Mall of America...

After spending many hours hiking at Nerstrand Big Woods state park, we were hungry...so where do you eat when you're in Northfield?  For us, we went to the Mall of America and ate at the Rainforest Cafe...

Anytime we eat anywhere, they always take turns sitting next to me...it was Lukie's turn that day...

Lex was content coloring under the dim lights of the rainforest...

After dinner, we went to the aquarium at the mall, Sealife...it was a teacher appreciation day, so I was free and guests of mine were 50% off (basically three of us went for the price of one)...first up were the Angelfish...

This was the caiman viewing area...but the caiman's were in the water and Lukie and I had a better view...

Here they were in the cockroach bubble...surrounded by hundreds of cockroaches from Africa...

Good thing these were just sturgeon...no threat here...

Inside the tunnel, it's hard not to hear the theme from Jaws...

This pufferfish did not want to puff up....

The reef tank bubble...lots of clownfish...

They are playing video games here...these are underwater cameras at the ray tank...

Lukie thought he had a personal connection with one of the rays so he kept waving to it...

There's a touch pool so you can touch anemones and sea stars...

Opps...not a shark...no concern here...

This one is bigger than Lex...

This is a shark...way bigger than Lukie...

A great end to a fun day...they don't get that in some places...

Nerstrand Big Woods State Park...

So this morning, I had Lukie make us some sandwiches and pack some snacks into a bag.  Both Lukie and Lex grabbed some water bottles (though we found out later that Lukie filled his up, but it did get to the car...good thing I had extra) and we took off...

I didn't bother to tell either one what was up until about ten minutes down the road...I said we were off to Nerstrand Big Woods State Park near Northfield.  Lukie responded with a 'NO!!!' but there was nothing he could do (Big Woods is one of the three parks that Lukie and I completed the hiking club trail alone) and he figured we could geocache at the park too...

Our first step at the park was the hiking club trail...we were off (with Lukie in the lead, followed by Lex and me at the end like usual)...

It didn't take us too long to find the password...Lex was happy...Lukie still was not that pleased that Lex was getting closer to his total (she's now just 5.5 miles behind Lukie), but he got over it...

Not long after finding the password, Lukie started talking about the 'Decepticon tree' that he remembered (he'll have to tell you why he calls it the Decepticon tree) at the park from a couple of years ago...as he described the tree, I remembered it, but wasn't sure which park it was at...he was confident it was at Big Woods, so we kept our eyes open...here was Lukie and the tree in June 2017...

And sure enough...fifteen minutes later we find it...though the cross beam had fallen out, but Lukie just placed it right back...

Lex had to get in on the picture too...

The park is one of three localities of the dwarf trout lily, so some areas of the park are really protected, but it makes the walking easy...

It is a nice park to visit, deep ravines with flowing water...during the most recent glaciation, the ice margin was 20-30 miles to the west and meltwater flowed east, carving these ravines...

After lunch, it was time to geocache...

We had already stumbled into two of the waypoints during our first hike, so we had an idea where we were going...

And quickly found the next waypoint...

It took us right past Hidden Falls, where Prairie Creek flows over resistant limestone creating a nice waterfall in southeastern Minnesota...

Whoops...we must've found another one...

If they don't argue over the GPS unit, they take turns holding it...if they argue over it, I hold it...we all held the GPS on this one...

There were seven total waypoints on this geocache, it was probably a two-mile hike to find it (though ironically, the cache was about 1,000 feet away from where we parked)...

We had no intention of taking a picture at the sign (we've done that before), but the next-to-last waypoint was located very near the sign, plus there are solar panels with a nice informational text to read, so they took off for the sign...

After walking right past the car, we found the cache...

They got their Aquatic Quest card, this one was an American Toad and we're happy...

It was a good start to the day...

Carver County Fair...

The Carver County Fair was a few weeks ago and of course we visited...I've always considered it the beginning of the end of summer...high schools sports start the day after the fair is over, the sun is setting earlier and earlier, school is coming...but not that day, that day was for fun...

Yep...this about sums it up...

Lukie has loved the climbing tower the last couple of years, so it definitely was on his 'to do' list...

But after seeing Lukie go up once, Lex asked if she could try...of course, then she headed up the easiest climb...

And she made the top, ringing the buzzer pretty quickly...

Then she tried tackling the medium difficulty climb...each time she got within inches of the buzzer, but came up short...she just wasn't comfortable with one last step at the end...

But she still was having a great time at the fair...

When you see a slide, you must go down a slide...Lukie was not pleased that Lex beat him and beat him so badly...

There was a pretty cool lumberjack show which got too loud for Lex a couple of time...

And they had races across logs...Lukie rooted for them to fall in (which they did a couple of times)...

The favorite is the dairy barn with all you can drink milk...and the shakes...

And you have to ride the Ferris Wheel...that is just a must...

The afternoon we were at the fair, ride were so that if you  have one rider with tickets, a second rider would ride free...it was essentially buy one, get one, if Lukie and Lex agreed on the rides (which they did, they even figured out they could ride more rides if they agreed)...

For Lex, there is no doubt that the animals at the fair are her favorite part, like this kangaroo...

They both liked feeding the llamas...

And the love the 'walk on water' experience...not really a ride, but something fun for them to do...

And pig races...can there be a more quintessential fair activity than that?

And after a long day at the fair, we bumped into 'Tippy' the cow on the way out...

Another good day...