Spring Break 2018

What started off as a simple notion to take T to Legoland turned into a week long family outing. With her new work, Kaylee gets 4 free passes to Universal Studios per year, and discounted tickets after that, so it just made sense to include Universal.  And since we hadn't been to Knott's in years, I figured we ought to loop it in as well.  We had me, Lori, Traven, Jason, Kaylee, Braden, Michelle, Mason, Eric and Sally along. And, at the last minute, we somehow ended up with Elijah as well. Eli was a nice addition to the adventure. He has a very unique personality and sense of humor, and is BRUTALLY honest!

The drive down on Monday was pretty uneventful.  We listened to an audio book (Ready Player One) which helped the time go by faster. We hit a bit of a snag, where the first car down couldn't get into the rental, but Kaylee sorted that out on the phone. The place was a bit shady/ghetto, but it served its purpose just fine. It was an odd layout. The front of the house was on a busy street, so the parking was actually from the back alley. It was a sliding metal gate. Reminded me of what I picture a prison gate being like. It did have a two car garage, so that was nice. We had lasagna for dinner, and Mason had us all up bright and early to start Tuesday.

Tuesday was Universal.  I have never, ever seen it so crowded.  That park doesn't have that many attractions to begin with, so the lines were LONG. We did maybe half the attractions? We had dinner at The Three Broomsticks, which was tasty. I stayed to watch the light show on Hogwarts at 7:40. It went about 3 minutes, then broke. They tried again, it broke.  I waited until 8, it made it about 10 seconds and broke again. Good grief people, how hard can it be? Someday, when I do Universal in California again, I'll pay for the express passes. Honestly, staying on property in Florida really has me spoiled for Universal. I don't know that California will ever come close to what Florida has to offer.

Wednesday was Knott's.  I really enjoyed a boysenberry meatball sub. Also, the log ride there is so much fun, as is the rapids adventure. And the Calico Mine Ride is great! Once again, the crowds were HUGE. Awkward moment of the day was my GPS. At first, I couldn't get a signal. I finally did, thought I clicked "Knott's", and off we went. Well, we ended up in the middle of Ontario! I mean, not Canada, but we were still about 40 minutes away. I'm still not sure how I worked that out, but everyone was good sports. Again, Knott's offered an express pass option, which I will use when we go again.

Legoland has a nice, all you can eat pizza and pasta place.  That was good.  Traven totally geeked out over the lego displays, so that was fun to watch. He also wanted to ride the Technic Coaster alone, so I waited just outside the exit for him. And again, the crowds were AWFUL. Traven was done with lines, so I bribed him with Legos and we were out of there! I told Braden and Michelle that I want to take Mason back for their 5 year anniversary. We will be doing the express pass thing for sure!

Friday and Saturday we spent in Las Vegas. It's just how we left it last time - smoke filled and hot! We ended up locked out of the house on Saturday night, as the batteries in the lock failed. I had actually ran to Walmart, so the rest of them were stranded outside for quite a while. When I got there, T was pretty worried. I figured maybe a window was open? I walked around the side and sure enough, a window slid open! It was the laundry room. I called T back, and was able to lift him in. As he walked around inside, I went back outside to the front door. I said something like "Did you try knocking?" as T opened the door. He was pretty happy being the hero of the day!

We met a couple that Jason knew from his mission, on Thursday night. That was fun. I had a california burrito. It was gigantic!

I somehow lucked into becoming Mason's vacation buddy.  It was great! I carried him in most lines. He'd beg to come to me. It really made the trip extra special. He even had a "name" for me, which kind of sounded like a couple of grunts. I'll take it!

All in all, it was a great trip! Next time, I'd spring for the front of line offerings at all three parks.

I also think two days in a row of adventure is about all Eric and Sally can handle at this point.  Eric took a bad fall at Knott's because he was tired and missed a curb. He really dinged himself up, which led to an interesting discussion between him and Sally, and how a person can obtain muscle relaxants and heavy pain killers! They were very happy to just relax at the rental on the day the rest of us went to LegoLand.