5. Roseville Galleria

The Great Adventure for Wednesday the 4th was an evening trip to the Roseville Galleria to ride in a racecar stroller, look at the lights, and play in the playground.

We set off with Great Expectations for this Great Adventure.


Walking around the new, improved Roseville Galleria is pretty cool. The mall is large enough to get a good workout, but at times seems too large. It is hard to remember everywhere you've been, and hard to cover everything without doubling back a few times. The new wing is very elegant, but has stores that I question in Roseville (do we REALLY need an LV, AND a Burberry, AND a Juicy Couture, AND a Tiffany's?) I am inclined to think this expansion was planned long before they knew what would happen to the Roseville housing market.

But I digress. The new architecture is very grand.

The new play area is expansive, and it is actually in ADDITION to the existing play area, so now there are two play areas: one in front of Sears and one in the center of the new wing.


We ate some Baked Ziti in the new improved food court and while Mommy shopped for many clothes, she bought zero clothes. Clothes buying is proving to be too stressful for Mommy. She needs some help from Auntie Jen.

Downsides to the new improved Galleria: now you rent the strollers for $5 and get 50 cents back when you return them (boooo!). You used to be able to rent a stroller for free at Guest Services but have done away with that little perk. This is actually a great disappointment, because they used to have double strollers and now only have singles (that, and now it costs $$). Other disappointments: they didn't put in enough bathrooms. If you are in the center of the mall, it's still a very long hike to find a potty, which earns a serious thumbs-down from us. You'd think they could have added enough potties...maybe in Phase 2, which should open later this year.

But we still had fun! Kidlet 3 LOVES riding in a racecar stroller.


And here is the first picture of Mommy!


Sadly, we were planning on playing in the play area after the Baked Ziti, but we had a double diaper soak through, so it was necessary to go on home.

This adventure was pretty cheap ($6 for the Baked Ziti and a juice to share). We consider cheap trips to the mall to be successful (haha!). This adventure is not going to get a very high rating though, simply because the double diaper soak through eliminated playground time. This Adventure was rated a 6.5/10, but I feel it had the potential to be an 8/10 had we gotten to play in the playground.