After a failed attempt at using some buddy passes that a sweet friend had given me, we succeeded in taking an adventure to San Diego. The younger two kids had Wednesday-Friday off of school (teacher conferences) but Aidan's school was still in session. We thought it was the perfect time to attempt take 2 at going to San Diego and hitting Legoland for a few days.
Using buddy passes is like hitchhiking on an airplane. You never know if you are going to get on the flight or not. And even if you are on the plane, you aren't really safe until the pilot pulls back from the gate. You just have to look at it like an adventure and hope for the best and have a plan B (and C) just in case.
The kids were thankful that we made it on this time and were able to breathe a sigh of relief!
After calling Mike at the airport to let him know we were on the flight, he quickly made us hotel and car reservations. Unfortunately, around midnight when we went to check into the hotel, they didn't have our reservation and couldn't find it with our confirmation code. There was literally no room at the inn, so we headed down the street to find another hotel. Sort of stressful in the middle of the night with two kids, but "it's an adventure".
We woke up to sunshine and palm trees and were excited about our first day in Southern California.
During the month of October, kids under 12 are free at the San Diego zoo. We thought we would take advantage of the discount, and spent the day at the zoo.
My parents had taken us to the San Diego zoo when Aidan was about 2. I didn't remember it living up to it's reputation, but thought we would give it another chance.
With the heat wave and temperatures well into the 90's, all of the walking around the zoo had us ready to bag the whole thing and hit the pool. The zoo's admission is $40 for adults and in my opinion, is overpriced and definitely not worth the visit. We were ready to pack up around 1 and hit the road.
I remember this turtle from our last visit with Aidan so I had to make sure the little ones got their pictures on it too.
After the zoo, we loaded up, cranked up the a/c in the car, got mama a frappaccino at Starbucks and headed to Carlsbad, about 45 minutes from downtown San Diego.
The kids loved splashing around in the pool and spa and this waterfall and "pond" that I am pretty sure isn't for swimming in...but I'm the fun parent, so they took a dip.
Anything surrounded completely by bushes is probably not meant to be gone in.
Owen and Isabella swam some laps and splashed around in the pool for a few hours.
I've never been more thankful for swimming lessons in my life. For the first time in never I didn't have to get into the pool with them. It's a milestone people!
We started Thursday morning off early and got to the park before the gates opened. Everything and I mean everything is made of legos! Even this family at the gate. We pretended Dad and Aidan were with us even if it didn't look like them!
I managed to score a few free tickets for Legoland in exchange for doing a blog post for them (on Holy Craft...look for it next week) so I had to make sure I got some pictures of me actually being there!
The lines at Legoland were fairly manageable. I don't think we waited longer than a half an hour for the longest ride, most were only a few minutes. But we did make sure we hit the more popular rides early on in the morning to avoid more of the lines.
One of the favorites was this laser ride where you shoot targets throughout the ride and it keeps score for you as you wind around. Super fun!
All of the cool sculptures around the park made for some great photo op's.
The rides were all pretty tame and Owen and Isabella were the perfect age for the park. Aidan however, would have been bored out of his gourd.
Inside the cart of castle convicts were some pigs, hence the pig noses.
Legoland was decorated for Halloween and it was fun to see all of the temporary sculptures around the park.
Really, everything was made out of legos.
Even these little city scapes. I thought Isabella would be the one that got the most into the little villages and areas, but Owen spent his fair share of time checking out all of the little details.
It's hard to see, but even in miniland they decorated for Halloween. There is a line of trick or treaters standing by the houses!
The coolest part for Owen in mini land was watching the cars, trolleys and boats go. This one in particular had come off its track and needed a little help from the worker to get going again.
This elephant was huge, and yes, made all out of legos and it squirt water from it's trunk.
Isabella's favorite sculpture she told me was the Eiffel tower.
After a quick power nap, it was off to lunch!
We even cooled down with some of the water in the splash park.
I think my favorite sculptures in the park were the life size (well toddler size) people.
The kids absolute favorite ride was this Volvo driving school ride.
There were real working stop lights, stop signs and a huge road for them to drive on.
Once it cooled off a bit, we headed back to miniland again. I had to take a picture of the capital. My great great great great Grandfather has a statue inside the rotunda.
And Owen wanted to make sure I got a picture of the locks.
More driving school!
One of the coolest attractions we went in, was something I think most people would overlook. It's sort of hidden by the factory tour area (again, another thing that gets overlooked) and is a sort of mission for the kids to go on. It has several rooms to wander through and find 7 keys to help the adventurers find their lost treasure.
It had some really fun sculptures inside the caves and the rooms.
Mission complete!
Phone booth made of legos? Nope, but the phone and phone book were.
Owen wanted to make sure I got lots of pictures of the factory tour.
This is the stamping process
This is the packaging
And this is me finding some adult company while the kids went on a crazy spinning ride that I knew I would barf on.
More miniland. This time the NY skyline!
I loved this buffalo made out of legos and a bush.
Day 2 at the park brought more rides and adventures
more spooky decorations
and a few rides we missed on day 1
Ahoy matey!
Watch out for the shark!
There was an area of the park that had the kids building race cars and then provided a timed race track to race the cars down against some of your new best friends.
We also went on Safari and saw lots of cool animals. We probably could have saved our money, skipped the zoo and hit that instead. Lesson learned!
I've been reading the Harry Potter series out loud to the younger two kids. They both have really gotten into it. Isabella loved that she got to stand next to Harry and Hagrid.
And then surprise surprise, I ran out of pictures on my memory stick! We left legoland and headed straight for the airport promptly hitting yucko Friday afternoon/evening traffic and setting me into a minor panic making sure we could make our flight on time (or at all as our case goes!). I got lost, couldn't find a gas station to fill the tank up (isn't that how it always is?), but thankfully the kids were great travelers and we made it on the flight that we were hoping to get on. A successful trip!
