LegoLand Saturday

Celeste took her seventh (we think) trip to LegoLand yesterday.
We had a pair of free passes set to expire at the end of March, and having gone last year in March, we expected the park would be nice and quiet.
And that it certainly was. Celeste was one of the first kids in the park that day and made a bee-line for the Volvo Driving School. There's usually a fair-sized line for this feature, which lets kids plod along in Lego-y electric cars on a semblance of city streets at a blistering 2 MPH.



Those seeking neck-snapping acceleration need not apply.

Overall, she's no thrill-seeker. There's no way to get her on even the mildest of roller coasters.
Which is fine by me. Big slides are pretty cool to her though.
And it's virtually impossible to keep her from water features.

see, I told you it was empty

The mound of dirt on the right side of the shot is from the excavation of the forthcoming water park that is set to open at LegoLand in June.

As usual, we had a blast. Watched some Lego cars race at the Daytona speedway...
Checked out a Lego model of a Lego factory...
Saw "Plasticalla"...
And took in some rides.

While eating lunch we spied some decidedly non Lego-looking toys on display.
Little did I know that Lego built "conventional" toys prior to developing the eponymous building blocks in 1958. Check out the Lego hood emblem...
...and the LEGO molded into the side of this tractor:
Even this service station is a Lego toy.
After lunch we hit the Lego Clubhouse to buy some bricks.
"Drove" a safari truck through a Lego Africa...
...and then headed out for some frozen yogurt.
A good (and tasty) Saturday well-spent.

yum

C is for Celeste

And it's made of Legos.
Part of the WELCOME sign at LegoLand California. Good thing her name isn't Wilma - that W looked hard to climb on.

Weekend Wrapup

After spending a week traveling in the upper Midwest, I was happy to return to the San Diego area late on Friday night.

Saturday's highlight was running down to North Ponto beach for a little fresh air.
Celeste also took some pix herself (not shown), with her camera for her beach birthday party invites. Sadly I had the new point-and-shoot camera in crappy lo-res mode. Must remember to reset to hi-res...
Our grrrl really comes alive at the beach, she truly needs nature in her life.
Sunday involved redeeming our free LegoLand tix that we were able to score with the tix that we used back in December. The park was a ghost town - no one is visiting Carlsbad in February on overcast days during the financipocalypse. Good for us as there was virtually no waiting at any ride.

First we took a boat trip and saw some more Miniland structures:

NYC with new Freedom Tower behind Lady Liberty

We rode this spinning thing (like the classic Teacups ride) 3x without having to get out of our seat. Once we were the only ones on the entire ride.

Who knew that being pitched around by a giant robotic arm could be fun?

LegoLand received a fair amount of press last month with the Obama inaguration at their US Capitol.
They even had a model of Aretha Franklin, complete in her goofy hat. See the grey figure at the center of the pic below.
Allie out on a Sunday safari
Celeste and a sponge
Celeste learning how to drive a small, plastic Volvo-branded "car"
And a mold that pumped out 120,000,000 Lego 2x3 plates:
We spent a few bucks on some Danish plastic to bring home. Another great weekend in Southern California.

LegoLand Part Deux

When doing some xmas shopping last month, I learned that LegoLand offers a shopping pass for those who want to hit their gift shops. It's not advertised on their website or anything, I had to call the park for the details.

Anyway, after paying ten bucks to park the car, you can go to guest services and request a shopper's pass. The LegoLand employee will run an imprint of your card with a full-fare admission price. Return to guest services within an hour and they'll give you your imprint back. Oh, and they'll refund your parking fee if you spend at least $20.

First stop was the Lego Clubhouse - where you can buy bricks in bulk for $7.99 per quarter lb.

They have a fairly limited selection of basic blocks, but do have some specialty bricks like wheels/tires/windshields/doors/etc, along with some hard-to-find brick colors. Celeste and I ended up with about five dollars worth of Legos and then started heading over to the Technic store to look for bulk gears and such.

Even though we had a shopper's pass, she still took in at least one of the small attractions

Legoman grabbed her and told her to spend money and to stop having fun

The Technic store was a bust, but we did check out a giant Einstein head.

Finally we made it back to the Big Store...

Celeste had returned one of her few non-Lego and non-Webkinzzz gifts and decided to spend the money on a Coast Guard Platform, exclusive to Lego.com and LegoLand.

We sped home and broke open the box to start building.

I made a car with some of the loose bricks from the Club House...
...while Celeste made a far better vehicle.
Allie watched on and painted.

Field Trip - LegoLand

Thanks to the generosity of my parents, we took Celeste to LegoLand this past Sunday. LegoLand lies just a few miles north of us here in Carlsbad, so the drive took all of about 8 minutes.
LegoLand California opened in 1999 and is pretty much hidden in Carlsbad. You'd never see it driving down the roads that it borders. December is definitely the slow season, so crowds were minimal. Celeste has really been in to Legos for the past couple of months, and I've enjoyed Legos for the past three decades or so.

"C" is for Celeste!

Celeste and Allie

As part of their holiday "Block Party" celebration, they have a 30' Christmas tree on display, made from Duplo blocks. Ornaments are made from Legos.

"O Brickmas tree, o brickmas tree..."

For the most part, the rides are pretty tame in comparison to usual theme park fare. Which is fine for Celeste, she's not big into rollercoasters or anything remotely "scary". Unless it involves scaring others. Then she's game.

We waited in line far too long to ride the Skyrider. We hopped into this Lego-ish contraption...
...which has bicycle-style cranks and pedals. Sadly pedaling does nothing except get the blood moving.
After that, we tried the KidPower Tower (or something along those lines). With generous power assist, pulling the rope would bring us to the top of this rotating tower.

I think I can see our house from here.

One of the Lego-themed dining areas had some vintage models on display. Like this 1978 police station - which I had as an 8 year old. Still do, in a Rubbermaid tub at my parent's house.

Note that the mini figures had no faces or arms and legs at this point.

Throughout the park were various Lego statues of people and animals.

After an expensive (but decent) lunch, Celeste and I participated in the fireman challenge. The race involved pumping the truck to get it to the fire, then we had to run out, pump water and aim the stream in just the right place. With just a team of the two of us, we were able to beat three other competing teams of four in the race to put out the "fire".

Lego boat!

Even though it was a little cool (yeah, yeah, those of you in the Midwest can mock me referring to the first day of winter being "cool", with a high temp of about 58 when you were struggling to hit zero), Celeste insisted on riding one of the water rides. She came back semi-soaked after a pirate-filled adventure, squirting water at various Lego-ish targets along the way. Allie and I decided to not participate.
The park's highlight was Miniland, Lego's recreation of some scenes from the US, including California, the NYC skyline, New Orleans, DC, the Las Vegas Strip and "other" - some rural scenes that I guess represents the flyover states (said with tongue firmly in cheek). As Allie put it, "it was a feast for the eyes."

Allie and The Governator on the path to Miniland

US Capitol

SF (not pictured - Golden Gate Bridge, Wharf, Chinatown)

SoCal lifeguard station

New Orleans riverboat

Guggenheim

Treasure Island (aka "T.I" - a place I've spent far to many nights at for tradeshows)

Foreclosure victim in Miniland's rural community

Finally it was time to go - but not without visiting Santa and then the gift shop.

Me, Allie, Jimmy and Celeste

All-in-all, a great day. And the best part is that we get a free visit in '09 thanks to a special promotion they had going on.