Northern California Angora Guild: 1/2/11

American Girl Doll Store At Mall Of America

The American Girl doll store is the flagship store at the Nickelodeon theme park at the first floor of the Mall of America.

The American Girl doll originally is a mail order business that started in 1986 but now has stores in various places.

An exit of the American Girl doll store.

The store is well organized and full of dolls and accessories.

Originally the targeted market for the American Girl doll is the preteen girls but due to the high price of the doll and the accessories, it has become a "collector item" for adults.

The regular American Girl dolls are always 18 inches, thus it is also referred to as the 18" doll.

There are smaller versions of the American Girl dolls; the baby version is call the Bitty Baby Dolls (shown in this picture) and the smaller version of the regular dolls is called the Mini Dolls.

Though there are 9 stores all across the US, the majority of the American Girl dolls are still sold via catalog/website/mail order.

Mall Of America: Nickelodeon Universe II

A Gift shop is located at the entrance of the Nickelodeon theme park.

This is a familiar cartoon character for a rabbit breeder: A purple rabbit!

The purple rabbit and its friends.

Sponge Bob is very popular with kids.

More Nickelodeon cartoon characters.

Mall Of America: Nickelodeon Universe I

The Mall of America would be just a huge shopping center but for the huge theme park inside the mall. While adults like the shopping experience, kids and the young-at-heart like the Nickelodeon Universe theme park.

The theme park has all sorts of rides.

Some of the rides go all the way to the top of the mall.

More high rise rails.

This is a traditional carousal ride.

The giant pineapple is a very popular ride.

Going To Mall Of America

Downtown Minneapolis has a nice public transit system that takes people to many major places including but not limited to University of Minnesota, the Minneapolis Airport and the biggest shopping center in the country: Mall of America.

On Wednesday, November 10, Betty walked 12 blocks through downtown Minneapolis and took the Metro Transit to the Mall of America.

View from inside the train.

The first attraction at the Mall of America is the Underwater Adventures Aquarium.

California gals Michelle, Kendyl, Jessica and friends were all on the same train to get to the Mall of America.

The Christmas decoration has just been put up at the Mall of America in November.

Some more Christmas decorations.

Guess who we ran into? ARBA district two director Joey and wife Doreen were also at the Mall of America; they were in really good mood: Joey picked the Holland Lop that went on to win the Open Best In Show in the convention and Doreen just got the Silver Marten Mini Rex passed at the first try of the 2nd showing that same morning.

Downtown Minneapolis

It's November in Minnesota, the side walk is snowless, not wet, sun is shining, what a beautiful day.

A Wells Fargo branch with a church in the background.

The walkway at the top of the photo is everywhere in downtown Minneapolis. The walkways link buildings within a 12 blocks area. One could stay indoors going from one building to another during the harsh winter.

Another high rise with indoor walkways.

Another walkway and another high rise.

A beautiful sunny day in November.

The red sign with four Chinese words says, "Absolutely Never Give Up". What kind of store is it? It seems to be selling everything and anything that are useless!

The workers are putting up the Christmas decorations that have not yet taken shape.

Some more buildings and another indoor walkway.

The Issue Of Owning A Palm Tree

In sunshine states such as CA and FL, owning a palm tree or two is a status symbol. The palm trees are very expensive to purchase and even more expensive to maintain. The palm leaves do not fall down by themselves, they have to be cut regularly by a professional "tree monkey". Betty's neighbor has one palm tree; here is what Betty observes.

A palm tree in my neighbor's yard, it's a background for my rabbit barn.

The "tree monkey" is climbing the palm tree.

There is a palm leaf coming down.

The "tree monkey" is using a big chain saw to cut the palm leaves.

The dead palm leaves are almost all cut off.

All done, until next time.

Best New Year's Eve For John, Maureen And Delilah

It's winter, it's cold, it's storming in the midwest, snowing in the north and east and raining in the west. Wait, OH is having a heat wave! It's in the 60s, no rain, no storm, no snow. There is no better place to go than a rabbit show on the New Year's eve.

It's a family outing for John, Maureen and Delilah; two people and one rabbit driving to Wilmington, OH for the New Year's eve show. There are specialty shows in the morning, but Angoras do not have to be checked in until 1 pm. John and Maureen even get to sleep in before going to the show.

There are quite a few English and French Angoras entered, the all breed show counts more than 500 rabbits; John and Maureen only entered Delilah. Judge Mike A. picks Delilah as the Best 4-Class.