Balboa

Before we headed back home from our Legoland trip we stopped at Balboa park.  One can spend days hopping from one museum to another.  But with kids, we only visited two.  The Museum of Man and the Railroad Museum.  Patrick likes trains, most kids do I think.  And....a nice surprise, there is a lego room with lego trains at the Railroad museum.

And you can't skip the rose garden if you are at Balboa.  So we had to stop, and smell the roses.

This fountain caught my eye and I took a picture of it.

We saw these huge balboa trees (I think that's what these were).  Their bark was carved with names and love notes as high as people's hands could reach.  A bit sad.

And where it was not touched by humans, age and nature had left its marks.

And last, this beautiful plant called Candelabra tree.  A bit of a monster-looking cactus...

Desert View Tower in Jacumba

I was sick with the flu for a week and the first few days I slept almost entirely.  I am much better now, but behind some postings.  This is still from our trip to San Diego in the beginning of the month.  About an hour into the California border there is a nice little stop; Desert Tower in a place called Jacumba.  Many years ago I stopped there on the way to San Diego and remember how peaceful and mysterious it was.  

There was snow on the hills as we approached it.

And then just as we parked and got out of the car, a dog came by and wanted to play with the kids.  He wanted to catch snow balls.  

And inside the rocks there were carved animals.  Buffaloes, and snakes, and turtles and lizzards and other monsters.  See, mysterious I tell you.

And inside the tower lots of cool things, like these masks.

 

And outside was this.  Not sure what it is but it looked cheerful and happy.

And the view from top.

Legoland

Ah what a nice way to start the new year.  I love an adventure, a road trip, and since my son turned 8 on New Year's Day, and he's been asking to go to Legoland, we took a trip on his birthday.  

It's about 7 hr drive from Phoenix to San Diego, on I-8.  We left in the morning and took our time driving and stopping along to check out interesting sites.  Like Imperial Sand Dunes, just past the Arizona border.  It's a little colony of RVs and all kinds of cool ATVs.  Our kids treated it like snow and rolled and tumbled and ran and fell and had a lot of fun in it.  

There is also a patch of land that reminds me of the area around Palm Springs with windmills looking like aliens against the desert landscape.  I took a few shots from our moving car.  (Don't worry I was not the driver at the time).

We made it to San Diego that night, rested and were ready for fun the next day.

I didn't realize that my son wasn't keen of rollercoasters.  He didn't want to go on any speedy rides.  So we had to take turns and one of us waited with him, while the other went on with Maggie.  I tried to reason with him, but then I remembered how I find it annoying when people try to tell me what to do and what not to do.  So I let him make his own decisions on what he wanted to do.  It was his trip after all.

There is a room with the original set of the Lego Movie.  A commentator walks around, shares pieces of trivia and tries to entertain the visitors.  We heard him say there were seven Unikitties on the set, and Maggie and I tried to find them.  Then we heard him ask if anyone wants to sing 'Everything is Awesome' the theme song of the movie.  And who do we hear????  Patrick.  I wished I was prepared for it and filmed him.  It was AWESOME!!!  

Check it out, a bench with live sized Lego Friends girls.  And Maggie.

And a mini figure mascot.

And a big lion.

And flowers on a windosill.

And Jack and the beanstock.

In the end we spent the entire day there, went on the right amount of rides without feeling like we waited in line all day, and went back to our hotel room exhausted.  

Come back, I have more to tell you about interesting stops along the road and Balboa Park.