LEGOLAND - Photoblog

Yes. There is a theme park dedicated to the little plastic blocks kids play with.

If you have not seen it, do not miss it. I have been in California for almost a decade now and have always missed this park when we go to San Diego. Have crossed the exit several times and wondered what it was all about! Add to that, the fact that many of my friends and colleagues give this place a two thumbs up, this time we decided to take Jr. and the little one on a short trip to LEGOLAND.

The photos say it all! Everything here is just plain amazing. We had a daunting task to get food into Jr. and we accomplished it only because the place relaxed her. Most of the rides are not scary.

We went on this animal safari ride with Lego animals. The little one waited patiently in line for 45 minutes zipping and unzipping her jacket, only to be kicked out at the end for being vertically challenged.

Jr., who refused to go on any ride was forced in as a last minute substitution and she actually had a change of heart. She got out saying "that was fun. can we do that again"!

This also meant that grandma had to adopt some Chinese kid as her "binami" grandson for the ride. Apparently the kid really liked her!

Here are some of the legonimals..

The next thing was a boat ride that covered all the books! Truly amazing..Jr. guessed all the stories!

Then there was the place which really got Jr. smiling.. Fun Town, aptly named.

She even drove a car by herself and they gave her a fake drivers license! She loved it.

A word of caution though. Most rides, however trivial they are require 34 inch height minimum which the little one missed by an inch or inch and a half. It is really not her fault that her parents dont have viking genes in them. Kids younger then her were getting on all the rides and she had to sit out for almost everything.

Then there was this out of place pirate thing, with rides for adults. The kids enjoyed talking to the pirate...

Finally some teasers for the adults. They have this place called Mini World which has miniature models of everything from the Taj Mahal to the Eiffel tower to Golden gate bridge.. not to mention an entire las vegas strip and Washington DC.

You have to see it to believe it..

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Photo Sans Lens ?

That was an attempt at a pun, after San's request to try taking pictures with just the camera body!

I tried.. All I got was an overloaded CMOS sensor!

After some repeated pleading and researching, I found a lens for near 100 bucks which was

1. new
2. had some zoom as opposed to a 50mm
3. if possible a canon lens for the canon digital rebel xti
4. at least a f/3.5
5. an autofocus (EF lens)

and I got 4/5 on a New Canon EF 28-90mm f/4-5.6 III lens for <120 bucks from a local photo store!

Granted it is not a f/2.8 or a USM (ultra sonic) but the thing is great for the pictures I usually take!

Going to play with this lens over the long weekend..

and now for some pictures.

The first one is my princess photographed with the old S30 (the thing had to be taped at places to hold the battery, CF card etc. and the picture had to be cropped to get rid of the light spots, but still...)


and the second one is a photo taken today with the two of them posing for me

Some lens is better than no lens!

Just like that Cereal ad. which says "Kid tested, mother approved" why doesn't Canon come up with a nice lens that is "dad tested, mother approved"?

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When your pumpkin shrivels...

Just carve yourself a new one..

My workplace had a pumpkin carving contest. They gave us all a free pumpkin to carve. We also had the Halloween bash at Balaji's. Thought I could kill two birds with one stone and carved a nice one on sunday. By tuesday, the thing shrivelled and became so unrecognizable that it wouldn't be worth bringing anywhere near the display.

So I did one, last minute. Did not win, but got complimented by almost everyone. Made the kids very very happy when I got it home tonight.

Here it is..

Had to black out the spider on the surface so I wouldn't carve it out by mistake.

If only I could keep them from shrivelling so fast!

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Pumkinography -2

Happy Halloween....

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Navarathri

Previous posts on the Golu found here and here..

Last year, we did not cover as many golus and we did not have pictures. This year with the little ones both at an age where they take great pleasure in dressing up, the weekend was hectic.

Here are some snaps from the various Golus we visited and the little ones in all their finery..

They would change their dress between visiting different golus!

The visits will keep going till next saturday!