Vacation!

Well, the kids finally wore us down and this summer we took them to Orlando ("But M-O-M, ALL our friends have been to Orlando").  In order to be economical, we drove down rather than fly, which was a beating in itself (thought we could do it in one straight shot by taking turns driving and sleeping, but realized that we needed that extra hotel night on the way home).  Of course a hurricane hit while we were there, but it largely bypassed us.  It was a blessing in disguise - for dealing with one full day of rain we were given lower crowds (people scared away because of the storm) and lower temperatures (from the cloud cover).

 

 Even though we were driving to Orlando, we had to make a pit stop at the first Florida beach we could once we hit the state before heading west.

  

All we did was walk out onto the sand for 5 or 10 minutes, but it was a nice refresher after being in the car so long.

 Since we were doing Legoland in addition to Disney and Universal Studios, we found a townhouse in Kissimmee to rent to be somewhat centrally located.  It was very nice and very affordable. Grace was in love with it because she got her own bedroom with television and her own attached bathroom.  We had a tiny pool just for ourselves, but the better bet was the pool at the main club.

  

 

It was very Paradise-esque.  And there were never more than a couple other families there at any given time - possibly because of the off-season, or the hurricane, or because the development was only about halfway finished.  No matter - it was very nice to virtually have the pool to ourselves.

 

Legoland was the first park we visited.  I think was the best one of the trip for us.  The kids were just the right age for the rides; the rides and shows weren't too much for Alex but were still entertaining for Grace. Plus Alex is so Lego-crazy you couldn't help but enjoy it. 

  

 Characters from our favorite Lego game.

 Alex loves the Hero Factory line of Legos and was very excited to see this lifesize guy.  Until he saw him from the back and realized it was just a guy in a Hero Factory suit.

 

 The kids did a little driving school.  Alex was very nervous and very serious about his driving, and got angry at me when I tried to break his concentration to have him look at me for a photo ("Mom, I'm DRIVING.")

One of my favorite areas was Miniland USA, which were these incredible recreations of various US areas done in Lego bricks.  You could see Daytona International Speedway, many areas of Florida from across the state, Kennedy Space Center, a pirate area, Northern and Southern California, New York City, Washington DC and Las Vegas. I just thought it was fascinating the detail they had.

 

30 Rock!

 

 

I tried to get a few shots showing many of the areas and to get some actual people in it for perspective.