Legoland!

Now that Tessie has turned four -- and, more importantly, has surpassed 40 inches in height -- we decided to make good on our earlier resolution to return to Legoland California.

Her height is important, because at 40 inches she has now met the minimum height requirement for all but two of the park's rides. (When she hits 48 inches, or 4'-0", she'll have the run of the park. Judging by her progress so far, that should be some time next week.)

Even for those who don't meet the rides' height requirements, Legoland is full of attractions and entertainment. The park's centerpiece is Miniland, a recreation in Lego of famous sites and cityscapes from around the world.

Many of the displays are animated, like this Presidential motorcade coming down Pennsylvania Avenue.

Some are large-scale static displays of Lego craftsmanship; these are intended, I suspect, as much to demonstrate the artists' proficiency as to stimulate enormous purchases in the park's gift shop. (Where, alas, there is no "outlet pricing.")

Tessie loves Lego, as all kids do, but her real passion is the rides. Whether flying the "Cargo Ace" planes,

or sliding along on a magic carpet, Tessie loves the wind in her hair and the sensation of speed.

The park also offers a water play area, which is just the thing on a hot day.

The scale of the park, in terms of both its overall area and the individual rides it offers, seems to be a good fit for kids of Tessie's age up to about ten. The rides are all reasonably tame and designed to let the children control them.

There's no manufacturing on site, but there is a brief "factory tour" where it is possible to see Lego bricks being molded and packaged. Along the way, one can glean all sorts of statistics about Lego production, most of which can be reduced down to their essence: Lego is universal, ubiquitous and staggeringly popular.

The tour empties out into a small shop where Lego bricks can be purchased singly or in bulk, but at $7.99/4 oz., that can get pretty pricey. Still, if you need a lot of Lego minifigure heads...

One highlight of our day was Tessie's enrollment in the Volvo Driving School. (Volvo sponsors the attraction. Volvo is Swedish, while Lego is Danish. I guess it's a Scandinavian solidarity thing.)  Kids from three to five get to drive Lego cars around an oval track; when they finish, they get Drivers' Licenses. (There's a larger, more complex track for bigger kids.) Tessie may have had a bit of trouble negotiating the track, but the smile on her face let us know she didn't mind.

After a bit of playing in the Funtown section of the park,

(where Tessie surprised us by showing us she could slide down a fire pole by herself)

we decided to visit the new Sea Life Aquarium adjacent to the park. It's a small aquarium, but Tessie enjoyed it.

(On entering the park that morning, we submitted to a questionnaire about the aquarium; as a reward, Tessie got a stuffed lionfish. Here, she's introducing it to some real lionfish.)

Eventually, we were able to persuade her to leave. We had surprised her that morning by not telling her where we were going; we would surprise her the next day by going back!