The following day we headed back to St. Paul. We had decided to see the James J. Hill House and the State Capitol.
First up was the Hill House (making use of the Historical Society Pass from the day before!). I didn't take any pictures here, but it was very interesting and beautiful. We were all impressed with some of the "advanced technology" and amenities this house had for its time.
After that we headed for lunch at the Longfellow Grill. It was a fun little place. As we were placing our order the waitress went around the table asking what everyone wanted. When she got to Mike she said, "And what about you, pops?" I guess approaching 40 is going to be a shocker to Mike.
We headed to the State Capitol. It was a gorgeous day and we headed inside without jackets. It was still quite breezy but we were just so happy to see sun and melting snow we braved it out.
We were the only ones in our tour group and that was nice. The tour guide claimed the Minnesota State Capitol was one of the five prettiest capitols in the country - though he couldn't name the other four (I asked). After an exhaustive Internet search, I couldn't find the list either. I guess we'll have to trust him.
Believe it or not, those three things took us ALL DAY. The kids looked like this on the way home:
You might never be too old for a nap in the car, but you definitely reach an age and size where you are too big to be carried into the house afterward.
The rest of the week was partly low key. We did head to the Mall of America under the ruse of hanging out and going on some rides. In reality I had something to return and just didn't want to go alone.
We did walk around Nickelodeon. I think those rides look awful, personally so I was happy to hear no one was interesting in riding anything. The kids wanted to head through the Mirror Maze and Mike and I offered that we could do that or they could get Dippin' Dots instead. They chose Dippin' Dots. Whew.
We did have a pajama day in there somewhere and on our last day of vacation (the following Monday) we headed to breakfast at the Windmill Cafe. It's a little cement box in Savage that I've always been curious about so we decided to give it a try.
It's actually kind of quaint inside. The lady that owns it was very nice and the food was a good breakfast. Everyone definitely wants to head back someday.
And that's it for our spring break. Honestly - the last couple years we've stayed fairly local over spring breaks. While I wouldn't turn down a trip to the beach over any spring break, I think we've done pretty okay with our local "stay-cations". We'll have to see what next year brings!
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