Go San Diego - Legoland and Whale Watching

We got up bright and early because my sweetie wanted to get to Legoland when it opened. After we grabbed breakfast in the hotel, checked out, and hit the road, we were a little later than we wanted to be, but we still arrived about 10:15, only 15 minutes after the park opened.

Traveling by ourselves, we felt a little self-conscious being some of the few people there without at least one child in tow. We wanted to take the boat tour to see all of the landmarks like the Eiffel Tower and Big Ben. It was easy for us to walk right to the front of the line and climb into a boat. The Lego features are amazing! Someone was definitely a Master Builder! This time of year, we got a lot of debris and leaves and stuff. I think maybe Legoland needs to be a little better at their upkeep in the winter even though they have fewer people coming.

We had never intended to spend all day at the park, but my sweetie wanted to send the kids a picture of the life-sized Buggoti, an amazing sports car made out of Lego Tehnic blocks. Even the engine was made primarily with these blocks. The only things visible to us were the lights and the tires. After we snapped lots of pics and I scoured the Big Store for a good deal, we did a survey on our way out the door and we were gone.

My sweetie was really excited about a Whale Watching trip, so I called about the half-day Hornblower cruise. They would be able to get us onto the 1:30 boat, but we would have to be there by 1:15. We had a comfortable 45-minute cushion according to our GPS, so we thought we would be fine and we booked the trip.

Then traffic happened. Our time was cut in half, but we still thought we had a good margin. Then when we finally found the docks, the parking lots were all full. We drove around like crazy people just hoping something would open up before we finally pulled into the Seaport Village and took a ticket. We had been warned that it was expensive, but by then we were desperate.

We fast walked our way to the dock and picked up our passes from the kiosk with only a couple of moments to spare before they started loading. I was excited to be on the boat, truly I was, for about 10 minutes. I popped 2 Dramamine as we found our seats, but even that didn't help me when we had finally moved out of the harbor and into choppy water.

The waters were good to us and we saw 8 different whales and dozens of dolphins. My favorite part was the big ships that moved around and passed us. Unfortunately, I spent most of my time with my head lowered and my eyes closed. Then when something amazing was spotted, my sweetie would shake my arm a bit so I didn't miss anything big. It's a terrible way to travel, really.

By the time we pulled back in to port 4 hours later, even my sweetie wasn't feeling so good. My foot was hurting pretty badly as well, so my sweetie hired one of those bicycle drivers with the carriage in the back to take us to Seaport Village. (I think that was the best $20 I spent all day!)

He dropped us right in front of a little taco stand that specialized in fish tacos and since my sweetie had been wanting to try some, we decided to get our dinner while we were there. The food was good, but a bit spicy, so we stopped at another little shop for a couple of churros.

Then since we were there, we decided to wander a few more of the shops and we finally found this little eclectic shop where I could buy a hoodie. We also picked up a little something for the kids at home, but there is no way I'm telling you what it is because Curly was probably the first person to read this post today...

People were right about the parking though. It cost us $48 and that was the discounted price because we bought something! Parking in general here is pretty ridiculous, but that is a subject for another day. We have so much more adventuring to do tomorrow. Now that we are in our new hotel, we are much closer to some different venues. Maybe you can guess...