Legoland!

Everything was awesome!

I researched, planned what I could, bought the tickets ahead of time for a steep discount for military. Moving out was a lot more involved than we were expecting, so it was a late night on Wednesday for both of us. I planned to leave after the car was packed and the house was tidied Wednesday morning, estimated at 9 am. The movers showed up, were very helpful and had a great attitude. They wanted to get out early, so they attacked the job and did a great job. However, the packers on Tuesday didn't pack our stuff tightly so all of our stuff didn't fit onto the moving truck.

The carpet cleaners agreed to clean the carpets while the movers were there. But then they showed up and said that wasn't going to work. They were to come back between 2 and 4 pm.

The final inspector from our rental company agreed that it would be okay to have the movers still moving out during the final inspection. He showed up and said that wasn't going to work. We had to turn in the keys at the main office in central Jacksonville and the final inspection would happen after we had gone. Evan can tell you more about that disaster later. While the inspector was there, he did walk around the house and point out things that would have been a hit and a money loss for us. Because of all the things he pointed out, I ended up staying until 4 pm cleaning the house. Had the pre-move inspector pointed those infractions out, we would have done as much as we could. No matter how many times we vacuumed and mopped, the floors were still dirty and needed to cleaned after the packers and movers tramped through our house.

We had plans to go to SeaWorld on Thursday (free tickets for military) and hoping to spend as little as possible there. Me anyway. I have seen Blackfish and know the things that SeaWorld has done. I don't approve. But shorter lines because of a decrease in attendance into the millions over the past year and entertainment for my two year old was enough to be interested. And it would have been free for us.

We bought our Legoland tickets at MWR ITT before we left Jacksonville. We got up early, got ready to go and left. We arrived ten minutes before they opened and had no problem getting into the park within a couple minutes because the lines were so short. Evan got in for free because he is active duty military. Since we were one of the first ones into the park we were the first to ride many of the rides. We hit Duplo Valley first then went on to Lego Kingdom, and so on.

The park is very kid friendly. Kids 2 years old and younger get in for free. Gabe was tall enough (37 in) to ride a lot of rides. Most of them didn't go faster than 5mph. His favorite was the train in Duplo Valley. The train is one of the reasons we were able to excite him into going to Legoland. He was the engineer twice. The Duplo train conductor, which Gabe has, was the greeting character outside of the ride. It was as tall as he was but like all characters and statues, he was scared of it. We did get him to give a high-five to the static conductor. That was enough for him.

There is a part of the park called Miniland where cities have been built out of Legos. In Miniland are Star Wars characters and scenes from the movies. Evan probably spent an hour in this part. It was his favorite part. I was just hungry.

The Lego website and park map and what actually happens in the park are not in accord. Finding something to eat that is safe for a child with food allergies was a little difficult. The dietary guidelines are not clear in a way the lists out the ingredients for each food item. Legoland does allow outside food to be brought in for people with food allergies which we did just in case. We did find that the kids burger with a GF bun was nut-, dairy-, and egg-free, along with the fries and fruit it came with. It was the most pathetic burger you'd ever see, but it was safe and that's what counts.

We saw a fire safety show where we got wet. Gabe loved it! He really wanted to get into the fire truck on the stage but that wasn't allowed, of course. We got plenty wet where we were sitting. Gabe laughed through the whole show. At the scary parts, he was scared; when he was supposed to applaud, he'd clap his hands; and when he was supposed to respond, he stood there not knowing what he was supposed to say.

It is a great park. The signs were confusing and lacking in information, but the map worked. It is definitely for kids. Designed for kids to have an abundance of fun and still entertaining enough for all to enjoy. Better than DisneyWorld I believe because it's not about standing in lines and buying expensive souvenirs and food. It's actually about fun! And it was awesome. Gabe fell asleep as we were pulling out of the parking lot. I highly recommend Legoland to anyone. Two-day tickets and annual passes aren't much more than a one-day pass. If you like it so much, you can upgrade for a few bucks each.

(sorry for the long post)