England March 2013- LEGOLAND Windsor Part One

As a theme park fanatic, I was thrilled when Dan's parents treated us to a day at Legoland Windsor on our March trip. Next to visiting Historical landmarks, there is nothing that I love more than visiting a theme park. Although we live in Southern California, I've never visited Legoland in Carlsbad.

We went to Legoland on the opening day of their 2013 Season. It was cold, rainy and mercifully quiet. We didn't wait more than ten minutes for any attraction and most we were able to walk right on.

As one might expect, Legoland Windsor is located within view of Windsor Castle. I found this to be a bit of a marvel. Windsor Castle is such an iconic structure and it was hard to believe that it was so close to a theme park. I soaked in its view every time it came into sight.

Here is a picture of the castle that I took while driving through the town of Windsor.

The first sign that Legoland was near.

Is it still quicker if everyone opts to take the alternate route?

The long driveway up to Legoland was dotted with Lego creations welcoming us to the park.

We finally made to the park entrance and proceeded with our tickets that had been pre-purchased tickets. A huge THANK YOU to Dan's parents!

Quiet at the turnstiles for opening day 2013.

Naturally, as a complete theme park geek, I had to take pictures of the park map and digital wait time sign. I spent many, many years at Universal Studios Hollywood updating the digital wait time signs.

Legoland Windsor Digital Wait Time Directory (somewhere in an office, someone is updating this sign)

The park doesn't look like much when you first enter it, because the entrance is at the top of a hill and much like Universal Studios Hollywood, the rides are tucked away on different levels of the hill. The park is actually enormous. We visited on a slow day and although we did a lot, including multiple rides on favorites, we still couldn't manage to see the entire park. There is so much to do.

Here is the view of Windsor Castle from the top level of Legoland.

We headed straight down to the lower levels and as a consequence ran out of time before we could do the things at the top, such as this cool looking building.

Dan loves to take Panoramas and took this one from the top of the park. Looking out over the park, we still had no clue that Legoland was so huge. It was deceptive!

I love Disney, but visiting Legoland made me realize that Legoland is a vastly superior theme park experience for little kids. Our group included Dan's parents and Dan's two kids, ages three and five. The kids absolutely loved the park. I've visited Disneyland with various toddlers (kids of my friends) and there are many attractions, even in Fantasyland, that are just too scary. Practically all of the rides at Legoland are toddler friendly and even the most scary, like The Dragon coaster, are mild in comparison to Disney's offerings. This is an ideal first park for children.

One of the kid friendly touches were tunnel slides located next to the stairs on the hillside. It's much more fun to slide than it is to walk!

Also located on the hillside, just off the walk way.

Our first stop was Miniland. Miniland was my favorite part of the park. The land houses an amazing collection of famous landmarks recreated out of Lego. It became a running joke that now we don't need to travel anywhere, because we saw it at Miniland.

Although Miniland was mostly filled with recreations of European landmarks, one of the first things that we encountered was America's Mount Rushmore. Dan and I have been wanting to make a trip to South Dakota to see the real thing, but now that we have seen the Lego version, maybe we can skip it?

Dan and I at Lego Mount Rushmore. Been there, done that.

Dan took another one of his panorama shots. Like the rest of Legoland, Miniland is much larger than it appears.

This place is so big that it needs it own mayor!

Dan took a panorama of London.

On this, my first trip to England, it was too cloudy to see London when we flew into Heathrow. No worries, I still managed to take in all of the sights!

Next trip, I hope to visit the real Stonehenge.

I also want to visit the Minack Theatre. I had never heard of it prior to seeing the Lego version, but it looks like an utterly amazing place to experience live theater.

Sporting Events in Lego

Castles in Lego

Miniland had so many places in Europe in miniature, that it almost felt like going on a whirlwind tour of the World Showcase in EPCOT... except of just of Europe and Mount Rushmore.

I will finish the tour of our trip to Miniland with Dan's panorama shot of a mini town with running train.

Stay tuned for Part Two of my Legoland Windsor trip report, where I bring you Pirates, Dragons and Penny Manglers!

Our First NASCAR Race- Auto Club 400

Dan and I have spent our relationship without cable. This isn't normally a big deal for us, as we can get most of what we want through iTunes, Hulu and Netflix. The only major problem that we have come across is getting our NASCAR fix. We've tried watching races at various bars, all a very distracting experience. Just finding the race at a bar is a challenge, because Los Angeles is not much of a NASCAR town.

On Sunday, March 24th, we drove out to the Auto Club Speedway in Fontana for the Auto Club 400. This was our first experience attending a NASCAR race and we tried our best to prepare for the day. We read up on recommendations regarding what to wear and bring, which caused us to spend a good chunk of Saturday running around town attempting to acquire items. Now having experience, here are some tips that I can impart to fellow NASCAR newbies.

1. Unless you already own a seat cushion, don't bother buying one in advance. We went to several stores around Los Angeles and couldn't find anything appropriate. It turns out, they sell them for ten dollars at the race. We thought that is was good deal and it gave us a cheap souvenir.

2. We read that we should pack a lunch and assuming that the prices were going to be outrageous like at other sporting events, we heeded the advice. The Auto Club Speedway has tight regulations on the size of the soft sided cooler that you are allowed to bring. They allow a 6x6x12 cooler, which isn't very big! We didn't have this and spent twelve dollars for one at Target.

In the end, I wish that we had skipped bringing food. It was a hassle and it was so sweltering hot, that some of the food spoiled before we could eat it. It turns out that the food (and beer) are fairly reasonably priced at the Auto Club Speedway. Twenty bucks would have kept us full, happy and not lugging around a personal cooler!

3. Don't buy alcohol, even if the price is reasonable. I suffered greatly from drinking a beer while sitting in the hot sun. I spent 1/4 of the race underneath the grandstands in the shade, because I felt so sick.

4. Bring bottled water and keep hydrated.

5. If you plan to buy food there, buy it early. Several stands sold out of items. This included water and drinks.

6. Apply and reapply sunscreen. I came home with a prickly sunburn.

7. Bring ear protection. It's much louder than you think it will be. I felt like getting ear protection was more important than the water or sunscreen. Surprisingly, lots of people don't bother protecting their ears or their children's ears. It was awful seeing young children without the proper protection.

We rented Fan Vision, which came with two sets of headphones in which we could hear race and driver commentary. It was entertainment and protection together. The price was around seventy-five, but it was well worth it. It's much more engaging to be able to hear the race commentary. The Fan Vision came with a monitor, where we could watch videos and keep track of stats.

Ear protection is sexy!

Fan Vision

Ear protection is sexy!

The parking lot opened at five am, but we decided to sleep in and get there around ten. There was a massive queue to the free, dirt parking lot, but the attendants were super efficient and we didn't wait long. There were many people having tailgate parties in the lot, some were very elaborate set-ups. It gave me the urge to buy a kiddie pool and fill it with beer!

The long line to the parking lot.

Finally parked. The dirt got stuck to our sun-screened bodies and we were filthy!

Flags in the parking lot. Lots of flags and tailgate parties!

Next time, we would probably opt to pay for the close parking in the paved lot. The walk from the dirt lot took about twenty minutes and was probably about a mile. They had a shuttle bus making runs, but we opted to hoof it.

Once we got inside the of the gates, there was a lot to see and do. We decided to check out our seats first. This being our first NASCAR event, we relied heavily on internet advice to pick seats. We ended up in the middle of the grandstands, close to the end of the pit lane. A good location that we would likely pick again.

concessions under the grandstands

The entrance.

Looking to the right.

Dan in front of our section. Note the small bag that he is carrying, that was our lunch bag.

Looking to the left.

The view from our seats.

We regretted not spending the extra thirty-five a ticket for pit passes. It would have been cool to get a close-up look at the pits and cars, but that's something that we can look forward to the next time. We headed out of the stadium to the massive field on the property to see the exhibits, concessions and merchandise.

Fox Sports

Auto Club Race Car

Auto Club Smart Car!!!

The Danica Patrick merch booth was by far the most crowded.

The Jack FM bustache

Race car interior

Event map.

Jimmie Johnson's Merch. I was rooting for the cute local boy!

Speedway fountain/sculpture thing.

Auto Club Speedway

Dan with his other girlfriend.

We got to our seats about twenty minutes before the race was set to start. It's amazing how quickly the grandstands go from empty to packed.

Fly over

The cars are starting to line up.

What would a sporting event be without the Goodyear Blimp?

Danica Patrick

Surfer car

I found watching the pits to be the most interesting aspect of the race. It's amazing how fast the pit crews work.

almost done

tires off

And back in the race. All done in the blink of an eye.

Danica Patrick pulls into the pit.

We were told via multiple source to make sure to bring binoculars. We had them on the dining room table and completely forgot them. It was bit of a bummer and sometimes hard to see all of the action, but Dan brought the good camera and managed to take some great shots of the race.

Go Jimmy!!!

restarting

Danica on the backside of the track.

The big screen was easy to see from our seats.

Dan took a lot of pictures of the GoDaddy car.

The race was mostly uneventful until the very end when Denny Hamlin and Joey Logano made contact in the last lap, causing Hamlin to take a hard crash into the wall. They two were vying for first, when the crash opened up an opportunity for Kyle Busch to take the lead and ultimately win the race.

Hamlin and Logano has a contentious relationship prior to the race and took the feud to the track. Apparently, Logano also had beef with Tony Stewart. After the race, Logano got into a fist fight with Stewart on pit row. Stewart felt that Logano had blocked him during the final restart. NASCAR is better than ice hockey!

Smashed up at the end of the race.

Logano and Stewart fight.

Busch's victory burn-out

Busch celebrating

good look at the damage

winners circle and final tally

Winner's Cicle

Our first NASCAR race was a ton of fun. We went home sunburn, covered in dirt and elated. Hopefully later this season or next year, we will be able to travel to different state for another race.

England March 2013- Cadbury Factory

I had visions of chocolate rivers, Oomph-Loompas and Everlasting Gobstoppers, but sadly, the Cadbury Factory in Bournville didn't have any of those things. However, the Cadbury Factory did have chocolate. Lots of yummy chocolate and really, what else do you need?

We set off early on a Thursday morning and the sluggish highway turned into a dead stop shortly into our journey. The traffic is bad in Los Angeles, but it's almost worse in England. The highways have less lanes in England, so if there is a problem, there's no way around it. You're stuck.

Dan took a screen shot of our traffic nightmare.

We got off the highway and took a detour through country roads. It was slow going, as we were not the only ones who had the idea, but at least we were moving and seeing cute towns.

Sense and Sensibility fan?

The gate to what we imagine to be a huge mansion. The house was set so far back off the road that we couldn't even see part of it through the gates.

i love the vines on this house.

A factory in the distance.

The gate to what we imagine to be a huge mansion. The house was set so far back off the road that we couldn't even see part of it through the gates.

The funniest moment of the drive came when we saw this guy wearing his PJ bottoms while walking his dog.

We got the kids to yell out the window "Put some pants on!!!". It was followed by an explosion of giggles.

The traffic was so bad, that we had to take a break midway on our trip. We needed a break and lunch, so we stopped at a traveler's center that had a bunch of American fast food chains. I feel like I should apologize to the UK for the crap that America has sent over. Fast food is not an export that makes me proud to be an American!

Starbucks and Krispy Kreme. I saw more Krispy Kreme in the England than I have in California.

Old fashioned phones at the travel center.

KFC and Papa Johns.

After a long car ride, we finally arrived at the Cadbury factory.

Driving into the Cadbury Factory parking lot.

The main entrance.

We went inside and purchased our tickets.

The tickets have a timed entry and we had to wait over an hour until we could go inside. We headed to a separate part of the facility called The Bournville Experience.

In the Bournville Experience, we learned all about George Cadbury and his vision. Prior to Cadbury building his factory in 1879, the area had been quite a dump and its residents living in squalor. Cadbury christened the town Bournville (using the word Ville was in vogue at the time) and he used his Quaker beliefs as a guide to running both the town and his company. It turned into a company town with the employees benefitting from good wages, nice homes, pensions, literacy and health programs.

Another big part of Bournville was temperance. Cadbury's Quaker beliefs led him to abstain from alcohol and he believe it to be a big root of societies problems. To this day, there are no pubs in the town. I guess the absence of alcohol is more than compensated for by the abundance of chocolate!

Part of the Cadbury factory. I took the picture before seeing the very small "No Photography sign" and then i thought, screw it, I'll share the picture on my blog. The secrets of the cadbury Factory for all of my readers. (evil laugh)

The mock candy shop had an interactive feature where you could design your own candy wrapper.

Design your own candy wrapper.

A model of Bournville

A mock candy shop.

We still had time to kill after our Bournville education, so we let the kids run wild in the adjacent playground.

The Cadbury factory and playground.

The kids had a great time in the playground.

Train info

The Cadbury factory and playground.

Cadbury train

Take a good look at the cocoa bean character in the picture below. It will be referenced later!

It finally came time to go into the Cadbury factory. At the entrance, we were each given two full size candy bars to munch on. This was not the only point in which we were given candy bars, they also gave us more half way though. Maybe people have chocolate emergencies and need the sustenance to make it through the entire tour? I have to admit that all of the talk of chocolate makes it impossible to refrain from eating it. The power of Cadbury is so strong that I've already consumed two creme eggs while writing this post!

The first part of the factory tour was a walk through an Amazon jungle to learn about the origins of cocoa beans.

"Snakes, I hate snakes"...says Dan in his best Indy voice.

Deep into the jungle..complete with animatronic animals and people.

From the jungles, we are led to the streets of Victorian- Era London and encounter costumed actors in period garb playing characters and interacting with the crowd. This is where the message of the evils of city life and alcohol were driven home. George Cadbury emerges as a savior figure to led the way to the good life in his model town.

I need to stop here and point out that George Cadbury and his vision for Bournville sound a lot like Walt Disney and his original plans for EPCOT. Cadbury got his town built before Disney was even born.

The entire Cadbury World experience feels like it was built by Disney imagineering. It's an immersive experience, where everything is highly sensory and interactive. The focus is on fun with the education component slickly placed.

The actors fed us into a theater where various projections on several screens told the story of Cadbury's beginnings and beliefs. A bit redundant for those of us who had already been to the Bournville experience.

After the Cadbury film, we were ushered into a second small theater to learn how cocoa beans are harvested and processed. This theater had interactive elements, including the moving seats and bursts of air hitting us in the face. It was mild and entertaining.

After the movies we were fed into a tour of the actual factory, which included seeing all the processing and labeling machines. Neat to see. Dan's kids wrote their names in chocolate on a giant slab of marble and we saw artists creating custom chocolate sculptures.

A chocolate artist. She is working off of a picture of a train and recreating it in chocolate.

Chocolate art.

I was most surprised to find a dark ride inside of the Cadbury factory. It had the cocoa bean characters in animatronic form and only served to solidify my feeling that we were at a Disney park. The kids loved it.

The exit of the ride fed into a hall showing all of the Cadbury advertisting campaigns, past to present.

Diary Milk

Cow!

Curley Wurley!

Dairy Milk stained glass.

Just like everything at a Disney Park, the Cadbury World experience ended with an exit into the gift shop.

Remember the cocoa bean character? The promotion of the cocoa bean guy is so slick that Dan's three year old (who doesn't even like chocolate) walked right into the gift shop and picked up a chocolate cocoa bean guy, insisting on it for his souvenir. Well played Cadbury, well played.

We went nuts in the store.