steve-martin-born-standing-up-a-comics-life-book-cover.png

This is going to sound crazy, but prior to reading Steve Martin's memoir, Born Standing Up, I had not idea that he had been such a popular stand-up comedian.

I was born in 1977 and as far as I have been concerned, Martin was foremost an actor.

In the last fifteen years, I have discovered his writing as a novelist and playwright. He's a fantastic writer, very adept at creating emotionally charged situations involving mostly subtext. Martin may have a big personality on stage, but as a writer, his works are quiet and subtle.

My obsession with theme parks even provided me with the knowledge that Martin had worked in both Disneyland and Knotts Berry Farm.

I knew all of this going into Born Standing Up, but I had no clue that Martin has had one of the most successful stand-up careers and had spent years selling out arena shows. Born Standing Up is all about Martin's early career.

The first half deals with his childhood and love for magic and comedy. For my fellow theme park geeks, it has several chapters on Martin's various jobs at both Disney and Knotts. I loved how later in life, Martin returned to Knotts and walked through the employee gate to the Bird Cage Theater and employees recognized him not for being famous, but for being a former employee. It's a sweet anecdote.

The second half of the book deals with Martin's rise in fame and his exhausting stand-up tours. You never feel like Martin is ungrateful for his fame, but that fame is a double-edge sword that comes at a great price. Mostly, Martin strikes me as someone who has spent a lot of time being very lonely at the height of his fame.

His film and writing career are mentioned briefly to show where Martin headed after his stand-up career peaked. The focus of the memoir is not only on his career, but on his family. The Martin household was not always a happy one and it took many years for Martin to reconnect with his parents and sister. There is a good message about tying up loose family ends and having important conversations before your chance might forever be lost.

Martin's writings often involve the art world and I enjoyed reading about how Martin's interest in art developed.

Born Standing Up was a lightening fast read, mostly because Martin's life is so fascinating. I read the bulk of it in a single go and had it done in less than a day. A throughly enjoyable memoir.

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.