Vacation:Pier Fun

Took a little break from vacation blogging...but don't worry, I'm back. My blog has been spammed hard lately and it was and is irritating. I do have to give props to Google though, they have caught and dumped each and every spam comment into the appropriate location. I still have go in confirm that they are spam and delete them...no fun at all. Over 400 spam comments were dealt with tonight.

Enough ranting, onto the fun stuff! A short walk down the beach from our condo was a pier. We walked around it, on top of it, under it and, of course, took pictures of it all. Once again, I've culled through the shots and narrowed it down to these:

Saw this beam/post under the pier and quickly looked around to make sure we hadn't just walked into a death trap. Luckily, it was the only on it's kind. Still, it was a bit disconcerting.

Watching the waves roll in, sound of it sure gets amplified while under the pier.

This pier is actually closed at night because there are hotel cabins on top!

Noah...always finding something to examine.

Makes me want to go back.

Oliver just digging to dig.

The boys watched this gentleman fish off the end of the pier. He caught this one while we were watching and added it to the bag that already had a few inside.

Photo opportunity!!

Thought I should get into a picture too.

Vacation:USS Midway

USS Midway - thank you to all of the Veterans that served, are serving and will serve our country.

Oliver sitting on ONE link of the anchor chain.

They wouldn't let me leave him.

Boys checking out all of the instruments in the cockpit. They had quite a few planes that they could climb into.

Ollie checking out the helicopter.

Runway - yikes!

Go! Go! Go!

Standing at the bow of the ship looking back.

Vacation:Legoland

Legoland! The whole reason we decided to go on this trip was to visit Legoland. I can't think of a time when Noah hasn't played with some sort of Lego product. I also have more Legos in my house than I ever thought possible. Noah has built some incredible things with his Legos, things I would have never thought of or imagined. Hoping that all of that Lego play will pay off someday! The weather was perfect for our visit to Legoland, mostly sunny with a few clouds. The park wasn't as big as I was expecting so we managed to see it all in one day. They recently added a waterpark also but it was closed during the week this time of year. Honestly, that didn't upset me too much. Also, I took a lot of picture of all of the awesome things built out of Legos but decided to share pictures of the boys instead. Stop on over sometime and I'd be happy to show you the rest!

Walked in and this big Lego Vampire greeted us.

Waiting for the first ride of the day to get started.

Blacksmith

I can't tell you how much this picture makes me giggle. Oliver was a bit hesitant to go on the bigger rides like the Project X or Dragon roller coasters. Said those weren't really his type of ride. With enough persuasion and bribing I could get him onto the rides and he would like them but it was a process. I just wasn't in the mood to persuade. Joel and Noah had gone off to their Mindstorm Robot building and programming class so Oliver and I had set off in search of our own fun. We came across this ride and he decided to give it a try. The horse would rock gently and move along the rails, that's it, nothing more. I can't tell you how bored he looked while "jousting." I was already chuckling a little bit when he got off the ride. Then he walked up to me with the same look on his face and said in a I-can't-believe-I-just-went-on-the-lamest-ride-of-my-life voice, "The Dragon it is!"

Only way I could them to slow down long enough to take a break.

Lego-scape

I will give you exactly ONE guess at what the favorite builds were...go!

Mugging with Vader

Mugging with Ewok

Boys found Buddy and he was kind enough to pose for a picture.

Log ride!

Name that TV show!

 

Oliver & I chasing Noah...

on the Aquazone Raider Ride

Vacation:San Deigo Zoo

Joel says, "one of my favorite snakes."

While planning this trip and deciding what we were going to do in San Diego for 10 days, the zoo seemed liked a natural choice. The zoo is huge, and literally built on the walls of a canyon. You can walk and walk and walk around the zoo. You can walk and walk and then tram across to the other side and walk some more. You can walk, tram, bus, walk, etc. in any combination you see fit while visiting the San Diego Zoo. It is a beautiful zoo with plants and animals that we have never seen. With all of that being said, my boys were happy with the zoo but not wowed. We didn't see it all and they really didn't want to go back a second day just so they could say that they had. I believe it's because they have grown up at the Oregon Zoo. The local zoo here has done some amazing things over the past ten years to grow and improve. My boys love it and the San Diego Zoo, in their eyes, was no better. A little bit bigger with a few extra animals but that's about it. They did love the aerial tram ride though (which was not my favorite)!

Pretty blue headed bird.

Turtles and Tortoises

Posted this picture already but it's so fun!!

Pandas!

So ugly he is cute!

Okay, this is where I thought the zoo out-did itself. The elephant exhibit was amazing. I took quite a few pictures in this area because my hubby loves elephants but I showed some self control and picked my two favorite to post here.

Jaguar Cub

This bird is beautiful and I can't remember it's name!

WHAT!?!?!

Peek-a-boo!

This is another exhibit that I could have stayed and watched all day. The gorillas are awe inspiring. This little guy here was getting the GIGANTIC silver-back male all riled up. The big male would go flying around the enclosure, strutting his stuff,  letting us all know who was in charge and this guy would run off and hide. Then he would sneak back out, agitate a few and set the big male off all over again. It was terrifying and hilarious!

Wanting to know if I would be willing to take the above mentioned hooligan off her hands for a bit.

Vacation:SeaWorld

Of all the places we visited during our vacation, the boys rated SeaWorld at the top! We actually spent 2 days at the park. The first day we hit as many of the shows as we could and rode on just a couple of rides. The second day was spent exploring the park more and riding as many rides as we could, including the brand new roller coaster called, The Manta. I even got, "I don't like those kind of rides," persons to go on it with me. Noah and I went on the Manta first, he yelled at me the entire time but as soon as the ride stopped he asked if we could go again. The entire family rode it twice the second time we visited and would have gone again if it hadn't closed due to a disturbed bee nest.

The shows were a bag of mixed emotions for me. The animals are beautiful and amazing and what a treat to see them up close but a part of me felt like we (the viewers and SeaWorld) were exploiting these creatures. Yeah, I know it sounds sappy but I am who I am. I just hope that after thousands of us get to watch the shows and see the animals up close that the education, the awareness, the programs created, etc. far outweigh any negatives. Killer Whales, Pilot Whales, Beluga Whales, Dolphins, Bat Rays, Polar Bears, Penguins, oh my! Anyway, we actually watched the Shamu Show both days. The first day Noah was upset because he barely got wet. He couldn't believe his bad luck, sit in the soak zone and leave dry? No fair! Well, the second time around made up for the first. He and Oliver even sweet talked one of the handlers and she called the boys up to help with the Shamu Slam. That meant that they were literally inches from the whale that was splashing, what seemed like, hundreds of gallons of water onto the crowd. Not a hair on their bodies left that stadium dry and they couldn't have been happier about it!

We finished both days as the park by riding the Shipwreck Rapids. No chance at all of staying dry on that ride. We all left soaked but luckily, the condo (along with clean dry clothes) was only ten minutes away. 

Knowing that getting wet was part of being at SeaWorld, I left my camera home the second visit. It was tough but not having to protect it from all the water was nice. I did manage to get a few pictures on my phone though, my apologies about the quality.

Oliver waiting for the show to start.

How can something so big look so graceful?!?

Hi there.

Dolphins making flying through the air look easy.

Pilot Whale whose job description is to get the crowd wet.

First souvenir of the trip.

In sync.

Those 2 boys down there - they belong to me.

Telling us how wet and how cool it was to be down so close!