Camp Snoopy!

What with football, iPods and DVDs, we've kind of drifted away from our recap of the "NFC North" tour back in August. We shared a little about the first leg of the trip involving Shedd Aquarium and the Wiggles.

So off we go to Bloomington, Minnesota. Home of the massive Mall of America-a giant mall with an amusement park in the middle-Camp Snoopy. On the ride out, Christie had one thing on her mind. "I give Snoopy a hug?" And why not, because after all, "Happiness is a Warm Puppy!" But to give Snoopy a hug, there was a whole lot of Wisconsin to get through. And frankly, I didn't think it was going to be so long!

Almost 8 hours later, we got ourselves to Camp Snoopy just in time to catch a little "dinner show" from the gang themselves-Snoopy, Charlie Brown and Lucy doing with Peanuts versions of Broadway tunes. Imagine Charlie Brown and Lucy singing "You're the One That I Want" from the movie Grease...kinda surreal. But afterwards, they went around to meet the kids. And Christie got the magic moment, giving the biggest hugs possible to all three characters.

The best thing about Camp Snoopy was that the size of the rides were just about tailor-made for Christie. She had a ball, riding on the Red Baron (a Dumbo-like ride with Sopwith Camels and, of course, Red Barons), Truckin' (a train ride, but with mini 18 wheelers-a little truckin' convoy!), and her ultimate favorite-the Snoopy Bounce, which was a giant moonwalk with a huge Snoopy on top. Christie probably spent almost 3 hours in it!

And one really cool thing we discovered in the mall-Minnesota has no sales tax on clothing! Needless to say, many forms of Peanuts clothing were bought that day!

New photos are up in the photo gallery of the "Camp Snoopy Experience." Next stop: the St. Paul Children's Museum.