legoland

this is way old now but i just need to finish blogging about our cali trip before i go onto the next thing (for my records mostly, who knows, maybe i'll print this one day).


so the next stop was legoland...where over 46.5 million lego bricks can be found in the park. we were all looking forward to legoland because none of us have been before, and legos are just so much fun. eric and i asked around and wanted to get the scoop on people's opinions regarding the park...we didn't get the best feedback (not like disneyland, everyone loves disneyland...its the most magical place on earth) but everyone said you need to go at least once....check! the only thing we were bummed about was that the rides at legoland are mostly geared towards kids and we love rides...but we had plenty of kids with us :)
here is the familia.
they had some awesome models made out of lego's of course. many took thousands of legos and some even months and months to build. the facts were the most interesting. here are some cool legoland facts:

1. There are more than 15,000 LEGO models in LEGOLAND California.
2. The largest model is a giant dinosaur named “Bronty” created out of more than two million LEGO bricks (i think he is the picture below but the dragon above is way cooler!).
3. The smallest model is a pigeon on a building in the Washington D.C. area of Miniland U.S.A. which is made out of a mere four LEGO bricks!
4. LEGOLAND California has more than 50 rides, shows and attractions including three rollercoasters.
5. The Freedom Tower is the tallest Miniland building ever built soaring 28-feet into the air. The spire alone is eight feet high and took three days to build.
6. In 2005 alone, more than 85,000 servings of LEGOLAND California’s signature dessert, Granny’s Apple Fries, were served to hungry guests.

...and let me tell you that those apple fries were delicious!

nice drink coaster, eric!

our favorite part of legoland were all the souvenirs...they had the coolest stuff ever,if you're into legos, which we are. we collect magnets everywhere we travel and we bought the coolest city people magnets...they are the real city people with a magnet on the back. we wanted to buy to whole store...it felt like we did: lego ice cube trays, lego cookie cutters, lego key chains, lego popsicle trays...

here is my sister and i with our favorite cousin marcos, who drove up all the way from mazatlan to hang out with us (the whole reason we went down to so cal in the first place).

my mom and dad.

this volvo was pretty cool, eric couldn't stop checking it out. it was built on a volvo chasis. it was built for the automotive show in detroit in 2004. its the only fixture in the park that is hollow and it still weighs over 3,000 pounds. every structure in the park is built out of normal lego bricks, none of them are specially designed. it took a team of 4 guys over 6 months to build this. they said if one person were to build this design, it would take over a year of working on it every day.

welcome to miniland...the place where Legoland recreated major cities in the world. my favorite was san francisco, seeing it felt like home...they did a good job. they even had the seals on fishermans wharf, great detail. they even had a crime scene with a cop and the "bad guy" with his hands up, it was pretty entertaining. the las vegas strip was also impressive, in fact, the walk way down the middle acted as las vegas blvd...all the hotels were in the right spots and everything.

overall we enjoyed legoland. the only other con (aside from the few adult rides) was that legoland isn't very clean, after coming from disneyland where they take pride in perfection and cleanliness, legoland looked filthy in comparison. most of the legos, models, and rides were covered in spiderwebs and dirt. it looked like it needed a deep cleaning, and since i am a bit of a germaphobe it bothered me just a tad. despite those little things we had a blast.