No way Jose! We are going to Disneyland! 3/13 - Movin' on Up!

[that's nice]

Great parade pics Brook!

This year was the perfect year to be outside watching the parade. Temps were warm and hardly any wind!

Hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving!

 

[brookelizabeth]

what wonderful parade photos! It is on my bucket list to go to NYC one year for the Thanksgiving day parade. I had no idea the women's Olympic team would be there! So fun! I met four of them in Hartford a couple weeks ago. Jordyn Weiber was an absolute sweetheart! I work in the town where Aly lives.

Thank you! The holidays here are truly awesome, so I'd recommend to come for Thanksgiving and get in some of the Christmas decor too. We will be doing our regular "25 Days of Christmas" this year with various events around the city. I can't wait to start!

That's VERY cool about meeting 4 of the gymnastics gold medalists! I would love to meet them!

I love the parade pics! The holidays don't actually start until I've seen Santa at the end of the parade!

Legoland looks awesome. I hope my niece and/or nephew are more into Legos in a couple of years...I would love an excuse to visit.

Jill in CO

I bet they would enjoy it even if they weren't really into Legos...but that definitely helps. You might get out of there without dropping a zillion dollars-unlike us though!

What awesome pictures! You definately had great seats for the parade Thanks for sharing them!

Your welcome! Those boys did GOOD with the spot!

I agree its a bucket list thing for me to do! I will gladly sit outside waiting for it. i have done the Calgary Stampede a few times, since its not to far and we use to live there. I just love parades!

It's very much worth waiting for. It's unreal how LONG it is too. So much energy from every performer. Someday I'm going to sign up to be a balloon handler I think! Just for kicks!

Great photos!! We watched on TV and as the SS float went by and then they stopped to sing, I could not believe my eyes!!! Half of the cast was on the air when I was young. (that is many moons ago!!!) I remembered Susan and Bob and Louis, and I think Susan's husband's name was Gordon. Very nice of the gentlemen to go down there and save you all a spot.

We said the EXACT same thing! We were in awe it was the SAME cast!!! That would have been fun to hear them sing - they just rolled by where we were. That is the benefit about watching on TV!

What great pictures and an amazing experience!

Thank you! It really was.

What great pics of the Thanksgiving day Parade!! I will get us there one year for that!!! Just don't know when!!!

We loved Legoland the year we went. Just wish Jeremy would have been a little bit older (He was 10 1/2 months old when we went!! ) But we are talking about doing it again this year just because he loves Lego's and can sit and do set's all by himself now!! He still loves for us to help him but prefers to do it himself!!

He will love it, I'm sure! We definitely want to go back while Henry is still a Lego nut....though he might not ever outgrow them.

First, I LOVE-LOVE-LOVE the way Henry says "WEGO"!

We watched the parade on TV and Kadence ran up to the TV and hugged it when Mickey came on. Told me I had to take a pic. I think it would be awesome to see it front row!

He still says "Wego" too! It's so cute, but we are really trying to get him to say it correctly now. He can say his L sounds, he's just gotten so used to saying Wego, he forgets the real name!

That's sooooo cute about Kadence hugging the TV! It really was fantastic being in the front row. Last year we had okay seats, but this year was awesome!

Wow Brook! You had a fantastic view of the parade!

We really did! The menfolk did well!

Just wanted to say that I LOVE your pictures from the parade. They are really gorgeous. Glad you had such a great time and such a wonderful viewing area. It looks like a ton of fun!

Thank you! It really was worth the effort to get there--despite having to hop police barricades and such! Such a fun experience.

I love the parade pics. I can't imagine seeing that parade in person!!!

Thank you! It was fantastic! One of the many reasons I love living here.

Such an experience, The Macy's Thanskgiving Day parade. I can honestly say as a New Yorker that I have never seen it in person.

Such a brave and wonderful thing to do.


It has been my Thanksgiving morning thing to do.

What great memories.

That's the funny thing...most NYers refuse to go! We are crazy!!!!

Hey Brook,

Nice photos of the parade... I have to drive up from Philadelphia to NY for it...
(my brother's family was in from CA and they went and saw it... I cooked...)

Ah... the Hollywood Sign... everyone wants to see it and it really isn't that easy to find... I remember one of the times we were in CA we got really good views of it from the Griffith Observatory... also remember reading ( and may want to do someday...I'd like to do a road trip from the Grand Canyon to Disneyland...) that you can take a horseback ride up towards the sign and get pretty close but you have to be at least 12 or so...

Legoland is like the mothership for all little people who like or LOVE Lego... David thought it was Heaven... he was about 5 when we were there... (are you going to let Henry know there's one in Orlando now too?... Actually Legos are really pretty good toys so I think its awesome there's place for them to live out their adoration...

The CBreak at PP looked very cute... never made it over there but really loved the CG... curious to see what you think...

(BTW... It's an awesome thing you've been doing for the victims of Sandy... (PM me info... I'd like to make a donation)...

We lost our power for 8 days and I thought I was going to lose my mind-and it was just power (heat, electricity and wifi)... our house was fine... we still had hot water and a gas range...and we had relatives to turn to in the area...

It is absolutely devastating what so many people are having to live through... loosing so much...)

We almost went to the Observatory spot! But Joe demanded something closer and I didn't object! I hadn't heard about the horseback ride! That is very, very cool. The Grand Canyon is on our list too...someday during a long vacation out West.

Oh yes, Henry knows about the Legoland in FL. We told him we might be able to squeeze in a day on a trip this coming year. We are currently booked for February, but due to the hurricane the DOE has made the February break school days...sooo...we just might push back the trip to March, which is a longer break and another month to save AND we could probably do Legoland. However, I may have a conference in March. So who knows what we are doing!

I will PM you about Hurricane Sandy! All the supply centers are pretty well stocked, but I have met many families directly that have been affected and have been trying to help them. A gift card for Home Depot to help lessen the costs of rebuilding. Cash to pay for credit card bills so they could purchase new furniture, etc. I am at less than $100 right now left in the fund, and am always meeting more people. I'd like to get involved with a toy donation thing for the holiday too...anyway, I'll PM you!

I caught up with your PTR recently and read you were out for EIGHT days! Unreal! We were very, very fortunate here in Astoria. I was watching the news last night and there are still people without heat and power! Can you imagine?!

 

[brookelizabeth]

Just wanted to tell you how great your Macy's parade photos are, your husband is great to go down early to secure such a wonderful view for you. Someday I hope to be able to go to New York to see it too. You really did get some awesome shots!

Thank you! And yes, the men did AWESOME with the spot! Joe was determined to get a good one this year!!!

Great parade pics Brook!

This year was the perfect year to be outside watching the parade. Temps were warm and hardly any wind!

Hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving!

It really was a beautiful day! I didn't even have to put my hat on the entire time. I remember FREEZING last year!

 

[glennbo123]

Thanks for the parade pics! Very cool!

 

[brookelizabeth]

After our time with the Fire Academy I wanted to explore Fun Town a bit more, I just loved all the little details in the area!

Henry had been BEGGING for us to buy Legos (literally, non-stop all day) so we thought we'd duck into a gift shop for him to play with some, hoping this would feed the need for a while.

Most all the gift shops have a play area

Disco fever!

Henry's creation - he LOVES Lego guys

I left the boys to play and create and walked around outside Fun Town.

His sock has a hole in it!

Pigeons

A truck making a delivery

We eventually left the area and I finally directed the boys to the two big rides we wanted to do.

Which way?

First up was the Kid Power Tower!

Built for parties of two, you pull on the chair to power yourself up, then it will slowly sink back down. The line, despite it being later morning now, wasn't long at all, only about 10 minutes! I opted to just watch, take pictures and video while the boys rode.

Video: Kid Power Tower (59 seconds)

They really enjoyed it! Joe said once you engage the chain, it pretty much lifts on it's own. Two smaller kids could do it, no problem.

Next up was the Sky Cruiser. It's basically a pedal operated car on a track high in the air. The standby time said 15 minutes - I can handle that!

The line wraps around a play area - genius! There are a few gates to get in/out of the play area. Adults wait while the kids play!

And, it's a good thing they had that...while the wait time said 15 minutes, it was over 45! We should have followed the plan! LOL! If you go during a peak time, beeline here at rope drop!

A shot of the Towers while in line for the Sky Cruiser

Happily playing while we wait!

Finally it was our turn!

The ride gave you a nice view of the park

Much like the Kid Power Towers, the ride did move on its own. You didn't have to pedal.

Video: Sky Cruiser (55 seconds)

Pretty simple ride, cute and fine, but not worth the wait we had! All well!

While there are a number of other "big" rides, Henry wasn't interested in them. There is a small roller coaster (he'd do that now though!) and a few water rides too...while it wasn't cold out, it certainly wasn't warm enough to get soaked!

With the two main ones done, we wandered into Pirate Shores.

These guys move a bit and make music - Video (19 seconds)

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[brookelizabeth]

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One of the water rides - I think this is one where one raft fights another with sprays of water.

There are a few other more thrilling rides in Pirate Shores as well, and a mini golf course is in the area (extra charge).

Continuing onto Castle Hill

He snored! Video: Snoring Dude (26 seconds)

The Knights Table BBQ is on the left. It smelled soooooooo good!!!

So good in fact...we walked straight there. It was time to EAT!

Menu

Salads

The cake was $3.95

Our choices:

Mine

Joe's

We had to get the corn on the cob, Henry just freaked when he saw that, it's a favorite

Kids Meal! They allowed us to pick chips instead of fries.

While the food was definitely more expensive than Disney's, it was very good! We all enjoyed our meals!

We ate outside, and right next door is a GIANT playground called "Hideaways". Henry was itchin' to get in there, so that is just what we did. A perfect afternoon rest for Joe and I too!

 

[Woth2982]

Thank you! The holidays here are truly awesome, so I'd recommend to come for Thanksgiving and get in some of the Christmas decor too. We will be doing our regular "25 Days of Christmas" this year with various events around the city. I can't wait to start!

25 days of Christmas is such a great idea! Must be so fun to be able to do it in NYC. I went to college in New Haven so I spent lots of time in NYC. Going to see the Rockettes is one of my favorite things to do! I did NYE in times square a couple years ago.....I am one and done on that lol. Lots of standing around and waiting. If I ever do it again I am springing for the $1000 a night hotel room overlooking the square....of course I'll be 80 before I have that kind of disposable income lol.

 

[Woth2982]

Thank you! The holidays here are truly awesome, so I'd recommend to come for Thanksgiving and get in some of the Christmas decor too. We will be doing our regular "25 Days of Christmas" this year with various events around the city. I can't wait to start!

25 days of Christmas is such a great idea! Must be so fun to be able to do it in NYC. I went to college in New Haven so I spent lots of time in NYC. Going to see the Rockettes is one of my favorite things to do! I did NYE in times square a couple years ago.....I am one and done on that lol. Lots of standing around and waiting. If I ever do it again I am springing for the $1000 a night hotel room overlooking the square....of course I'll be 80 before I have that kind of disposable income lol.

 

[glennbo123]

Fun Town looked....well, fun!

Disco fever!

Hey, his sister works at Epcot, in Spaceship Earth. Maybe you've seen her:

 

[eandesmom]

Oh that lunch looks really good and it's nowhere near lunch time here yet! I best eat soon.

Cute rides but UGH on the 45 minute wait. Nice that playing in the store kept him happy for a while. I might feel like I was walking the gauntlet at that age with my boys.

Loving all the themed lego guys, complete with sound, how fun is that.

 

[Tiggerrn2]

Fun day!! I just cannot get over the growth of Legoland! I don't even recognize the rides (outside of the Buccaneer Battle boats/water fun ride) that you have photos of. And that ride was the newest ride the year we were there. I do remember thinking (even at that time) how much more expensive the food was there compared to Disneyland.

 

[brookelizabeth]

Thanks for the parade pics! Very cool!

Your welcome! It was a really fun experience to be right on the parade route!

25 days of Christmas is such a great idea! Must be so fun to be able to do it in NYC. I went to college in New Haven so I spent lots of time in NYC. Going to see the Rockettes is one of my favorite things to do! I did NYE in times square a couple years ago.....I am one and done on that lol. Lots of standing around and waiting. If I ever do it again I am springing for the $1000 a night hotel room overlooking the square....of course I'll be 80 before I have that kind of disposable income lol.

We haven't done the Rockettes yet, but I REALLY want to. I'm sorta saving it for one year when my Mom comes to visit during the holiday - it's been on her Bucket List. I don't think I'll EVER do the NYE in Times Square. I don't even like that area on a normal day....

Fun Town looked....well, fun!


Hey, his sister works at Epcot, in Spaceship Earth. Maybe you've seen her:

Good call!!!!!

Oh that lunch looks really good and it's nowhere near lunch time here yet! I best eat soon.

Cute rides but UGH on the 45 minute wait. Nice that playing in the store kept him happy for a while. I might feel like I was walking the gauntlet at that age with my boys.

Loving all the themed lego guys, complete with sound, how fun is that.

The food was good! Expensive for what it was, but good! I was impressed, and they had some great choices too - not just your typical theme park food.

Ya, that ride was not worth the 45 minutes, but all well. We did it, Henry enjoyed it - we figured we'd be able to get to everything in a day anyway, so no big rush. The playing in the line was the BEST. Just like I love Disney's new interactive queues, this was genius!

There were lots of little displays all over the park made out of Legos. It was adorable! Very creative.

Fun day!! I just cannot get over the growth of Legoland! I don't even recognize the rides (outside of the Buccaneer Battle boats/water fun ride) that you have photos of. And that ride was the newest ride the year we were there. I do remember thinking (even at that time) how much more expensive the food was there compared to Disneyland.

I hand't even realized it was smaller at one point! I guess, now that you mention it, the Kid Power Tower and the Sky Coaster both did seem newish versus some of the older rides. I didn't think of it at the time though.

Yes, the food is even more expensive than Disney's! I was prepared from that after doing some research, but I think our meal was over $40 even! But, at least it was good!

 

[jenseib]

fun. We never follow our plan, we get distracted easily

 

[brookelizabeth]

fun. We never follow our plan, we get distracted easily

We are sometimes really good about it....but most of the time we aren't!

 

[brookelizabeth]

After our yummy, and expensive meal, we moved over to the "Hideaways" playground.

One word: Awesome!

This playground was soooooo cool! I would have had a ball playing in there as a child, and even enjoyed it as an adult!

Several levels, slides everywhere

Some themeing

At that point in his life he was still nervous about tube slides - he mastered this one with some encouraging!

Go Henry!

It started to drizzle just slightly while we were playing - but much of it has some sort of covering, so Henry just kept right on going! After about an hour of playing we peeled him out of there so we could see the rest of the park - we still had quite a bit to cover!

Where we had eaten

Apparently, we made a bathroom break...

Not totally unthemed, but not Disney standards.

I liked this - the changing table with a sink right next to it!

Ha ha - love that they have a Lego guy on the sign!

We were ready for some dessert and when I was researching Legoland I kept hearing about the "Apple Fries" and how amazing they were, so we had to try some! The stand is very close to the Knight's Table restaurant area.

Apples that are basically breaded with cinnamon and the cool whip topping/dip was also flavored.

Well...they weren't bad, but I was expecting more. Personally, I wouldn't get them again - they weren't worth the money, I believe they were around $7! Not terrible, but not great! We all felt the same about them, and I don't think we even finished them.

Picture while we ate

I really enjoyed all the items they had built out of Legos in the park, so impressive!

You could get yourself Lego-ized! We thought about doing that with Henry, but decided against it.

Next up Henry rode the "Royal Joust", which is a kids only ride where he goes around on a Lego horse.

Video: Royal Joust (42 seconds)

Henry really enjoyed it!

More of Castle Hill

This is a roller coaster that goes through a castle. You can see a video of it here: http://california.legoland.com/explore/rides_and_attractions/castle_hill/the_dragon/

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[brookelizabeth]

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We didn't ride - Henry had NO interest at that point! But, I'm sure the line gets quite long, so you'll want to beeline there if it's a "Must Do"

Castle Hill flows into Land of Adventure...

Some typical arcade games

We walked right onto the Beetle Bounce and Henry wanted to ride with me, Joe sat this one out.

Henry loved it!

That was about all we did in this area. There are a number of other rides, I know a couple were closed - and I think we just skimmed past the others, mostly because Henry was asking about getting his Legos and I knew there were a few other things we for sure wanted to do! There is one called "Lost Kingdom Adventure" that is a lot like Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin.

We moved into Imagination Zone, where they have a roller coaster called "Lego Technic Coaster"

Not that Henry would care to ride, but it was closed during our visit.

We hopped in the short line for the Bionicle Blaster

I believe we watched one cycle and then were on.

Video: Bionicle Blaster (23 seconds)

Joe fully intended to film the entire ride, but right after the above clip ends they announced NO filming or photography on the ride.

Why???

Because it's serious! The cross between the Scrambler and the Teacups was right! Whoa!

This is the Aquazone Wave Racer

They have a Lego show in this building playing throughout the day. They were about to start one, but Henry wasn't interested because he had been asking when he'd get to shop for his Legos...and he knew we were close.

Clever!

This area has a few buildings grouped together. One was the Hero Factory, another for Lego Mindstorms and one called Build & Test. Henry was most interested in Build & Test, and Joe wanted to see the Lego Mindstorms. So they went into Build & Test and I took a few pictures...

A pretty good deal at a restaurant in the area!

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[brookelizabeth]

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Their creation.

In action.

It won over and over again...Henry was thrilled and Joe was proud.

Video: The Win! (9 seconds)

Yep, I think Joe was having just as much fun as Henry was in there...

By the time we left Build and Test, Lego Mindstorms had closed! Joe was disappointed since he's always wanted to play with them.

It was about an hour or two before park closing, so we hurried onto our final destination - Miniland!

First we met this guy!

Miniland is just what it sounds like...mini lands built out of Legos. I had read much about this area and how impressive it was and it did not disappoint! I have a LOT of pictures and loooooong video because we were so into it! There are a few buttons to push to make certain figures dance/move, etc. too. There are cities and a Star Wars section.

I'll try not to flood you with pictures...

Vegas

NYC - I took a million pictures here...I was fascinated by seeing our city in Lego!

The subway. A train moved between the two stations they had.

Rockefeller

The Guggenheim

The carrousel in Central Park - it moved and played music

Grand Central Station

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[brookelizabeth]

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Hot dog stand

Rats on the garbage!

The Freedom Tower and 9/11 Memorial

Central Park

The Bethesda Fountain in Central Park

The Boathouse

Brooklyn and Manhattan bridges - this also gives you a good idea of the scale of these buildings!

Alice in Wonderland Statue in Central Park

Part of the Central Park Zoo and the Delacorte Clock

Polar Bears at the zoo

Zoo

Radio City Music Hall

People on the escalator in Grand Central

The Grand Central bathrooms

Finally moving on...

DC

The White House

Presidential motorcade! This moved

So cool

The Capitol

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[brookelizabeth]

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Moving marching band - it also played music

And finally...the Star Wars section.

Have you seen enough yet??!

Hoth...right? LOL!

The boys continued to explore Star Wars...I was still into the city!

Legowood! Love the sign!

I had completely missed LA before! Gotta fix that...!

Okay, back to Star Wars.

The guys in the back with the saxophones played music.

This one would smoke when you pushed a button

Naboo

Endor

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[brookelizabeth]

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Ewoks

One happy boy!

Yep, I was still obsessed with the cities...

Time was flying and I wanted to re-visit Duplo Village so Henry could play and shop, of course! One last picture in Miniland with guys that weren't so mini!

If you enjoyed Miniland as much as I did - here is a 10 minute video with some highlights:
Video: Miniland (9 minutes, 57 seconds)

And back into Duplo Village. You might remember a few water rides in Pirate Village, there are big people dryers in case you get soaked!

Walking through Fun Town again

We stopped to play in the Lego cars again - these don't move, but make for some fun pictures!

Once we were in Duplo Village Henry went straight for

It's pretty cute!

After we played with a few of the water guns in Duplo Village

And then headed back to the front of the park...a few shots along the way of things we didn't do. This was all in Dino Island - we skipped it completely.

Giant sandpit! Thankfully Henry didn't see it...we would have been here all day.

Lego Safari

And the Sea Life Aquarium - which is an additional charge to your ticket

And we were soon back to the front of the park. We told Henry there was one last thing we had to do before we were done...and that was....

BUY LEGOS!

His reaction?

I love it!

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