Destination Lego Land the Second Happiest Place on Earth!

Kudos and 10 Thumbs Up for Lego Land! Seriously a much grander place than we ever could have imagined. Friends who brought their children here years ago all said pretty much the same thing; ‘there wasn't a lot to do' or 'pretty boring’. 

Well it has been reborn and it is massive! We had a 5-day pass and there were still a few things we were unable to get to, but then again, there were some attractions that just had to be done two or three times.

Like Disneyland, Lego Land has themed sections, mini lands if you will, with food and attractions to match the themes.

It also has an aquarium. It’s no Sea World, but something you wouldn't want to miss. The unique ways they came up with for children to interact with sea life, as well as knowledgeable and friendly staff at every turn to answer any questions, made for a thrilling experience for the kids.

Then there is the water park. It was also sectioned off into themes with a good variety of attractions to amuse both big and small.

The whole experience was very impressive. I got to be the photographer for the most part due to a flat tire in the knee department. (I go to the knee mechanic for a redo of the last overhaul come mid-July) So . . . I was side-lined from any rides that required a bent knee. Quite alright, Mark was a good sport and made a hilarious, super-sized chaperon on teeny-tiny rides. Plus Scarlett didn't mind flying solo AND we now have some fun pics that we wouldn't have gotten if we were all being flipped around on the rides, so it’s all good!

Now, if a picture states a thousand words, then get ready for a long, long read...

                                              

 

                   

    

     

                       

                       

              

            

           

                 

  

Ended the day with a dinosaur dig. These pictures are just from the attractions I could not take part in, so you can imagine how massive this park is.

Thoroughly enjoyed our week here. Highly recommend for children 4 years old through 10 years old. Yet I'd go by myself, just saying. . .

Adorable Grands and the Naughty Gnome

Okay, I have just spent four glorious days with my grandchildren, but I shall not gush (they are adorable!) There is nothing worse than parents or grandparents who go on and on and on about their children/grandchildren. (Mine are absolute perfection)

The first day, as I already shared, was spent at the pool and playground at the RV Park in Valencia. 

Second day, more of the same, but add in some dice games and a trip to Chucky Cheese for dinner and video games. 

                           

      
         

   

         

On one last walk prior to bed at the Valencia location, the children picked up some treasures they found by the dried creek bed.

                             

                                        Scarlett's love hearts, dragon tooth,
                                          and metal tool

Parker's special rocks and leaves

Then yesterday we packed up, sucked in the RV walls and drove to the Escondido RV Park. 

Travel days are hard days, but fortunately we had a calm, and clever Co-Captain.

Scarlett and I rode on the sofa, all belted in, with our iPads. I showed her some older family photos and she showed me a fun new app called Pic Collage


I can seriously state that I have only found one slight challenge with each child.

The girl has hair as fine as an angel’s. It has been getting more tangled by the day. The mother would be horrified at my ineptness when it comes to brushing out the nests. I am sure the family will be traveling back to Australia with a live family of American squirrels. (Sorry Becci, I am really trying my best!)

Then there is the boy. It doesn't matter how much you put in his mouth, he is never full. This is not an exaggeration. He also has a built in alarm to let you know when the stomach is empty, rather like the beeping in your car when the gas is low. Tonight after raw veggies and dip, a big bowl of spaghetti, three pieces of garlic toast and a fruit Popsicle, it only took five minutes before the empty alarm was going off again. We have found the only way to stop this alarm is to have the boy brush his teeth and put the stomach to bed.

Us grandparents have decided to divide and conquer when it comes to bedtime. The boys take the sofa bed and the guest bathroom. The girls get the bedroom and the master bathroom. It works out great. Parker doesn't mind G-man's snoring, and G-man doesn't mind Parker's wiggling.

Scarlett and I simply put on our sleep masks, shut the sliding doors and sleep like princesses.

Today we had a very big day! We went to Lego Land and walked the whole park. We only did a few choice rides as we checked out the layout of the land to make our plans for the rest of the week. Tomorrow we shall hit the water park! You can feel the electricity of excitement in the air. There is sure to be a shock-wave in the pool tomorrow!

Sadly, our power strip got switched off last night by an anonymous naughty gnome. All of our gadgets, including phones, were useless today. i.e. no pics to share of Lego Land, YET, we still have four more days.

Meanwhile, I’ll keep the posts coming when I can. These two are keeping me on the run. Much better than any gym membership could! 

The Monkey and the Ballerina

Hi. 

Did you miss me? 

I've missed chatting with you because if we had been chatting, that would mean I was doing something worth chatting about!

Instead, we have spent the last week or so in the old 'hood, tying up some unfinished business. I had some doctor appointments I could not ignore. And lastly, we have been readying ourselves and the RV for the two weeks we will have the Grand kids to ourselves. We even got Cotye excited about his 'new friends'. 

Got up early so that we would be ready for the text telling us they were on their way, and then we all met up at the local I.H.O.P. for brekkies . . . whoops, let's back up a bit, shall we?

Asher, our oldest son, is married to Rebecca who happens to be an Aussie. They live in Melbourne with their two children, Scarlett (8) and Parker (5). Asher is head of the Arts and Technology Department at Waverly Christian College. He arranged for a group of 20 or so students to go on a missions trip to Mexico, as well as other CA locations. His wife joined the expedition as a chaperon. The whole group will be gone for two weeks. 

During that time they left the children with us. Then at the end of their mission trip, the school kids will fly back to Australia and, Asher and Becci will join us, along with Dorothy and Lyle (Mark's mom, her husband), and our youngest son, Joshua and his fiance, Monica, at the Happiest Place on Earth . . . for a full week at Disneyland. I have an ambulance on hold for the last day of the trip, if I make it that long!

Dear Melbourne; if you have lost a monkey, tail-less, blond hair, looks to be about 5 years of age, he is here in the RV, swinging from the chandeliers. Wait, we don't have chandeliers. He's just swinging from whatever he can get his hands on. 

They'll be tired, the parents said. They hardly got any sleep on the plane, the parents said. There'll be tears they are so tired, the parents said. Both kids are wide awake, giggling and show no sign whatsoever of wanting to even sit in one spot for longer than 5 minutes. I thought I heard wild laughter emitting from the parents van as they pealed out of the I.H.O.P. parking lot. We waved but the parents never looked back.

Well, at least we'll have something worth writing about now that the monkey and ballerina are here. Oh how I love them so.

Pictures to follow in tomorrow's post. I promise!

Planes, Trains and Skunks

I am starting to see a pattern here. So many RV Parks are located right next to a railroad track or an airport. The East Shore RV Park sits at the end of the runway for a tiny little airport that services tiny little planes that make really BIG noise. There is also a train track nearby, but you can’t hear it for the tiny loud planes! 

Cotye being forced to
pose for a pic, the
little skunk!

Not fond of the parking lot set up here either, still, there are a few nice features to this park; a nice grass area behind your RV for setting up chairs under shady trees. A lovely little lake, and at night, big fluffy skunks come out in droves!

The skunks don’t like to pose for pictures, so all I was able to capture were blurry ghost-like remnants that there had been a skunk in front of me seconds before. For being so big, it is amazing that they can disappear in an instant!

I have a theory. I believe that their bellies must be green like the grass and all they have to do is flip over onto their backs and they become stealth to the naked eye.  I joke not. There will be a skunk in the middle of a wide open grass area, then a car will come around the corner and when the lights flash on the grass, the skunk has vanished! Yep, green bellies. I am sure of it.

Today we pack up and head back to Castaic for 10 whole days. Laundry, swimming pools and a dog run. No planes, trains or skunks, just an occasional mountain lion or bear. 

We Are Family . . .

What a wonderful day! My cousins came by for lunch and to meet the Tumbleweed and Toad (and Cotye, of course). No longer was I the lone cuckoo clock in the library. It was like being in a clock shop, on the hour, and all of the cuckoos chiming at the same time.

Dave, Don, Vicki, Shirley, Sharon, Sharlene, Me, Cotye
(Camera man: Mark)

After sitting outside and chatting all afternoon, I could see my husband’s face as he discovered more and more similarities between my cousins and I. One of them being;  that all of us have cremated our previous pets and kept their ashes.  A certain cousin, no names mentioned here, (Sharlene), even has a frozen pet piranha in her freezer that passed away in 1974!  If a burglar ever checked her freezer for jewels, he’d get the surprise of a lifetime!

Us gals talked in circles, forgot details, talked over each other, corrected each other incorrectly, laughed at each other, then laughed some more . . . No doubt we all came from the same cookie dough. 

Dave and Don

Thank you to Dave and Don for joining us and sharing your share of interesting stories. Bees, bears . . . stuff that made more sense to Mark.

Vicki and Don
I should have had Vicki flex for this picture!

All of my cousins are amazing women. Vicki is the 'Sheriff' in town and has ‘guns’ that would put Arnold to shame. 

The Twins:  Sharon and Sharlene

Sharon and Sharlene are the twins, and they sound so much like the little chipmunks, Chip and Dale, when they get going, that it makes your heart sing to hear them. 

Me, Shirley
This is Shirley offering to help in the kitchen...less chips for me to carry out! lol
(Picture courtesy of Sharlene)

Then there is Shirley the Thespian, great sense of humor and, I found out today, was once a licensed pilot AND used to be a race car driver!

You always think you’ll have plenty of time for visits when you live fairly close to your family, so you let life get in the way. Don’t make that mistake. It is sad to think of all the fun we have missed not spending more time together when we had the chance.

Grateful for the time we did take for each other and super grateful for technology which will keep us connected no matter how far apart we are.

Vicki, IvahRae, Sharlene, Shirley
(Sharon had already skipped town, just look twice at Sharlene)

When Mark was walking Cotye tonight, he got attacked by a very large dog. The dog had no intent on hurting him or it could have taken his head off. It was obviously trying to put Cotye into submission. It merely slobbered on Cotye’s neck when it grabbed him, no punctures. Such an unfair situation for my baby who didn't even see it coming. I hate that he was in danger and probably terribly frightened.

This is a picture Sharlene took of Cotye earlier today. I need to go give him some big loves. Nighters! Thanks for being a part of our journey! And cousins, thank you all for a great day!!! xoxo

Toad and Tumbleweed take their first trip together!

The View from our front window the past few nights    

The past few days in the Valencia Travel Village RV Park have been wonderful. Not because we did anything special, we actually just ran errands. Took Cotye to the vet, attended doctor appointments, stocked up on groceries, etc. It was just really great having the the freedom of a car, and knowing where you are. 

By the way, TODAY is the OFFICIAL UNION OF THE TUMBLEWEED & TOAD! 

Toad in rear view camera

First time ever the Tumbleweed has towed the Toad. He seems to be following along gracefully, despite the horrible road conditions. Maybe it is because toads are generally good hoppers? On the other hand, the Tumbleweed would rather roll... 

We are just now pulling into East Shore RV Park, in San Dimas. Looking forward to spending a few days here visiting with family. 

This place is HUGE! We've been driving for 5 minutes and are nowhere near our site. I think I just saw Reese Witherspoon drive by in a dune buggy...maybe...definitely maybe!

Okay, we found our site. Got to go help set-up! Sorry this was such a short post. It actually took a long time to write because I attempted to do so while traveling from one RV park to the other. California highways are SO bumpy. The laptop and I were bouncing all over the place! I am certain once we get stopped, there will be parts of me that will continue to bounce for a good several minutes. Too much info? Sorry. hee hee hee

Oh...one quick note. I have had several requests for info on that gold coin we found. I promise to get that researched and will get back to you. If it is worth a fortune, our next post will be from the Caymans. <seriously>

Heat Wave, Treasure and Flying Boats

Like our trip to the Meteor Crater, our visit to Lake Havasu came with its own unforeseeable factors.  When we arrived at the State Park it was amazing how empty it was and how fortunate we were to find a spot right on the lake!

"We can sit outside in the breeze", we thought. "How perfect", we thought. Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha!

We got the rig set up, and the temp inside the RV rose quickly.  I decided a light, fast dinner was in order, so I used some leftover roast chicken and made nachos…the cheese was melting before I got it into the microwave, and so was I. 

The temperature outside stayed in the triple digits until well after 10 PM.

However, the sunset over the lake was stunning. And though we were hot, we settled in for a movie and the A/C ran all night long.

When the sun arose, so did we. It had seared through our eyelids, even with our double thick night blinds. So we took advantage of the cool morning, made a couple of ice coffees and sat outside to enjoy nature’s beauty...but soon, the ants came marching one-by-one, hoorah, hoorah ... we fought back, squishing each as quickly as they came, but they retaliated coming two-by-two, three-by-three and so on, until our only option was to shake off the bugs and itch our way back into our easy-bake-RV-oven.  

Cotye and the Blue Lizard lie on their backs trying to stay cool.

The rest of the day was a blur. We closed off all of the vents in the main cabin and scurried to the bedroom where we shut ourselves in and tried to stay cool with all the A/C concentrated on that one room.

At one point, Mark and I fell asleep during a movie and awoke with our arms melded together like two sticky gummy bears. Being "inseparable" took on a whole new meaning!

We tried to go outside again around dusk, but the temp was still in the triple digits and the carrion birds were circling, so we retreated back into our plush tin can. Hit rewind and did it all again.

This park closes down through the summer and is apparently a real hot spot (no pun intended) during the winter months when the temps are in the 80’s.  

It wasn't all bad. We did find a piece of treasure, really! 

A gold plated coin with the picture of Zachary Taylor on it, whom I just happen to be related to. The only dates on the coin were his date of birth and date of death.

I'll have to check into this on-line and see about the mint details.

We also saw our first flying boat. Yep, you read correctly! It is an ultralight boat that starts out on the water, then takes off on wings like that of a hang glider and actually flies, boat and all in the air!

Flying Boat taking off 

Flying Boat soaring high!

Leaving town we realized there was a much prettier side to Lake Havasu, with actual shade trees.

There were many beautiful places in patches all along the lake. If only we'd driven a bit further before settling on the first RV Park we saw. 

Did you know that the London Bridge from the song we knew as children, was transported to the US and rebuilt in Lake Havasu City in 1964? 

It was completed in 1971 (along with a canal), and links an island in the Colorado River with the main part of Lake Havasu City.

Over the London Bridge

Under London Bridge (Can't see the river from this angle)

The dirt on the hills around Lake Havasu City is either dark cocoa or black, depending on the lighting. How would you like to have this big guy looming in your backyard?

And the road just  past these hills went on forever and ever,  without much to see,

 at all.  This is when Cotye and I fell asleep . . .

. . . Thank God Mark did NOT!

Back in California, we are checked in at The 29 Palms RV Resort. There are a lot of shade trees, yay! I cooked dinner, our tummies are full, the dishes are done. The trees are obstructing our satellite but we don't mind, it is nice to be cool. We plugged in a DVD, The Bucket List and then plan to retire early.

Tomorrow we will be back home in Santa Clarita Valley and we can pick up our Toad (SUV)!

Have a great evening!