The West Edmonton Mall

I come from Minneapolis, Minnesota, the land of the Mall of America, the largest mall in the states. It takes a lot to impress me mall-wise. Southdale, in Edina, Minnesota, was the first indoor mall, and the movie Mallrats was filmed at Eden Prarie Center. I grew up shopping in both of these malls. The mall I hung out in the most was Ridgedale Mall, which was mentioned in the movie Juno. Maybe this mall heritage is the reason I don't really like malls. I prefer to shop in independantly owned and thrift stores. Chain stores and restaurants are not my favorites, unless they are book and art supply stores. But we did have fun at the West Edmonton Mall. Andre had a meeting to go to today, so we made the 4 hour trek yesterday and spent the night. We stayed at the Fantasyland Hotel, which I mistakenly thought had theme rooms. No such luck. It was theme hallways. We were on the seventh floor which has a stable theme, with a horse painted on each door. Bummer. I wanted to stay in a theme room. The room was large and wonderful, very clean and modern. I can't say I dug eating for two days in food courts, but there were many fun things to see. And my two year old is so amazed by everything right now that it was priceless as always to see a whole new world through her eyes. She could have cared less about shopping, she was too busy sitting in coin operated rides (usually without a coin in them), watching fountains, watching people ice skate, having ice cream, and watching other kids.