Spring Break: Day One

Sunday afternoon we got out of Dodge (after a lovely dinner with Robert, Trisha, and Sarah et al). The plan was to spend the night at Primm, but we ran into some trouble around Vegas. Robert had warned us that Nascar was going on--and we're not sure if it was that or something else, but it took us an hour to travel 20 miles through Vegas (the back up started 10 miles outside of town--we crawled along at 10-20 miles an hour for a while). Part of the problem was that some genius put up a "merge left" sign (maybe to facilitate all the traffic coming on the on-ramp? We don't know)--but there was no clear reason *why* as the right lane never actually closed--but merging sure made traffic slow down a lot.

We finally made it to Primm--well past the kid's bedtime, and then Evelyn seemed disinclined to sleep. She didn't go to sleep until 9--and then was up at her usual time (quarter to six). At least we got out of town early.

Our plan for the day was to go to Legoland. We had a fairly uneventful trip until we actually got to Legoland. We'd purchased some Go San Diego cards online through Costco, and this was our first stop. I made the mistake of asking the lady at the ticket gate if we could "activate" the cards there, and she didn't think we could so she sent us to guest services, who gave us the address of the California welcome center in Oceanside (a good ten minutes back up the road). So, we loaded everyone back in the car (and I was feeling like a horrible mom since I hadn't known we had to go somewhere else to activate the car and Andrew was so disappointed by the delay) and headed North. I called the welcome center to make sure we weren't being sent on a wild goose chase--and, after some discussion, figured out that we were. It turns out you don't have to do anything special to activate the card--it does that automatically as soon as you swipe it. The ticket lady could have done that at Legoland the first time around. So, some 25 minutes later, we finally made it into the park.

The weather was  beautiful--sixty something with a slight breeze. I think the kids enjoyed themselves--I was a little underwhelmed, to be honest, but I think the pacing is perfect for younger children. And some of the lego statues were really interesting. We discovered pretty quickly that Andrew doesn't like to wait in lines. Anything more than 10-15 minutes and he didn't want to do it.

(I promise I took more pictures than this--only, none of them were very good pictures. Part of it is undoubtedly my fault--but part of it, I have to say, is the subjects, who weren't very inclined to hold still when there were more interesting things to do). 

One of the rides let kids 3-5 ride their own little Lego cars. Evelyn was actually pretty good at this--although all of the kids out there got stalled multiple times. It was pretty clear why you're not allowed to drive until you're much older. She seemed to enjoy it, though.

Afterward, we came back to the hotel and the kids went swimming for a bit. Then we went to find dinner at the harbor in Oceanside, looking for a fish taco that came highly recommended by Bubby and Poppy (they stayed in Oceanside on their last  CA trip). Dan seemed to enjoy his tacos (he ate two! And they were enormous). The kids were less impressed with the fish and chips that they shared, but I actually enjoyed my fish--the first time I've had fish in a long time. Fresh makes a big difference.






Poor Evelyn was asleep by the time we got back to the hotel and Andrew was out shortly after, so Dan and I are enjoying a bit of peace for the evening. Tomorrow: Sea World.