My LEGO Weekend

[meyerc13]

This past weekend I took my family on a vacation to Minnesota and it turned into a whole weekend of LEGO fun. I'd highly recommend that any LEGO fans with young kids in or around Minnesota plan a similar trip around the second Saturday of the month in April through September.

Our first destination was the Mall of America. The LEGO store is my favorite stop every time I'm there. This was the first chance my kids had to see LEGO store since they remodeled. Their first sight of the store was from the third floor food court overlooking the store and the incredible models. Actually, 'overlooking' isn't exactly right, since the giant robot model is looking down at you since it reaches up to the fourth floor.

Later in the afternoon we spent a few hours in the LEGO store. My son and I filled pick-a-brick cups, and both my son and daughter had fun in the LEGO play area.

On Saturday we visited the Brickmania Toyworks open house. I had heard about this, and we purposely planned our trip to be in the area on the second Saturday when the open house is held. This is definitely a case of "don't judge a book by its cover." Looking at the building, you have to build up some courage to go inside, but follow the signs and you'll be just fine (definitely print off a copy of the hand drawn map from here).

The Greater Midwest LEGO Train Club display is incredible, the windows showing 'underground' scenes are brilliant and my kids and even my wife enjoyed them. The display from the Twin Cities Lego Train Club is also wonderful. The highlights of that display were the smoke coming from the burning building and the working water fountain.

After that we took the kids to the Minnesota Children's Museum to check out the LEGO Castle Adventure exhibit. The kids had fun putting on costumes and playing in the LEGO style castle. I had fun looking at the LEGO models in displays they had. Definitely worth checking out if you are a LEGO fan with kids.

It was a great way to celebrate my birthday, and I had as much fun as my kids did. Even though we also did Nickelodeon Universe and the Sea Life Aquarium, the LEGO adventure we had was as much if not more.