronics store so I can get the adapter and work on them at a hotel one of these nights. So far I haven't been able to get any amazing photographs. I've been having too much fun to really get in an introspective artistic state. I've been with family I don't see enough of though, once I'm alone in other places I'm sure I'll produce some more artistic shots.

Sadly my Aunt and Uncle couldn't take me to Chicago to show me around, but they might have someone I can stay with, I'll find out tomorrow morning before I leave. If not I'll just get a hotel near an L-Train station and take it to downtown Chicago. That should be a real experience.