Legoland

We traveled I-5 to Carlsbad, located at the northern edge of San Diego County, and home to Legoland California. There is only one Legoland in the entire United States. The only others are in Denmark, Germany, and the U.K. Legoland is targeted at children ages 2 to 12, and was perfect for our family. I had never been there. Legoland opened 5 years after I left San Diego for college. This was all new to me, too.

I noticed immediately so many differences between Legoland and the other Southern California theme parks, for the better. I loved that most rides had a 34 inch height requirement. Son2 is still a little short, so he was limited on most rides. Soon enough, though, he will be able to ride every ride! Everywhere we turned there were bathrooms, and each restroom station had a few family restrooms. We never waited for a restroom, which is sooo important with a preschooler! The games, rides, and attractions are all interactive, and provide tons of learning experiences. The lines are short. Legoland offers a large capacity on all of their rides, so the crowds move quickly. Parents can see all the way around a ride. Each ride offers stroller parking at its perimeter, and the fencing around the rides allow unobstructed supervision.

Which two are made of Legos?

It took 40 million Legos to build Legoland California. The model scales are 20:1.We saw life sized replicas of jungle animals from our little safari jeeps made from Legos.
We rode a little boat through Fairy Tale Brook. Scenes from different fairy tales were displayed. I bet you can guess what story this little pig is from!
There are two Volvo driving schools. This one was for children ages 3 to 5. The kids drive real Lego electric cars that are not on a track. At the end, they get a pretend driver's license.

Son1 chose a fire fighter rescue helicopter to ride with Hubby.

We climbed aboard this Lego boat at skipper school. These were not on a track. My Competitive Spirit joined us. Other boaters giggled at us when sandwiched and turned around by other boats. Well, we showed them. I pushed way down on the gas pedal and steered rather expertly to pass them all by. Son1 had a blast. That's right. I learned to drive in California!

Hubby and Son1 flew bi-planes up and down. The kid in front leaned out of his plane and yelled, "My plane is higher than yours." Distracted, his plane slid lower and lower. Son1 yelled forward, "NO IT'S NOT! MY PLANE IS HIGHER!" That other child was not too happy about that!

Hubby and Son1 jumped on this life sized Lego fire truck. You race against other families that are each pumping a mechanism up and down to make the fire truck go. The other families had older children so they really helped make the fire truck move. Son1 just wasn't as much help as the other kids in the other fire trucks. I was SO proud of Hubby. He single handedly beat the other families on the way down to the fires.

Once he pumped the fire truck down the lane, he and Son1 jumped out and ran to put out the fires.

Now, Hubby had to shoot for two people. And this is where the other families beat them. The older kids found this easier to do than Son1 did. So the other families put out their fires faster than my guys, and were able to jump back in the firetrucks, pumping down the lanes. Hubby tried his best, but they ended up being winners in my heart and not in their lanes. He said it was a crazy work out!

Hubby and his Lego diver buddy

We wandered into Pirate Shores in the last minutes before the park closed. Hubby's eyes lit up. He and Son1 grabbed a cannon and shot water like wild pirates at the people on the ride. Well, those people shot them back like loons on a mission.

Hubby and I laughed so hard. What a wonderful day. Time to call it a day. The park was closing in 15 minutes. But a certain three year old had other big plans. There was no way to get out of the park, DRY. He begged, he pleaded, and he pointed until I begged, pleaded, and pointed, and Hubby agreed to get on the ride.

Sopping wet Hubby and Son1 with the rest of our dry family

Here we were, on our way out of the park AGAIN, wet and happy, not thinking we could get any happier, until we saw this place:

The South Beach what? Were we on a diet? Hmmm...Hubby and I remembered to forget all about the DIET for Granny's Apple Fries. These Granny Smith apples are fried in cornstarch, dusted with cinnamon sugar, and served with a vanilla cream dipping sauce. Lucky us. Our kids didn't want too many.

Just as we were salivating these apple fries, on the way out of the park, AGAIN, Son1 started off away from us. I chased him down, and now, with less than 5 minutes until closing, he headed for the one thing he had asked to ride all day. I kept saying yes, he could ride a horse, having no clue whether Legoland had any horse stuff. He rode over and over until they officially shut down the ride.