Thursday, the second of March)! The day had finally arrived! And the weather was as marvelous as we had hoped and expected based on our forecasts. Everything turned out beautifully for our day at LEGOLAND. But first! We went to the beach. Again. Mostly because we were still on Utah time and had an hour or so to kill before the park opened. And partly because: the beach! We love it. So we spent a little while combing the shore for shells and walking to the bathroom and then up to the cliff overlook. It was a gorgeous morning at South Ponto.
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| We searched out there offshore for any whales and didn't spot any. BUT we did see some dolphins! That was pretty dang cool! |
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| Gregg and Sam are down there somewhere. :) |
At last it was time to head to LEGOLAND! We had read that the gates actually open at 9:30, even though all the official info says 10:00, and they even have some rides going early, so we made sure to get there with plenty of time. We parked about as close as you possibly can (the lot was empty!) and Sam and Cal were running and cheering and pumping their fists as we got out of the car. Another family arrived at the same time as us and the parents smiled and said, "now that's the kind of reaction we want to get when we take our kids somewhere fun!" It was satisfying, I must say. They were SO excited to be here. We went through security and stood in line for about 10-15 minutes. We got to watch a life-size minifig guy come open the gates, and soon we were inside. We quickly found out that unless you're a guest at one of the on-site hotels, there's not much for you to do in that half hour before the park opens besides browse the store at the front. There were workers and barricades that kept anyone except hotel guests from going past, so we spent a half hour in the store, pre-planning our after-park purchases.
At last the clock ticked to 10:00 and we were through the barriers and off to find our first ride of the day. We just happened to pick the scariest ride in the park to start things off: the LEGO technic coaster. It was definitely a sudden, jolty, wild intro to coasters for the kids who have never been on one before. We were the first ones on the ride, and since there was no line behind us when we got back, they even offered to let us go again. We opted not to do that; I think the kids were a little bit in shock by the experience. We moved onto something a little more tame: the Beetle Bounce. And then to the Lost Kingdom Adventure ride, where you shoot lasers at bad guys and try to get the most points. The kids rode the (rather lame, they said) Royal Joust ride and then we all tried the Dragon Coaster, which was a big hit. The lines were still super short (aka nonexistent) so we got to go around a second time without getting off! The kids played in the Hideaway playground and then we worked our way over to the Deep Sea Adventure, which had real fish and sharks swimming past our windows as we searched for underwater treasure from our submarine. We wandered through Miniland USA, which was really fun and impressive, and we spent some time building and testing ships at the end of the Las Vegas Strip at the Build-a-Boat station.
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| The hotels do look pretty fun, but we were cheap and stayed down the road in La Quinta instead. |
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| Best. Day. EVER! |
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| So many LEGO creations all over the park. They're really fun. |
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| Beetle Bouncers, ready for riding. |
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| Sam was smiling on the jousting ride. (Cal was definitely on the old side for this one.) |
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| Giant minifig treasure hunter outside the Deep Sea ride. |
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| Miniland is just dang cool, if you ask me. This is San Francisco. |
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| And here's Washington, D.C. |
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| Build-a-Boat time. |
We moved through the park over to Fun Town for Driving School, which was definitely a highlight of the day. The kids drive life-size lego cars through a little town with roads, sidewalks, traffic lights - the works. It was adorable and they ran right back into line after their turn was up. Luckily the lines were amazingly short and they could play here as long as they wanted with barely a wait.
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| Sam's way back there in the blue car past the chicken. |
They tried out the Kid Power Tower while we were still in Fun Town. That was a tough one - they had to pull a rope to lift their seat to the top of the tower and when they let go, then they dropped down. It was definitely time for lunch after that one. Cal was wanting a cheeseburger (of course), and Sam wanted ramen so we divided to conquer for a little while. Sam and I ate outside Everything is Ramen (I have that song in my head just from typing the name) while Cal and Gregg went off to hunt down burgers (the first spot we tried was closed so they had to walk across the park to find them).
We rode the Coast Cruise ride, which is just like the Jungle Cruise at Disneyland, even down to the super corny jokes from the captain of the ship. But we also got lots of trivia about how many LEGO bricks each sculpture was created with, which was pretty interesting!
(I'm forgetting exactly which things we did in the order we did them by this time, but luckily I have pics, so I can at least mention those highlights.) Apparently, next we checked out the Ferrari Build and Race exhibit. There was a life-size Ferrari built entirely from LEGOs which was pretty cool, but unfortunately the rest of the experience was a bit lame. They had LEGOs for you to build your own car and race it down various tracks, but the wheels didn't turn well and the cars just crashed into the sides of the track. There was a virtual race, too, which the kids liked, but overall, that spot could use some work. Next, we went across the way to the LEGO Dots Build Your Art Gallery, which was cute - you could make a little creation on a square plate and then stick it to the wall for everyone else to see.
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| This was the best part of the Ferrari room. |
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| Ready to race. And crash and burn. |
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| She won! |
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| And so did he! |
The Dragon Coaster was the fave coaster ride of the fam, but by this time in the afternoon, I had a headache and decided to sit it out and watch from the outside. It was fun to see Gregg and the kids zoom by a few times while I rested in the sunshine. After, we all tried Apple Fries for a little afternoon treat on our way to the Deep Sea Adventure again. On our way back over to Driving School, I convinced everyone to try Skipper School since it looked tame and it was on the way. It was probably the winner of the least favorite ride of the day award: super slow, hard to steer, BORING. But I had fun. And at least we gave it a try.
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| Rub a dub dub, a LEGO guy in a tub. |
We played in the Rebuild the World room for a while and then wandered through the LEGO Factory tour, which was interesting to watch. The kids pointed out Ole Kirk outside the museum as we walked over to the Police and Fire Academy. It was close to closing time, so we knew we had just one more thing left to do. The kids voted to ride the Coastersaurus again (I never mentioned this one before, but I think we must have ridden it before lunch). I still wasn't feeling too jazzed about another coaster ride, so I stayed below and took pics. This was the longest line of the day. I think they had to wait for 3 or 4 groups to go through the ride before them (I KNOW!!), but it paid off because the kids got the first seat in the coaster together. It was fun to watch them ride the whole thing with their hands in the air - no fear of coasters anymore!
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| Ole Kirk and the first LEGO toy: a wooden duck. I love that the kids knew exactly who this was from all their LEGO encyclopedia reading. |
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| While I waited for the fam to have their turn on the Coastersaurus, I peeked over the fence to snap some pics of the Safari Trek ride area. (Gregg and Sam had ridden this earlier while Cal and I went looking for hamburgers at lunchtime.) |
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| Here they come! |
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| Yep, just scroll fast and it will be like a stop motion movie. ;) |
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| One more time! One more time! |
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| Doesn't this lion look JUST like the drinking fountain at Hogle Zoo?! I love it! |
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