We all roused out of bed, starting at 7:30. Miles and Mallory were both awake and giggling in the other bed. This did not make Momma happy. We slowly got up, got dressed, and made it downstairs to their breakfast bar around 9:00.
Today we are making a trip to Legoland, in Carlsbad, CA. This park is exactly what the name implies, a little theme park based solely on Lego toys. Carlsbad is about 30 miles north of where we are staying in La Mesa. We drove up Highway 101 along the ocean and through some neat towns. We somehow managed to get into California without a state map, so we did stop at a drug store and pick one up, only to find out that the detailed map does not go as far north as Carlsbad. But we knew generally where we were going, and made it to Legoland about 12:30.
Traveling Kings visit Legoland!
As we were buying our tickets out front, we were approached by somebody offering to sell us one of their extra tickets at a steep discount. We jumped on that, and then hoped it was a real ticket. It was, so our day was off to a good start!
Believe it or not, this place was pretty busy. We had to wait in lines of 30 minutes or more several times for a 2 minute ride. However, Marissa was having a great time, and that was why we were there.
Marissa poses next to Spongebob Squarepants, made out of Legos.
All three of the kids have Legos at home, and Miles in particular, has been putting together more and more advanced Lego sets for a while. He has several Star Wars Lego sets with over a thousand pieces. He found several Star Wars Legos at the gift shop that he wanted enough to purchase with his own money. They are the Republic Battle Tank and Armored Assault Tank.
Stephanie, Mallory and Marissa ride the "tea cups".
All of the rides at Legoland take you past massive displays made out of Legos. They might be animals, dragons, scenes of Egypt, etc. It truly is impressive what they can do with Legos. There were also stand-alone displays of various cities, made out of Legos, such as San Fransisco, Las Vegas, New Orleans, and an especially large display of Washington D.C. The Capital Building itself was made out of 380,000 Legos!
Standing next to a giant Albert Einstein face, made out of Legos.
Mallory and Stephanie on a Safari Ride at Legoland. Note the Zebra and Wildebeast made out of Legos.
The “scariest” ride in the park was a Bionicle ride. I have never seen anything quite like it. Two people get strapped into a mechanical arm, which looks like something you would see at an automotive assembly plant. You get to choose the level of danger you want on your ride. Marissa and I used Level 1, which was “Gentle”. She was very apprehensive at first, but we had a great time. Mallory and Stephanie used Level 2, which was “Fun”. Then, Stephanie and Miles got on this device and set it to Level 5, which was “Extreme”. Level 5 is the highest level. This was a crazy level. I tried to take a picture of them, but they were just a blur. They were getting shaken this way and that, upside down, and all around. I was glad it was them, and not me!
While Stephanie and Mallory were cruising around on Level 2, Mallory was telling her, “Make it stop! I’m gonna die!” This did not last long, and she actually had a great time on the ride. Miles was very proud that he spent the entire ride with his arms in the air, not hanging on.
Once the sun went down a little after 5:00, it actually started getting pretty chilly. We left the park around 6:30 and decided to drive back down Highway 101 and eat dinner in one of the little towns we saw on the way up. We eventually found a place that interested us in Encinitas. It was called Robbie’s and they had a wide variety of food. They set us at a table right us in the middle of the restaurant, and Miles spilled his Sprite all over me soon after sitting down, so we successfully made our announcement that we were there. The San Diego Chargers were playing a home game on Sunday Night against the Denver Broncos, so every TV in the place (about 6 or 7) were tuned to the game, and there was lots of cheering by everyone in the place when the good guys made a big play. The host of the restaurant was well-informed enough that he took one look at us, and knew why we were there – the Holiday Bowl. There was a greeter at Legoland who looked at us decked out in our orange clothes, and told us we must be Denver fans (their color is also orange). They obviously were not paying him for being observant.
We made our way back to the hotel about 9:00 and I was glad to see we did not run into any game traffic, because our Interstate drove us right past the hotel. I called KK to find out what the plan was for in the morning, as we had not seen them all day. We’re planning to leave the hotel at 7:00 to get to downtown San Diego for a Big Balloon Parade.
Day 1 in San Diego has been a success!
The rest of the traveling party also had a great time. Scott & Erin went on a two hour trolley tour of the entire area, including Old Town, Gaslamp Quarter, Coronado Island, and the beach. They said it was an outstanding tour. They also told us that they found the very best Mexican restaurant ever, and the most amazing yogurt place. It is good to have another part of our group to reconnoiter this town so we’ll know the good places to go later! KK & PK went downtown with Earlene and located Neal & Lynda. That group spent most of the day together, and did some exploring themselves. KK, PK & Earlene had lunch at In-N-Out Burger, and ran into a celebrity – the pilot of the Met Life blimp. The pilot was from Texas and he said that the Pokes were going to win, even though his blimp co-pilot was from Oregon.