Stay Classy San Diego

Our first day back in San Diego was spent at Sea World.  Big Sister was able to get discounted tickets for us all through work.  We started the day with the obligatory killer whale show.  There were actually four Shamu’s in the performance. They did a bunch of flips and such, splashing people in the foremost sections.

The killer whale show was like watching Circus De Soleil with NFL linebackers—huge but surprisingly agile.

We caught the dolphin show afterwards.  At least I think they were dolphins because they just looked like minnows all the way up in the nosebleed section where we were stuck sitting.  I thought this show was more interesting because there is more of a human element, with acrobats and divers involved.  Sadly, when one of the guys rode on the backs of two dolphins, this prompted The Boy to give a long discourse on the dolphin-riding zombie on his Plants vs Zombies game.

We ate lunch at the barbecue joint inside the park.  The food wasn't bad considering it was served cafeteria style under heat lamps.  We treated the kids to a stuffed animal souvenir.  They had a “Build-A-Bear” style shop where you could pick a marine animal and dress him up.  The Girl (not The Boy, thankfully) picked the princess outfit for her dolphin.  My nephews decided to get two giant, oversized stuffed animals.  Brother-In-Law was stuck lugging them around for the rest of the day.  We visited a couple of other areas such as the penguins and the polar animals, but the kids enjoyed the Sesame Street play area much more.  They got to climb obstacle courses and push each other around in a large area full of big punching bags.   By mid afternoon, we were exhausted from dragging around our large caravan of infants and small children.  On the way out, The Girl was enthralled by some of their animal ambassadors—a cockatoo and a baby kangaroo.  I would have expected some type of marine animal considering it is SEA world.

The Boy struggles up the net ladder.

The Boy walks inside a mesh tunnel.

The boys tired out quickly in the punching bag room.

In which of the seven seas are kangaroo’s commonly found?

After letting the kids play one last time with their cousins, we parted ways with Big Sister as her family headed back home.

The kids played around near the mock ship used for Coast Guard training

There was some collateral damage.

The indoor bathroom was only a 1-2 minute walk away.

We wanted to take it easy on our last day of vacation so we headed to Balboa Park.  It’s a great area next to the San Diego Zoo filled with all kinds of museums with varying themes.  We purchased a pass that would get us into five of them.  We started at the Air and Space Museum which was filled with a surprisingly large collection of vintage aircraft.  The nerd in me could have spent half the day looking at all their displays.  However, my paternal instincts compelled me to keep moving as the kids could not have cared any less.  Are they interested in the full-sized replicas of the Apollo landing craft or the planes that Charles Lindbergh, Amelia Earhart, or the Red Baron flew?  No, the highlight for them was the freeze-dried space ice cream from the gift shop.

The Spirit of St. Louis replica

Fokker Dr. 1 triplane

P-51 Thunderbolt

Submarine Spitfire

Catalina airboat

Bell Huey gunship

Not Top Gun

This car looked familiar sometime back in the future.

The Girl flips switches in a helicopter cockpit.

Eject!

Man on the moon

Ground control to Major Tom...WTF is on your head!

We then proceeded to the science museum next.  There was an IMAX show included in the passes.  We saw the “Born to Be Wild” flick about these women who raised orphaned orangutans and elephants.  It was pretty slow, and The Girl fell asleep.  The kids weren't too interested in most of the museum exhibits.  However, there was one room filled with computers that was pretty intriguing.  One terminal took a picture of your face and calculated what you would look like at age 60 if you smoked or not.  Neither was a future worth looking forward to for me.  However, if I smoked, at least I would have an excuse.  But, my favorite computer there calculates what you would look like if you were of a different ethnicity or gender.  I’m no Beyoncé.

The Boy as an African-American female

Our last stop was the museum of natural history.  There are some interesting statues and fossils of dinosaurs and extinct mammals.  The kids were more interested in riding them instead of learning about them.  We caught the 3-D flick “Ultimate Wave” about guys surfing in Tahiti.  It was impressively shot by multiple divers holding up large professional cameras (not merely GoPro's) as they battled monster waves.  At many times it almost seemed like the surfers were going to run over these camera men.  Technical issues aside, the story just wasn't that interesting.  More nap time for The Girl and The Wife.  We were batting a nice 0 for 2 on the movies.

The Kids' ages corresponded to a less than a centimeter of the tree's width.

The rebuilt dinosaur fossils were fleshed out on one side.

The sign said "Do Not Ride."  Too bad The Girl can't read.

The impressive-sized Megalodon

By the time we finished these three museums, it was already starting to get late.  Many of the museums were starting to close, so we never got to use the two remaining passes that we had already paid for.  I was hoping to see the automotive museum with their collection of classic cars.  Oh well, maybe next time.

Later that night, we ate at the Fish Market restaurant located in the shadow of the U.S.S. Midway.  The place was packed and we ended up using a valet after having driven around for 15 minutes looking for a parking spot.  The food and service were good, but it was so crowded, and the waiting time was long.  I doubt I would go there if I was a local.

We want food!

We flew back home early the next morning.  We had to listen to our kids whine and cry that they didn't want to leave San Diego.  I guess that’s a sign of a good family vacation.

Leggo My Lego's...On Second Thought, Just Keep 'Em - Two Days in Legoland

Theme parks tend to bring out the best in kids.  Nowhere was this more evident than in Legoland.  Leading up to this trip, we had no problems getting the children to behave.  A mere “I guess you won’t be going to Legoland” was enough to get them to fall in line.  It was great to see them so excited once we got there.  They got a real kick out of the plethora of well-made, life-sized sculptures of

people...

animals...

and movie characters.

Indiana Jones and Short Round

Like a big dork, The Wife had to get pictures next to the Harry Potter characters.

The kids preferred to pose with popular cartoon characters...

...live...

...or sculpted.

There were fun areas where the children could design their own mini-figures or play the Lego Universe computer game.

They also had an "adventure" area where kids could journey to distant tombs, jungles, and polar reaches in search of missing treasure.  Yeah, it was pretty cheesy, but the sculptures were well made.

The older kids also enjoyed their large waterpark.  Even though they hardly know each other, it was great to see The Boy and his cousins splashing so well together like they were old friends.

But the best part of the park was really the miniature replicas of American cities.  They modeled the unique buildings and landmarks of major cities down to the smallest humorous details.

Washington, D.C.

Las Vegas

New York City

 New Orleans

Other well-known landmarks around the world.

They also made dioramas of each Star Wars movie as well.  Both kids and parents were mesmerized by these small replicas.

Episodes 1-5.  I refuse to photograph ewoks.

Unfortunately, theme parks also bring out the worse in adults.  Legoland didn't make this problem any better.  The Lego store was packed with all the merchandise that can be found on their website.  However, there are really no unique items or things on sale.  The eyes of our kids lit up like they were in a candy store—a very expensive candy store.  As any parent can attest to, it is hard to say no to your children when they are that excited.  We ended up spending way too much on items we regretted later.

Afterwards, we hit the rides.  Wow, they were disappointing.  I expected them to be cheesy and kid-friendly, which was fine.  I didn't expect to have to wait 45 minutes for my children to get on a lame two minute ride.  Unlike Disney which has a really convenient Fastpass system which allows you to reserve your time on a ride while you do something else, you have to wait in line at Legoland.  Alternatively, you could spring for their unadvertised VIP pass.  But at $150/person, it’s utterly ridiculous for a family of four.  Little kids generally don’t do well with half-an-hour waits.  Their impatience often led to parental anger.  There was no shortage of testy moms and dads yelling at their kids for the smallest transgression.  I saw some parents scolding other people’s children because they were “hogging” some of the activities.  We were no exception.  At the “Skipper School” ride, The Wife snapped at some annoying kids who kept bumping her boat too hard and turning it so that it was going in the wrong direction.  Little things like that normally wouldn't get her riled up.  However, the frustration at dealing with the huge crowds and long lines eventually got to her.  I can’t believe that I would actually look forward to bringing the kids back to Disney World in the future.

My son drove pretty well in the "Driving School" ride.

Conversely, my daughter propagated the stereotype of female Asian drivers.

This ride was fun and wet for all of the three minutes it lasted.

With no motor on the boat, "Skipper School" was more like drift school.

We ended up going for two consecutive days, Big Brother and his family joining us on the second.  We visited the Sea Life Aquarium which was included in our passes.  It was no Baltimore or New Orleans aquarium, but it wasn't nearly as bad as much of the online reviews rated it as.  The life-sized LEGO scuba divers inside the tanks were a nice touch.

I had to take a picture with the Scuba diver since I am working on my open water certificate.

Lego man sleeps with the fishes.

They also had some nice petting tanks that were a new experience for the children.

There were starfish and sea urchins available to pet.

Sometimes the ocean just isn't big enough.

Although our passes were good for another day at Legoland, we had more than our fill and drove back to San Diego.  We stayed at the Homewood Suites near the airport for the next three days.  While the hotel isn't bad, it definitely made us miss the West Inn and Suites in Carlsbad.  The rooms are big but just not as comfortable.  The morning breakfast was a madhouse as there were not enough tables to fit all of the guests.  Although they offered complimentary dinners on weekdays, we decided to eat at the nearby restaurants in the adjoining strip mall.  After Legoland, we were just tired of fighting the crowds.