These are not the toes of children playing on the beaches of Mexico as is our usual tradition for winter break. We opted for, what I will call, the bucket list vacation. We checked a lot of items off the parental checklist and have returned home completely exhausted.
Our road trip started off with our first two nights at the Golden Nugget hotel in Vegas. I was less than thrilled when I first found out our accomodation, but I am happy to eat my words and say it was a fabulous place. Josh kindly let the boys choose our hotel based on what type of swimming pool they had. The boys were giddy with excitement to swim with the sharks at the Golden Nugget. The pool is built around the giant shark tank with the ending of the waterslide shooting through a tube in the shark tank. You can swim right up to the tank and be nose to nose with a black tip reef shark and huge black grouper. Needless to say the boys were in heaven, even though it was 50 degrees outside the water.
The kids loved the m&m store in Vegas and taking the monorail down the strip. If you do the Vegas strip with kids I highly recommend going early in the day before the ground is littered with....... stuff. The Mirage had a pretty great fish tank behind the check in counter. I also ate lunch with Larry King at the Carnegie deli, he was sitting right behind me.
After Vegas we headed up to LA. We didn't want to be at any major theme park on Presidents Day so we opted to take Sasha to the American Girl store in The Grove in Los Angeles. For those of you with American Girls I highly suggest a pilgrimage to one of the stores. Sasha has been dying to get her dolls ears pierced. She had never been to one of the stores and was absolutely beside herself in the store. She was a little upset we had to wait 3 hours for her dolls hair appointment... but it was worth it. This is Sasha on the drive up to the grove..so excited!
I was worried tears would be shed when they informed us that ear piercings happen in the back room "for safety reasons." The boys had gotten Sasha all excited about the gun that would make the hole and she was momentarily crushed when her doll was taken away. But we made it through just fine and everyone one had a great laugh at just how over the top the whole experience was at the store.
Tuesday we headed to the Disney kingdom, it was crowded.....
The highlights for Sasha were meeting the princesses. Since she didn't quite make the height requirement for the rides the boys wanted to go on we had to split up. Sasha enthusiastically told me, " Let's do all the girly things we can!" Apparently girly things means waiting in REALLY long lines for face time with disney royalty.
The true highlight of Disneyland was Jonas being chosen for Jedi training. Yes, it really is as awesome as everyone says it is! I think Jonas floated for several hours after the experience, it was magic! Here he is fighting Darth Maul. Sasha was so scared she hide behind Josh the whole time.
The next day we detoxic from the crowds by enjoying one of my favorites, The Aquarium of the Pacific in Longbeach. As close to snorkling as you can get and still stay dry.
Thursday brought us to Legoland in Carlsbad. The kids had a wonderful time, I am not sure yet how I personally felt about it. Josh loved all the lego cities they had built and all the life sized figures. Gotta have a picture with R2 and Chewy.
I think the Lego driving course was the highlight ride for the kids. They have a smaller course for Sasha sizes people and I am happy to report she passed the drivers test with flying colors. Will did perfect staying on the right side of the road and Jonas excelled in looking bothways before proceeding into an intersection.
After that many lines and crowds, Josh and I were itching for a bigger adventure so we decided to add Death Valley to the drive home. We arrived at the park about sunset so I threw some clothes on Jonas and snapped some portraits since he is in need of a new one.
I have ALWAYS wanted to see the "walking" rocks in Death Valley. They are officially titled "sailing" rocks and they are one fo the few unsolved mysteries in the world. It was 27 miles down a washboard road but worth every bump. What a stunningly unique and beautiful place it was. The texture of the dried ground was breathtaking!
These are the sailing rocks which no one knows exactly how they move. No one has ever actually seen them move either. It would have been a wonderful place to be at sunset but traveling with kids you have to enjoy whatever lighting you get. It was so awesome to experience one of the last remaining mysteries on earth. Death Valley is in the middle of no where, but well worth the drive. It definitely satisfied Josh and I's more adventurous side. Now only 365 more days to decide where next years trip will take us.
Other...: Do not copy. All images are copyright English photography.
Wow, your vacations always look so magical! I am glad you had such a great time!
Posted by: Heather | March 13, 2012 at 12:13 AM
Woo-hoo! Looks like tons of fun. Winter break, probably not, but winter party for sure!
Posted by: Cori | February 28, 2012 at 12:29 PM
Love it. What a fun, domestic, trip for you guys to take. Disney is a wonderful place and we've heard great things about Legoland. You'll have to give us details when we next see you :)
Great pics!!!!!
Posted by: Stacie | February 27, 2012 at 11:07 AM
Those are spectacular photos, and everyone looks so happy. I hope I get a copy???
xoxo
Posted by: me | February 27, 2012 at 09:48 AM