About halfway through our contract in California Adam’s birthday came up on a weekend where we had not planned anything yet. Megan thought it would be great to surprise him with something he has wanted to do for a while- make a trip to Legoland. His main hobby growing up was building and playing with Legos, with or without directions. The only unfortunate part of this story is that Legoland is located in Carlsbad (basically San Diego), and so off we went on an 8-hour road trip after work on Friday, so we could spend the whole day at the park.
I surprised Adam and brought him to LEGOLAND for his birthday!
I surprised Adam and brought him to LEGOLAND for his birthday!
Come Saturday morning, Adam’s excitement couldn’t be contained. As you approach the main parking lot and entrance you are greeted by a few large hotels that look like they are built entirely from large Lego blocks. One of them that was currently being built when we went was a Lego castle hotel. How cool is that? Anyway, Lego has done a nice job with their amusement park. It pretty much has everything that normal amusement parks have, except it’s Legos. And never mind the fact that this park is mainly built for children under 14- there is plenty of entertainment to take in no matter your age.
We started off by taking a complete personal tour of the park just to make sure we weren’t missing anything. We came across giant dinosaur creations, a Lego Christmas tree, a full-on Star Wars exhibit, and miniaturized city recreations such as New York, Washington D.C., and New Orleans. The park also has a smaller building in the back of the property that takes you through some Lego history and an early day Lego factory. There are places all over the park to snag a bite to eat, so we did just that after walking the whole park. Granny’s Apple Fries were our favorite snack. Fully fueled up, we were ready to hit up some of their rides next- roller coasters, a pirate ship water gun war, and even an interactive ninja experience where you get to shoot the “bad guys” on a video projector screen.
Adam eyeing up Darth Vader
Battleship time!
Death Star made of Legos!
New York City made out of Legos…impressive!
Mini Las Vegas!
The tallest LEGO building in the World!
Mini Washington D.C.
A Christmas tree made out of Legos!
Pretty crazy how much work went into creating LEGOLAND! We had a blast being 12-year-olds for a day!
Adam eyeing up Darth Vader
Battleship time!
Death Star made of Legos!
New York City made out of Legos…impressive!
Mini Las Vegas!
The tallest LEGO building in the World!
Mini Washington D.C.
A Christmas tree made out of Legos!
Pretty crazy how much work went into creating LEGOLAND! We had a blast being 12-year-olds for a day!
They also have countless areas where you can build your own Lego person, build your own Lego boat and send it down a river, play their Lego video games on an Xbox and more. To conclude our day, we visited the Legoland merchandise shop to look for keepsakes and presents for the family.
Racing a Lego boat with children – haha
Before we started off on our long journey back to Clearlake, we were lucky enough to meet up with our friends Elliot and Katie who live in San Diego. The place we met up was called Pizza Port Brewing located in Solana Beach, which looked like a very nice and underrated beach area. As for the pub, it had great pizza options and even better beer options, with possibly one of the largest and best looking/sounding seasonal tap lists we’ve come across. You order your food at one counter and your beer at a different counter, which appears to keep the lines flowing reasonably well. Our favorite beer here was Bacon & Eggs, a double imperial porter.
All in all, a solid trip, and now we can say that we have essentially covered the whole state from north to south. That being said, it is California, and we don’t know if anyone can say they’ve seen every corner of this enormous state!