1. Water Park Of America
City: Bloomington, MN
Category: Tours & Attractions
Telephone: (952) 698-8888
Address: 1700 East American Blvd.
Description: Adjacent to the Mall of America, the Water Park of America offers the only surfing simulator in Minnesota, a wave pool, a ten-story raft ride, swimming pools, and more. Arrive early during warm summer weekends as the waterpark often fills to capacity. The waterpark is open seasonally and hours vary (call ahead for details). The waterpark complex includes a game arcade with many different prizes for winners, a hotel (see the listing in the Accommodations chapter for more information on the hotel), a spa, and two restaurants.
2. Mall Of America
City: Bloomington, MN
Category: Tours & Attractions
Telephone: (952) 883-8800
Address: 60 East Broadway
Description: This gigantic mall says only one thing about the state of American shopping: Fantasy moves product. And at this cement-and-plastic Bloomington behemoth, there’s a lot of product to move. The largest shopping and entertainment complex in the United States, the megamall—at 4.2 million square feet—is the size of seven Yankee Stadiums and home to more than 520 stores, 50 restaurants, a 14-screen movie theater, an indoor amusement park, and an aquarium. To make your shopping experience more pleasurable, the mall rents strollers, wheelchairs, shopping carts, and lockers. In case you change your mind about shopping and decide to get married instead, there’s a wedding chapel conveniently located inside the mall.
3. Hyland Play Area
City: Bloomington, MN
Category: Tours & Attractions
Telephone: (763) 694-7687
Address: 10145 Bush Lake Rd.
Description: This play area is legend among Twin Cities children, who refer to it as “Chutes and Ladders” for its extra-long slides—up to 50 feet long. If your kids can’t get the monkeying around out of their system at this giant maze of climbing structures, you actually will need to follow through with that threat to donate them to the zoo.
4. American Girl Bistro
City: Bloomington, MN
Category: Tours & Attractions
Telephone: (877) 247-5223
Address: 5160 Center Court, Mall of America
Description: When you’re running around with kids, you have to think about whether a dining establishment is kid-friendly . . . but if they’re doll owners, what the kids need to worry about is whether the place is doll-friendly. There’s no more doll-friendly diner in town than the American Girl Bistro, where little girls and the dolls who love them can dine in what will seem to them like sumptuous splendor. (Boys are also welcome, but the venue notes that “helping girls celebrate girlhood is what we do best.”) Needless to say, the bistro also does birthday parties. Girl’s birthday, doll’s birthday . . . whatever.