Travel Log: Legoland and Wedding #2

We had a busy day today.

First, we made the pilgrimage to Mecca trek to Legoland.


It's a good thing we checked the Legoland website before we went. If we hadn't done so, then our trip to Legoland would have been very much like Clark Griswold's trip Wally World to in Vacation. It turns out, they're CLOSED Tuesdays and Wednesdays in the off season. (Aside: Actually, the reason why we went to see the Sequoias on the way south was because we couldn't go to Legoland on Wednesday.)

I was really glad we went. They had a lot of the old stuff we had seen before...

Lego Mt. Rushmore
(Yes, that's a giant Q-Tip coming out of GW's ear)

...but they also had a lot of new stuff, too. Here's some of the stuff they've added since the last time we were there.

NY City with the new Freedom Tower added

Las Vegas

In case you've never been to Legoland before, the displays above are by no means static. They have a lot of moving parts - cars driving around, helicopters with blades spinning, trains running, breakdancers dancing, bands playing, etc.

They've added a whole new section called Land of Adventure which is sort of an Indiana Jones themed place set in 1920's Egypt. Flashback to Disneyworld: Our favorite ride at Disney is the Buzz Lightyear ride where you actually get a laser gun to shoot at targets through the ride and rack up points. They added a very similar ride here at Legoland where you ride in a car and shoot guns at targets in an Egyptian archeological type theme.

Jeeps N Guns
YEAH!

(Okay, so it's not a Jeep. Someone tell me what a better name for them would be.)

When we came off the ride the first time, the air rang with a loud and repetitive,

"AGAIN! AGAIN! AGAIN!"

Then my wife told me to calm down and be quiet and so she could ask the boys what they wanted to do next. I bolted and ran back to the entrance and the boys followed me, so we went on it again.

Aside: One of the nice things about going during the off-season: No lines. There was only one ride we had to wait in line for (because they had it operating at reduced capacity due to expected low usage). All the rest of the rides we could ride multiple times in a row if we wanted.

Did I mention the ride keeps score?

LW beat me BOTH times we rode!

Oh, I know what YOU'RE thinking! NO! LW's score on the first run had absolutely NOTHING to do with my desire to go on the ride AGAIN. (Nice shootin' Sweetie! :-) ).

We went on the boat ride...


We went on the log ride...


We went on the safari jeep ride...


ES said he wanted to go on this roller coaster, but chickened out at the last minute. I let him walk back down the exit ramp to LW while I went for a ride.


There was nobody else in line, so the operator guy let me ride it

3 times in a row.

He asked if I wanted to keep going, but I said no, I should get back to my family. Each time I flew past my family sitting on the park bench, I made sure to scream like a little girl so ES would think it was horrible and he wasn't missing out on any fun. ;-)

We went on a bunch of other rides, but I won't bore you with more of the same.

We made a few pitstops...


Oh, there's also a 10-stage geocache in Legoland. We found all but one of the clues and I'll have to email the owner to ask about that one.

Each Treasure Chest Icon is a Stage of the Geocache.
The dotted lines are a "breadcrumb" trail that shows
where we walked in the park.

Then we made the mistake of walking into the store. Oh man, they had a LOT of REALLY COOL stuff in the store. I actually contemplated breaking out the roof-rack carrier to take home a Death Star and a Millenium Falcon.

Me checking my empty wallet to see if I can afford a Death Star.

Overall, a good time was had by all, and the boys even said that Legoland made the long car drive from Oregon worth the trip. Hooray!

Wedding #2

Tonight I went to Rich and Jasmine's wedding in Fallbrook. That was actually the reason for our excursion south to San Diego before heading east. Unfortunately, our friend Jen who had agreed to watch the boys for us came down sick with strep throat today. (Aside: I'm sorry you're sick, Jen! We're sorry we didn't get to see you today and I hope you get better soon!) So my wife stayed back at the hotel with the boys while I went to the wedding.

Rich was a stateroom mate of mine on the 725 Battle Wagon and we've been through a lot together.

They picked out a beautiful location for the wedding.

The happy couple.

The sword arch.

The cake was delicious!

Because I know some of you are interested in such details, here's the centerpiece. I think it was like a glass flower thing on the inside. It was really pretty - this photo doesn't do it justice.

Reunion of SSN 725 Shipmates

It was good to catch up with old friends and shipmates. Unfortunately, I missed the memo about the choker whites. No, actually, Rich called me to ask me to be in the sword arch about 3 days after the movers took my dress uniforms and sword away in a wooden crate bound for DC. DOH! I was disappointed not to be part of the sword arch, but I was glad the timing worked out for me to attend the ceremony en route to our next duty station.

Statistics for today:

399.99 Cost of a Lego Death Star

5.02 Number of miles walked at Legoland today (by GPS).

5,002 Number of calories in one of those pieces of wedding cake (probably).

WARNING: I probably won't write a blog post tomorrow and might not over the weekend. Tomorrow we're heading to my cousin's place in St. George, Utah, with a stop in Las Vegas for dinner with some friends. I expect we'll get in pretty late tomorrow night and be busy with family activities over the weekend. :-) Will write more when I can. In the meantime, I hope you all have a good weekend!