We're not big theme park goers, and we're not terribly keen on introducing Tessie to branded merchandise, but we're willing to make exceptions on both counts for Lego. Tessie is quite happy when playing with her Lego blocks at home, so when the opportunity arose for us to visit Legoland California in Carlsbad (near San Diego) with some friends visiting from Indiana, we took it.The original Legoland is in Billund, Denmark, and we visited it back in 1999, long before Tessie's arrival. We are big fans of the toy, and are grateful that Tessie seems to enjoy it as well. The Legoland theme parks (with locations in Billund; Carlsbad; Windsor, England and Günzberg, Germany) combine theme park-type rides and large-scale displays with hands-on play areas teeming with millions (billions?) of the colored plastic blocks. Oh yeah, and gift shops selling you-know-what. (Yes, we bought some, and no, there's no "factory direct" pricing.)
More Lego than Tessie has ever seen:
Too much of a good thing? Nope, she's just waiting for her second wind:
The cynic in me says these are just product test centers and marketing opportunities disguised as playrooms, but the kids have so much fun that it doesn't bother me. Had we let her, Tessie would have spent the whole day just snapping blocks together and stacking them on top of each other, but we forced her out into the sunshine and onto a few rides.
The display areas, primarily the "Miniland" portion of the park, present painstakingly crafted replicas of not only a variety of famous monuments but also of cities and even of people. Elvis, Einstein and Arnold "The Governator" Schwarzenegger, among others, have all been immortalized in Lego. Admittedly, the cities are not represented in their entireties, but they are still recognizable from the details. I'll have some pictures in the next post.
The rides are fairly standard theme park fare, and they run the gamut from tame to extreme. Our friends opted to try one in which they were held at the end of a long robotic arm and spun and lurched wildly around three axes, but we were content to accompany Tessie on the kiddie rides. There was a "Safari Trek" jeep ride past Lego African Animals and a boat ride through the Miniland Lagoon, among others, and there were lots and lots of hands-on interactive toys to play with throughout the park. There were a few rides for which she was not yet tall enough; that's probably the last time she'll be told she's too short.
There are also outdoor play areas. There's one where slides and climbing areas compete with bins of Lego for children's attention, and there's a water-based play area with water guns and splashing fountains that must be a great relief on a hotter day; fortunately for us the weather was pleasantly cool.
Tessie had a great time and we look forward to taking her back there (or maybe to Legoland Germany!), but not until she's a little bigger. She should grow another couple of inches first, and once she turns three she can take a course at the Volvo Driving School.
1 comment:
We really liked the San Francisco streetscape at Legoland but were quite amused to find that they had cars going UP Lombard Street when in real life, they go down! We also loved that the had the "bush man" from near Fisherman's Wharf. Whenever we were in San Francisco, this man would sit on a bucket on the sidewalk with a branch in front of him. When people would walk past, he would wave the branch and startle them. People would line the other side of the street, busting a gut laughing, as people shrieked, jumped in the air, and laughed. This man is immortalised at Legoland!
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