Day 4 - Monday, June 26Up and off to Minneapolis and the Mall of America. The mall didn't seem as big as the West Edmonton Mall, but the theme park was done up very nicely. Darrel became absolutely fascinated with the LEGO store and the robotics kits you could buy there. He saw a picture of one robot that would sense a person's presence in a room and take a photo of them. One can see the obvious benefit of this when you share a home with your younger sister. He had $25. The kits were $200. Dad!!! He was playing on my life long intrigue with robotics as well. That's not fighting fair! It took a lot of restraint, but I came up with a compromise for him. He'd have to save up till he had at least half. He immediately gave the $25 to me to hold. In case you don't know Darrel, this is quite a feat. He started the 30 day trip with $35 one day ago and had already spend $10 on the usual junk. I think he really wanted that robot kit :) And he never asked for the money back during the entire trip. Wow!
We were at the mall for a couple of hours and then left Minneapolis after lunch. Minnesota quickly turned into Wisconsin. It was straight to the east side of Wisconsin and Lake Michigan. It was evening already and the lake didn't look all that inviting. We found a campground in Waukegan, an hour or so north of Chicago. It was a State campground on the shores of the lake and wasn't anything special. Except for the ants and the bugs! Oh well, it wasn't like we were going to be there for very long. Oh, and I almost forgot the park attendant. She was maybe 16 and was obsessed with impressing us how loud and obnoxiously she could chew her gum! Great lesson for Brittany :) "Now I understand why you tell us to keep our mouths closed while we chew gum", she says to me.