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Legoland California opened a mere seven years ago - the same year my son Radio was born. This is an interesting factoid for me. As far as I knew, Legoland has been around forever, or at least since 1968, which as far as I’m concerned is forever. I remember my childhood best friend telling me about it when I was a kid. He showed me pictures, and everything. I just took it on the assumption that Legoland was in California. Everything was in California, so obviously Legoland was, too. Apparently, as a kid, I missed the little bit in the article I read that mentioned that Legoland (the original one) was actually in Denmark. As far as I know, that’s a little farther away from me than California.

So I consider it pretty lucky that when I decided to take my kids to Legoland, they had actually built one in the state that I figured it was located. Imagine how embarrassing it would have been to drive all the way to California and be looking all around the state for a theme park that didn’t exist, the whole time going “I’ll bet it’s in the last place we look!” And of course, since I’m a guy, I would never ask for directions, which wouldn’t do me any good anyway because I have no idea how to drive to Denmark.

Legoland also has this interesting policy about not being open during inclement weather. Which kind of worried me because, if you remember, my sons and I had been lulled to sleep by the pitter-pat of little raindrops hitting the top of our camper. I was worried that we’d have driven all the way out there to go to Legoland, only to find that it would have been closed due to rain and then we’d have had to go to some other theme park like Sea World or worse. Boy, that would have been a disappointment!

But the morning came and this is what we were greeted with.

The day was gorgeous. I couldn’t have asked for a better wake-up call. To be honest, that little rain cloud out there in the distance got me a little concerned, though. It came ashore within a few minutes, but didn’t last very long. It was like Mother Nature wanted to try to ruin our trip, like she was still embarrassed for me seeing her all hot and bothered the previous day, but then she had a change of heart. After that little spit of rain hit us, the weather cleared up and that was the last bit of precipitation we saw for the rest of our time in San Diego.

Now, you’d think that like most theme parks, Legoland would have been open early on Saturday. But that’s just the type of thinking that keeps you and me from being highly paid Legoland executives. There’s a higher logic at work here. No, Legoland would not stoop so low as to open early in the morning on a Saturday. They’re better than other theme parks. They like to sleep in, so they don’t open their doors until 10:00 AM! I am not making this up.

So my kids and I ate a hearty breakfast. They enjoyed a couple of servings of crap-in-a-cup…I’m sorry…I mean oatmeal, and I ate some scambled eggs, which weren’t much better even with heavy doses of ketchup. Then we set out to explore our little stretch of beach.

Another view from our campsite. Do you get the impression that I really liked taking pictures of the beach?

At this point, the temperature was quite chilly, and I informed my sons that it was too cold to go into the water. While Radio was quite content with not getting into the water, BionicleBoy was having a difficult time figuring out how the temperature had anything to do with it. This was the basic gist of our conversation on the matter.

BionicleBoy: Dad, can we go swimming before we go to Legoland?

Me: No.

BionicleBoy: Why?

Me: It’s too cold.

BionicleBoy: And..?

Me: Because I’m the dad.

I realize that my logical processing capabilities pale in comparison to those of my nine-year-old son, but in this case I won. A “Because I’m the dad” always trumps an “And…?”. It’s a parent’s ace-in-the-hole. And it’s always in abundant supply to any argument you may have with your child. Kids hate it when you pull that one out because they know that there is nothing that can defend against it. Once a parent pulls that out, there’s nothing else that can be said. It’s over. Done. That is all.

I do have to admit that I softened it somewhat by saying that we’d see what the weather was like the next day, and that we’d probably go swimming then. You don’t go all the way to California and camp on the beach and not go swimming in the ocean. Who does that?

Well, Radio did that, but he has a good reason. It was cold.

Anyway, we took a walk along the beach. The beach provides an interesting change of scenery for us Arizonans. I, personally, was hoping we’d see some cool wildlife unlike anything we’d seen to that point. Tragically, no whales decided to beach themselves on that particular day. But we did find some interesting things none the less.

On the steps leading down to the beach from our campsite. BioniclBoy appears to be pointing to the ocean, but really he’s pointing out the huge body of water behind him. It was enormous. Might have even been a couple of miles wide.

Radio (standing) and BionicleBoy on the beach, taking in the enormity of the ocean, feeling small compared to the vastness of what is before them. It is truly a humbling experience. After this, Radio announced he had to pee.

My hope of running into unusual animal life was momentarily ignited when I caught site of this rare and elusive Birdfish, which comes ashore in the early morning hours to hunt for watergrubs and other small creatures. Then someone told me it was just a Sandpiper.

BionicleBoy with his catch of real dead seaweed and some seashells.

This was arguably the coolest beach treasure we found this day. Radio scrounged up an intact clamshell, complete with working hinge and disgusting point-where-the-clam-was-attached-to-the-shell.

A glove, a white rose, a football, and a gascan. There’s a story here. I’m not sure what it is, and I’m too lazy to think of one. Feel free to come up with your own. Or you could call Horatio Caine, who will dramatically put on his sunglasses and say something very deep and thought provoking, then cut to a commercial.

(For those of you who actually think I’m stupid enough to think this isn’t erosion, thanks a lot!)

Ever take a photograph that turned out better than you initially expected it to? This is one of those. I’m not sure what’s so cool about it, but it really did turn out neat.

There are a lot more where these came from. But because I’m incredibly lazy and I want to get this published, not to mention that I have far too many photos of Legoland itself, I have created a Flickr slideshow that will show you the rest of the day with my boys. I have comments for these shots, but to see them you’ll have to click each image. Sorry, but that’s how Flickr works. It’s not my fault. Look, if you need to blame someone, blame my parents. It works for me.

Okay, so here you go….

So that was our day at Legoland. It was a fantastic time, and I will always cherish the time I had with my sons. Legoland closed early, and we were forced to leave before we could spend all of our money in The Big Shop. Which left us with just enough money to go buy dinner at IHOP.

Keep in mind, no matter where in California you go, even if it’s just to listen to stories of the Billiwack Monster, everything out there is outrageously expensive. My sons and I went to IHOP for a nice, quiet, relaxing dinner. Little did I know that dinner would cost us over $30.00. Three meals, a regular adult meal and two kids meals, cost over $30.00! What’s up with that?

Thus ended our day at Legoland. We went back to our campsite and had a very nice, long rest. We had a long drive ahead of us tomorrow. But not before Mother Nature had her final revenge for me seeing her naked.

The Journey of a Thousand Bricks, Part 1

The Journey of a Thousand Bricks, Part 2