Legoland!

On Black Friday, I bought our family annual passes to Legoland. The park has sentimental value to me. It is in Winter Haven, where my family moved when I was 10 and where my dad, sister and sister's family still live. When I was a kid it was Cypress Gardens, known for its beautiful gardens and ski show. It was only 2 miles from my house and I went there quite a bit as a child and young adult. It went through a lot of owners and transformations, but, the gardens and ski show remained hallmarks. It became Legoland while we were living in Maryland. I was happy it was getting another chance and excited to see what they would do with the park. We went in March 2016, but the kids had little memory. Luke turned 2 days before our visit, so he had no memory. Kara went on a fieldtrip with her camp in 2019, so she had been the most recently. 

I was excited to go back. However, as previously mentioned, we've been trying to lay low lately, so we decided to go on a Friday for lighter crowds. Thomas had filed a brief on Wednesday, so he is supposed to be in a bit of a reprieve (but, this one is not going in a routine way) and I expected Friday to be quiet. The kids are doing well in school, so we figured one day would not hurt them. We probably would have postponed the visit, but we only had 100 days to activate our passes and were getting close to the deadline. We picked up Marta (who lives about 5 minutes from Legoland) and got there shortly before opening. 

It is a perfect park for little kids, but the older kids enjoyed it as well (it as geared for 2-12 year olds). We saw the ski show, which was really fun and walked around the gardens. The gardens weren't as large as they once were, but were still a good size and very beautiful. They were actually Jack's favorite part of the day. I am glad Legoland kept the gardens and ski show. Of course, we also did the rides.  They have a couple of smaller roller coasters, one that Thomas was super impressed with (I didn't ride). It is called The Dragon. The first half is a dark ride and goes through rooms with giant Lego scenes, then it goes outside for the small coaster part. There was a shooting game one that everyone liked and a terrifying, to me and Luke, Heartlake themed ride (Mia's Horse Adventure) that the girls loved. There were no lines and Luke was tall enough for everything (although, he did have to be accompanied on a few).  Everyone had fun and would like to visit again. 

This picture isn't the greatest, but they had one of those "Iron Man" contraptions. He dove up and around. It was pretty cool.

No ski show would be complete without a pyramid.

This banyan tree was planted in 1939. It's amazing!

Anna and more banyan.

Powered by human strength.

Gryffindor!

Unfortunately, Mini Land was closed. They are getting it ready for their 10th anniversary, so we look forward to seeing it later in the year. We had burgers for lunch, got Icees and tried Legoland's infamous apple fries, which were good, but I probably won't get them again. We left around 4, after buying a really cool Harry Potter Lego set from the massive Lego store. The drive home took an hour and 40 minutes, which is 40 minutes longer than the drive there. Traffic definitely seems back to pre-Covid levels, although it probably isn't.

Today is Saturday. Luke had another baseball game. He got one hit and struck out once and made a couple of good plays in the field. Thomas took him, I stayed home to clean. It is hot today, the average this time of year is 74 and this weekend is nearing record highs at 88. I hope that is not a foreshadowing for summer!