Minnesota Mini-Vacation - Day Two

We started the second day of our “Operation Min-Vacation” by going to Mickey’s Diner for our morning meal. Built to resemble a classic Art Deco diner car, Mickey’s has been serving classic diner fare in St. Paul since before WWII. It’s small, but adorable, and has even been featured in a few movies. During our short visit, we enjoyed a hearty breakfast of pancakes, eggs and sausage, surrounded by regulars and fellow tourists alike. The food was good. The service was about what you’d expect from a tiny, bustling restaurant.

Mickey's Diner - image from their website.



Little Guy, enjoying his toast at Mickey's



From there, we traveled to another part of St. Paul to tour the Minnesota Transportation Museum. Before we even entered the doors, we knew this was going to be a big hit with our little fellow. Retired train cars and cabooses were displayed by the parking lot, as was a refurbished Greyhound bus from an earlier generation. The building which houses the museum is also still an operating roundhouse, which we thought was very interesting.  We went in, toured many train engines and cars on display and watched a little railroad movie. Then Little Guy found a model engine which he could play in, and he decided he never wanted to leave! It had been donated by a nearby children’s museum, and was clearly a paradise for train loving children. We hadn’t been there long, when we were told that the turn table and round house were in operation and we could go out on the observation deck to watch the workers move the huge trains around. Eventually we also got to ride a train for a short bit. Our seats were in the cupola part of an SOO caboose. All three of us had fun on that little ride. We rounded out our visit with a trip to the gift shop, and some play time at the Thomas the Train tables near the entrance.

My Guys in the Model Train.  Choo Choo!!

LG at the entrace to the museum



This caboose looks like the one we rode in (our seats were in the red part at the top).  My camera batteries died, so I don't have actual pictures of the train ride.  oops

We grabbed lunch at a little family restaurant, and then went to a few baseball card shops (for Hubby) and the Golden Fig (for me). The Golden Fig is a lovely little shop which features primarily Minnesota wares. Everything from jellies and jams, to cheese and sausage. They have spices, candy, microbrews and various baking mixes (just to name a few of their items). I adore stores like this, and during this visit, I bought some little chocolate caramels and a jar of butcher’s rub spice mix.

We were a bit burnt out on restaurants at this point, so we treated ourselves to a hotel picnic. We had brought snack items with us: peanut butter crackers, granola bars, fruit and juice. We made little hodge-podge meals and enjoyed each other’s company right there in our room. It was a nice break that also saved us a little money, so win-win.

Our second day behind us, we settled down for a good night’s sleep.