Date Night at the Mall of America

Dave and I have lived in the twin cities area for over five months. The only time we have gone to the Mall of America was when Dave was still living out of a hotel, waiting for an official job offer.

I decided the perfect time to revisit the MOA was to see the new Hunger Games movie, Catching Fire. Because the theatre there has seats that move. And how cool is that?

Since we both happened to have Friday off, we opted for an earlier viewing of Catching Fire at 4:45pm, conveniently during matinee pricing time. Of course we still paid a little extra to experience the D-box seating (the seats that vibrate and move during the movie). The only problem with those D-box seats was that my feet didn’t touch the ground at all. I know I’m short, but if Dave’s toes barely touched the ground, that means they were a tad high. I had to try to rest my feet on my purse or pull them up onto the seat to get comfortable. Nevertheless, the seats shaking during action scenes proved to add a little something extra to the experience, so I think it was worth it. I even visibly jumped at one point where a scary baboon jumped out and at the same time the seat shook ferociously. I mean I would have probably been startled anyways, but it was like having someone sneak up behind you and shake you. I’m pretty sure the girl next to me saw my reaction and laughed at me. Good times.

 I thoroughly enjoyed Catching Fire even though it deviated from the book. It was a little weird how it seemed to be in three separate parts…one with the tour, one in district 12 and one at the actual games (plus the bit at the end), but that’s how the book was so I’m not sure how else the producers would have done it. Also in the movie Catniss and Gale seemed to be much more lovey dovey than what I perceived in the book, but I still liked it for the movie. We even got to take a 30 question survey about Catching Fire afterwards. The best part was where you had to rate the descriptive words…one of which was, “cool.” I didn’t rate that one on principal of not calling a movie cool or uncool. I’m not in high school anymore. 😉

After we completed the 30 question test, we decided to wander around the mall a bit.We looked down over the balcony to see Sara Palin signing books. I asked Dave how much he would give me if I went up to her and said, “Omigosh Tina Fey! I’m such a fan!!” He was all for it and asked if I wanted to get a picture with her, but honestly I would have felt like such an idiot. Not for the Tina Fey joke, but because I would literally have nothing to say to her due to my lack of interest in politics.

I might have been mentioning to Dave the entire time we were at the mall that 80% of the female population in Minnesota is wearing boots right now and I thought I should join in the crowd. I also pointed out to him every woman or girl in boots in my best Minnesota accent. After stopping in a couple of stores, one of which I was snubbed by a saleswoman at one of my favorite stores (obviously because I wasn’t wearing boots), we decided to find some dinner. Being that it was Friday night at a popular restaurant, The Twin City Grill, we had 45 minutes to kill.

This is when I finally found a pair of boots I loved with a price-tag south of $100 at Call It Spring.

I also convinced Dave that his worn out Pumas with holes on the bottom should be exchanged for some nice new kicks. He even wore them out of the store. The saleswoman told us that if he did so the sale was final…sometimes I wonder what it is about Dave and I that make salespeople up here say things like that. Like we have a sign on our foreheads “We aren’t from around here and we don’t really care about the latest fashions, so please be rude to us.” Unless salespeople act like that to everyone and I’m just not used to it yet. At times I felt similar to Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman. I even feel a slight inclination to have someone dress me up cute and march back in to tell that previous lady off. Oh well. I got some cute boots!! Hooray!! 🙂

Our stomachs were rumbling, so we went to check back in with the Twin City Grill. It turns out they had been paging us for awhile (oops) so they sat us right away. The restaurant had a clean and cool, but comfortable vibe. It seemed like one of those places that a wide variety of people dine at. The theme is comfort food, but I’d call it fancy comfort food. They serve anything from burgers and salads to meat loaf, seafood and steaks. Our server put us at ease with his friendly and knowledgeable manner, so I was able to enjoy myself even though I was still cooling off from the saleswomen encounters.

We both picked foods suggested to us by the server. Dave got the Twin City Prime Meatloaf with mashed potatoes and creamed corn. Let me tell you, I wanted to dive right into that meatloaf after I had a bite.

I went in thinking about burgers, but ended up chose the salad special of the day since the crispy chicken, honey mustard dressing, eggs, avocado and freshness of a salad were calling to me. I was not disappointed. The chicken breading was amazing and flavorful and the honey mustard dressing had just the right amount of zing.

Half of it is still in my fridge and I might just down the rest after this post. The total bill wasn’t too bad at just under $50 for both of us with the 20% tip. Like I said, it was fancy comfort food and the prices reflected that. We were both very satisfied with the food, service and prices so will definitely be eating at The Twin City Grill again.

Overall it was a great date night. It was good hanging out with just Dave and I outside of the apartment, seeing a good movie, eating good food and buying new footwear. I might just need to find my bitch face to get taken seriously at certain stores in the big city. Pardon my French mom and dad, but really I think Dave and I look too nice sometimes. At least Dave does…he always gets singled out by those people at the stands trying to sell various products. And he really is too nice because he sits through their demonstrations while I try to avoid eye contact. Oh and I do wish Dave would have taken a picture with me by one of the ginormous silver trees at the mall, but you know boys. 😉

 

Make it a great week all! 🙂

Linking up to:

Marvelous in my Monday with Katie at Healthy Diva Life

Treat Yourself Tuesday with Becky at Olives n Wine

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