Legoland - Part 2

Our adventures at Legoland continue!  I really liked this little boat ride.  Unlike other boat rides the boats were not actually on a track so you could steer them a little bit and select one of two paths to follow.  It was a short ride and the boats were in a narrow channel but it seemed that if you tried really hard you might be able to get the boat to turn backwards in the channel.  Of course we didn't do that.

See, doesn't it look like you could turn backwards if you really tried?  

These are the things I think about.

Grant piloted our boat.

This was from a fun walk through attraction where you look for different keys in a bunch of different rooms.  There was a Lego polar bear in there that roars at you when you get near.

By far one of the favorite attractions was this car driving one.  The bigger kids could drive these little cars through this tiny city.  No track, just go crazy.  No adults allowed on this ride either.  Kids only.  The kids LOVED it!

The lines were short so the kids got to go on this ride many times in a row

Emma was too small for that ride but there was a preschool version where you just drive around an oval track.  She loved it and quickly got the hang of pushing the pedal and swerving around slow people.

The bigger kids enjoyed this tower ride where you hoist yourself up

The employees and the stores have a bunch of Lego mini figures for you to trade.  The kids brought some of their own to trade with.  We also did a "build your own mini figure" thing in one of the stores.  Matthew and Grant both made knights.  Matthew had fun sticking his mini figure on all the things made of Legos throughout the park.

Anna and Emma both loved the Lego Friends land in the park.  Lego Friends is a Lego series marketed to girls.  Here is Anna with a horse in the Lego Friends Stable.  

With one of the Friends

All of the Friends!

Emma's favorite things was the Lego Friends Carousel.

She went on it a bunch of times

John liked it too

Grant and Matthew were not interested in the carousel but right next to it in the stables were a bunch of Legos to play with.  They entertained themselves for a long time making Lego creations.

Posing in the Lego Friends car.  Grant being goofy.

We had some nice stir fry and ramen bowls in the Lego Friends land.  A nice break from typical amusement park food.  Anna likes ramen and most Asian food - its her Japanese roots.

Discovering little Lego creations everywhere is always fun

Lego Friends land was a big hit with the girls.  A few friends of mine complain that Legos marketed to girls (Lego Friends) is in some way sexist, but I disagree.  I think they are great, I would have been more interested in Legos as a kid if those "girl sets" existed in my time and of course all Lego sets can be for either gender.  Lego Friends by the way is a hugely successful line of Legos.  Girls love them - including my two girls - and it gets them into building with Legos.  Anna has a set where she built an amusement park ride that moves and she has been reengineering an old set at home to make a house according to her own specifications.  Legos are one of the best toys out there as far as building creativity and engineering and I love that they are trying to get girls in on the fun.  Legos for all!!  More Lego adventures to come!!

Legoland - Part 1

We spent three days at Legoland and had such a great time.  If you love Legos (which we do!) then you'll love Legoland.  Most of the rides are aimed at younger kids, though there are a few rollercoasters.  I have never been there before even though we lived not too far away growing up.    Here we are at the entrance.  It rained a little bit on us the first two days (and was a bit chilly) but that kept the crowds down and we were able to do a lot.  We did a lot of the same things on subsequent days so I'm going to post pictures by attraction and not by day - that's why we have different clothes on in pics on the same ride.  And I'm starting to forget what we did when - it was a bit of a whirlwind!

The Lego Ninjago ride opens before the park officially opens so we headed there first.  On the way we met the red Ninja (Kai).  The other kids were too bashful to stand by him for a photo so Emma and I stood with him.  The Ninjago ride was a lot like the Midway Mania ride at Disney.  You ride around and shoot (or actually karate chop) bad guys that are on different interactive screens throughout the ride and get points for it.

Hanging out with L-Loyd (have you seen the Lego Ninjago Movie?  It's a family favorite of ours)

All the Lego creations throughout the park were so fun

A little climbing wall outside the Ninjago ride.  There were also spinners to play on nearby.  One thing I liked about Legoland (that I wish Disney would do more of) was that they had lots of things to play on, many of them right outside big rides so smaller kids can play while bigger kids ride.  Or you might be able to play while one person stands in line, although we didn't try that.  There weren't really many long lines on our trip.  

The bigger kids rode the Technic coaster next and I took the younger ones (who didn't want to ride or were too short) to play in a mummy themed play place right outside.  The mummy play place was so cool.  It had a bunch of ball pit sized foam balls that you could shoot all around in various contraptions with air power.  It was fun.  We also went on another cool ride where you shoot lasers at things - The Lost Kingdom Adventure.

On a small people only plane ride.  

Emma cried on this one 'cause it whips around the corner pretty fast.

Lego version of the teacups.  Scott volunteered me to go on this one with the kids.  And I'm proud to report I didn't throw up, although I didn't want to go again.  Hooray!

The kids waiting in line for the Dragon rollercoaster

Lego Dragon

John was tall enough for the Dragon coaster but didn't want to ride it.  We did this Royal Joust ride that was right outside of the rollercoaster.  John went on this several times and Grant gave it a go once.

Big people did the Dragon coaster a lot and we got some apple fries while we waited (then shared with them when they got done).  Apple fries are a Legoland specialty and not to be missed!  They taste like apple pie.

Posing as a Lego Knight

There was a Lego play place right outside the Dragon coaster

There are little Lego building stations all over the park

We built some stuff

Grant built this fort

Also in the medieval themed land was a huge wooden play structure called Hideaways.  I think it was one of the kids favorite things!  I don't think I got any pictures of it but everyone wanted to visit it every day.

Matthew's favorite thing was this ride - Knight's Tournament.   Grant, Scott and Anna also gave it a try.  You can choose how thrilling you want the ride to be on a scale from 1 to 5.  Matthew always picked 5.  I think Grant and Anna chose level 2.  I think Scott went on it more times than he really wanted to.  He had to ride with Anna and Grant.

You're such a good sport, Scott!

More Lego adventures to come...