Lessons From Vacation

We returned safely on Tuesday from our family vacation in San Diego after having a wonderful time. I took away several lessons from the trip:

1. It is great to go to major amusement parks during the off season. We rarely stood in line.

2. Legoland was Ethan's favorite because, though he loved the San Diego Zoo and Sea World, Legoland is built for kids his age right down to the urinals!

3. Legoland does not serve beer while Seaworld and the Zoo do. It would be fun to contemplate whether or not Legoland's low urinals for kids and the lack of beer are related, but I digress.

4. Even though I'm an experienced traveler and negotiating traffic has never been a problem for me (not to mention, having the Pacific Ocean on the left -West - and mountains on the right -East -made directions easy), my last minute decision to pony up 9 bucks a day for a dashboard navigation system in the rental car was well worth it.

5. We would plan one day of down time for the pool or the beach rather than packing in three major amusement parks in three days. Ethan and Heather were troopers, but....still....it was a lot to ask especially for a 3.5 year old whose legs, while reaching the magic 42" marker for many rides (unless they made him remove his baseball cap of course), make keeping up with grown ups kind of tough.

6. At the end of the day -- or three days in this case -- Ethan may have enjoyed playing in a sandbox as much as anything else he experienced.

And so it goes.

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