Happy New Year! After a week spent at home cleaning, eating, and enjoying a post-holiday food coma, we hit the road again. This time, we traveled to Southern California, home of movie stars, sunshine, and 10 billion Legos. This is the first stop of a week-long trip to Legoland, Los Angeles, and La Paz, Mexico. In La Paz, we board a small cruise ship and set sail on a 4 day adventure on the Sea of Cortez to see humpback whales in their winter home.
We visited Legoland about 3 years ago, and Alex has never let us forget it. We planned the cruise six months ago, and figured this would be a good time to see Legoland again, since Alex has been asking to go back. As it turned out, Legoland had a big New Year's Eve for kids celebration, complete with fireworks, all ending by 7 pm. A good time was had by all, but we missed the New Year celebration at midnight, since we were all so exhausted after the Legoland excursion, we promptly conked out on arriving back at the hotel.
We checked into the Marriott near LAX at noon, had lunch, and then hit the 405 south to Legoland. In case you're not from California, Legoland is in Carlsbad, and that is about an hour and a half south of LA. The last time we went there, we were in San Diego, which is a shorter drive.
We pre-purchased our tickets at Safeway before we left home, saving about $12 off the normal admission price, which is a hefty $59 for adults and $47 for kids. There is also a discount of some sort for AAA members, so if you don't have a coupon or pre-purchase ticket, be sure to ask for that if you are a AAA member.
I wasn't sure how Alex would react to Legoland at age 7, since I remember the rides and attractions being geared more for the pre-school set. He loved the dinosaur kiddie roller-coaster the last time around, but I thought it might seem tame to a mature, thrill-seeking seven year old. I didn't realize that we hadn't seen about half the park the last time, and that there are attractions for kids of all ages, including a larger, more exciting Dragon Coaster. He passed on many of the big kid rides, since he feared that they would make him throw up. Smart boy.
The thing he insisted that we ride first was the Funtown Fire
Academy. He remembered it as the "most fun thing ever" and led us on a
beeline to the ride. On this thrilling ride, four teams board fire
trucks and have to pump a lever up and down a small track to a
building, squirt water threw a window, and then pump the truck back to
the beginning. The trucks don't move very fast, but combined with the
giant watergun, this spells "fun" for kids. I sat this out, and waited
near a large multi-generational Chinese family who had a great time
making fun and laughing uproariously at one of their family members who
could not get the truck to move no matter how hard he pumped.
Eventually, one of the ride operators had to come and push his truck to
the fire.
Alex and Frank eventually got their turn and huffed and puffed their way to the water guns. The accomplished their task and came in third, but Frank nearly keeled over from the exertion. Alex and I took a short jaunt into a gift shop to give Frank and breather, and found that there were exactly 0 Legos to be found there. Alex was disappointed, and so was I. I thought that this being Legoland and all, EVERY shop would have Legos, but evidently, that's not so. The shops have all kinds of Legoland merchandise, but few have actually Lego kits.
Alex and I went into the Adventurer's Club, an indoor attraction with replicas of an Egyptian tomb and an ice cave with polar bears (all made with Legos). It's pretty amazing that some of these things can be done with Legos.
Alex had fun playing on the massive wooden pirate ship playscape. It featured slides, rope climbing, and general mayhem for the under-10 crowd. Afterwards, we had dinner at the King's Barbecue in the section of
knights and castles. Alex and Frank spend about 45 minutes in line for
a ride called "The Joust" which turned out to be a wooden pony going
around a track. "That was lame," Alex declared on getting off the ride.
After wandering the park for about 2 hours, we positioned ourselves
for the big event--Fireworks. We ended up at the end of the walkway lined with busts of famous people, including Shakespeare, Abraham Lincoln, and George Washington. There was a stage show going on in Mini
Land USA. Mini Land is the most amazing part of Legoland to me,
because it features replicas of US cities all made in Legos, from the
Washington Monument to the streets of the French Quarter in New
Orleans. By the time we got there, it was too dark to really see all
the features, but this was my favorite thing the last time, and I was
able to see some new things this time around as well.
The grand finale fireworks show was spectacular, made more so by the diffraction glasses handed out by the park for the kids. The glasses made the fireworks take on a kaleidoscope effect, which Alex thought was totally cool. Looking through them, I thought that this must have been like watching fireworks at Woodstock and tripping on some controlled substance or another. Frank shot some video of the finale, and so I've uploaded it for your enjoyment. The screaming you hear is mainly Alex.
I asked Alex if he liked Legoland this time around and the verdict was, "I loved it! I'd go back anytime!"
That just about says it all.
Happy New Year to all of you. May your year be filled with joy, laughter, and a few fireworks now and then to keep it interesting.
