Getting Creative at Legoland

By Brad Herzog

One benefit I hope my children receive from our frequent RV excursions is an understanding of possibilities. With each region we visit and each way of life we explore, my hope is that they gain a greater appreciation for the variety of options available to them in the future. Thus, every time we visit a new city or national park or historic site or family attraction, it is another brick in the foundation of that kind of understanding. And that includes a visit to the mecca of building bricks – Legoland California.

The word Lego comes from the Danish words leg godt, which mean "play well." That might as well be the mantra of the RV experience, too. Continuing the analogy, the flexibility of a house on wheels allows you to get creative. You can rearrange your itinerary as you see fit, moving one piece here and another piece there, sometimes copying what has been done before, sometimes creating your own masterpiece. And the journey – the construction of the masterwork – can be as fun as the finished product.

So I found it entirely appropriate to pull to a stop in the ample RV parking area at Legoland and take my sons into a world of artistry, whimsy and possibility. Open daily Memorial Day through Labor Day (closed on Tuesdays and Wednesdays the rest of the year), Legoland is perfect for the very young (and their young-at-heart guardians), unlike many amusement parks that are geared more toward thrills.

Kids can pan for gold, dig for fossils, partake in a water balloon war, aim fire hoses at a make-believe house fire, get their faces painted, watch a G-rated comedy show, tour a re-creation of a Lego factory, race little Lego cars they made themselves, scale a climbing tower, ride in bumper boats, romp through a massive multilevel play structure of catwalks and rope ladders, and cavort in an interactive water play area that includes a musical fountain. The park gets geared up for the holidays, too – a Brick-or-Treat celebration over Halloween, a 30-foot Lego Christmas tree, a 22-foot Lego "Brick Drop" on New Year's Eve.

But the highlight of the Legoland experience is the collection of Lego creations – from dinosaurs to Dora the Explorer – scattered throughout the park, many of which are part of the attractions. In Explore Village, for instance, we climbed into leaf-shaped boats and floated down Fairy Tale Brook past fairy tale scenes of moving Lego-brick characters like the Three Little Pigs and Three Billy Goats Gruff. In Fun Town, we walked through Adventurers' Club, featuring inhabitants (made brick by brick) of ancient Egypt and the Amazon rain forest. And at Wild Woods Golf, we played a miniature golf course that included 40 Lego models of forest creatures.

And, to bring the RV-and-Lego analogy full circle, we were perhaps most impressed by Miniland USA, which consists of a 3-D art gallery and replications of a half-dozen regions of the country – all made entirely out of Lego bricks. The works of art in the gallery (called the Block of Fame) include a bust of Abraham Lincoln, Rodin's The Thinker and Van Gogh's Starry Night. The scaled-down America consists of 20 million bricks formed into remarkable approximations of New England, New Orleans, New York (where the new Freedom Tower, to be built at the site of the World Trade Center, has already been constructed), Washington, DC (with a presidential motorcade), Florida (including Cape Canaveral and Daytona) and California (notice the LEGOWOOD sign).

Of course, a miniature America is no substitute for climbing into an RV and exploring the real thing for yourself. So get creative and start constructing an itinerary. The possibilities are endless.

HOT SPOTS:

LEGOLAND: 760-918-5346, www.LEGOLAND.com

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