Thursday, February 15, 2007 ;
3:54 PM
8 Feb LegoLand
Our motel was in between LegoLand, Carlsbad and San Diego. We didn't stay in San Diego itself because accomodation is more expensive there.
So this morning we took about 40min to drive to Legoland.
There are 4 Legolands in the world. First one opened in Denmark (where Lego is from, I think). Then in England (Windsor) and then California (1999?). Newest one is in Germany (opened in 2002) I think. I thought I had to go visit it... none in Asia yet, so even further than Disneyland... wouldn't want to travel so far to visit Legoland in future. At least for Disneyland I can go to HK.
Also, Lego is pretty unisex. I loved to play with Lego when I was young. So do my boys. Even if you don't play with Lego, there is enough in Legoland to make you happy. It is like a theme park in a sense because there are so many rides, both water-based, movie/ cartoon based, adventure-based and so on.
For rides, ds went on horses, pretending to be a knight, ds and dh acted as firemen, rode a real Lego fire engine and put out a fire together using real water from a hose on the fire engine. Ds1 drove a Lego Volvo Car at the Volvo driving school and got a Volvo Driver's Licence! :-)
ds and I sat on helicopters that spun and got lifted high off the ground. and we sat on a jeep to tour a safari too, where all the animals were made of Lego. The giraffes, hippo etc all can move too.
both ds went on a lego train ride together. so funny, finally ds1 is of use. ds2 was too short and required someone else at least 100cm tall to ride with him. so we asked ds1 to do it.
there were some interactive rides that were very popular among the older kids. an eg was this water ride where people who queued will sit in a airplane or something that will go round in a lake. they have water guns that can shoot water at other riders. yet, those on the outside watching, can also activate some water pumps situated outisde the lake area and can shoot whoever was inside, having the ride! there were a lot of screams and it was fun to watch. ds1 enjoyed sabotaging people but didn't want to go for the ride itself. it was especially fun for those who went as a school. there was a school there that day, and this class of students had a blast spraying each other till they had to go to the toilet to change later.
by the way, i was so amused that almost everything in the park is made of Lego. Cartoon characters and buildings were expected, but tress, plants, birds, insects were also made of lego. Then in the toilets, even the mirror frame was made of Lego. Each toilet in a different theme area of the park had different designs.
there were paddle boats, roller coasters too. and an interesting Miniland where famous attractions in USA and the world were modelled using Lego bricks. They looked so realistic. And everything can move, the boats, the cars, the fountains... Very fascinating just to sit there and watch, say New York city... and observe the bustle of life in the streets...
there were lego trains running on tracks too.
then there were huge playgrounds for different age groups. ds2 played at the Duplo playground, while ds1 liked the pirate playground better with a lot of ropes, high and steep slides, lots of ladders, dark tunnels...
There was an area where there were Lego music instruments set in a pond and motion sensors on the outside. once you jump on a sensor linked to a particular instrument, say the trumpet, then the trumpet music will play and the trumpet will spout water fountains from its bell. there were a lot of instruments there so a group of kids can cooperate and activate all the instruments to sound and spout water together, and the whole tune is perfectly harmonized... very fun.
We also caught another 4D show at the Imagination Zone theatre.
But I was thinking Legoland must involve building with Lego ourselves so we spent a lot of time at the Imagination Zone. There were 4 main areas where "serious construction" can take place.
One was for the young ones, like ds2, where there were Duplo blocks (larger than Lego but basically the same). Many different types were available and there was a large area for many kids to build their stuff. ds2 seemed to like the alphabet ones best, but it was just setting tiles with letters on them together...
The next was Lego for kids like ds1 and older, maybe till 6th grade. So there were all sorts of sets there you can loan out: pirates, star wars, cartoon characters, vehicles... One fun area was where you can take your building, then place it on this test area. Then you can press a button to start vibrating that test zone. There is a knob or dial where you can turn to the max to see how well your building can withstand an earthquake of varying magnitudes... ds1 enjoyed that so much. he played cheat lah, he just took large Lego blocks and made a super stable one rectangular block kind of building then proudly proclaimed his building passed the test....
More exciting for us was when we proceeded to this area where we loaned out some wheels and let ds1 design and build his own car. there were all kinds of Lego bricks to build with. then we brought his car to test it on a track.
(the process when he was designing and constructing his car was very frustrating for me cos it took sooooo long but dh and i refrained from interfering... also he kept making mistakes... but it was better for him to learn it himself... there were many parents who helped their kids make the car, but i guess the satisfaction won't be that great when the car raced successfully? i have to admit it was so difficult for me to control myself from telling him what to do though. dh is better at that.)
ok. so ds1 finally completed his car which looked weird compared to the others. what happens is then you bring your car to one of many tracks where you set your car with 7 others on a 8-lane test track. the track has a slope all the way down from the start point and then curves upwards. it was quite long, long enough for judging which car will win the race.
there was a button to depress when all the cars were placed in the lanes behind a block barrier. then the block will flag down and level out, leaving the cars to roll down the slope. in the 1st race, ds1's car swerved to the side gutter. Good, I thought, failure will make him try.. so he went back to the station to do some modifications. dh explained that veering to that side meant his car was lopsided and he had to figure out how to weight down the other side more or something to balance out...
ok, second try... now the car went in more or less a straight line but couldn't complete the course. it topppled near the bottom. another round of modification...
i think it was the 4th or 5th time he finally succeeded, and i could see he was tired, frustrated and about to cry... either that or he might throw a tantrum... so it was with relief and pride when i finally witnessed his car zooming down the ramp, and blasting onto the upward slope ---1st in the race!!! the rest of the cars were fancy, and looked so much better, like sports cars.. but his was just weird and odd-looking, with bricks placed here and there just to balance it out. he whooped with joy and excitement and high-fived with us... i would think this was the best part of the day... Pity no photos to show his happy face.
The last area was where we could use Lego Mindstorms to build robots and compete in Robosports. Looked very fun but it was very late by then and our kids wouldn't understand the process, so we went for some more rides and then left the park.
rainbows every day, do not worry for the morrow
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