Travel Log Day 6 - 11/20/11

When you have an infant, a terrible nights sleep is to be expected.  The baby is tiny, needs a lot of food, and I can't blame a kid for being uncomfortable it was a lot more cozy in their previous environment.  When you have a nearly 5 year old child, waking every two hours is about the most miserable thing I can think of.  But, none the less, Drew decided sleeping was not in his cards and we were treated to his presence every two hours.

Two things happen when I am tired, and I mean really tired.  I have no patience and thus yell at my kids, and I feel like crap.  My wife I have no doubt feels the same way, but she is able to hide it better or some special mommy juju overcomes this.  The mommy juju sounds better so I go with that because then it isn't my shortcoming but rather I wasn't given the same tools as my wife to be an awesome parent.

After a brief breakfast that was nice, but rather old since it was the same style of breakfast 3 days in a row, we planned our day.  I attempted to get some lunch supplies at the Superwalmart, but was unsuccessful due to not having ANY sandwich supplies.  We still fed the kids their favorite Mac and Cheese and were off to my big idea for Dallas, The Lego Discover Center.

My kids and I are Lego fans, well I sorta indoctrinated them, but none the less they love Lego.  So last winter I took them to Legoland, and Legoland is just that, a LAND dedicated to the awesomeness that is Lego.  This was a natural step for us, going to what I thought was a "museum" built around Lego.

My boys were ready to go

Now once I got inside I came to discover that unlike Legoland which only sort appeals strictly to children still had some charm for adults like me.  Well any attempt to appeal to adults was gone here.  The opening tour was slightly intriguing to my kids, and bored me to tears, the first ride (which I knew with Legoland) was slow and methodical and boring to me, my kids adored.  The actual center is small, like think less than half the size of a normal grocery store, and while the movies they had were a tad different than Legoland were so-so to me, but they were amazing to my kids (even Eva).  Little did I know that the highlight of the entire afternoon there would be the Duplo area.  While this area was small it had Duplo (meh) but it had GIANT Lego Blocks.  Now if I could get some righteous Lego blocks like this I'd be in heaven.

Eva got her own Lego Chair

Drew helped me build a tree

In the end I can't deny that the kids had a blast at Lego Discovery Center.  I have been spoiled with the quality and refinement of Disneyland's ability to appeal to kids and adults alike, and while LDC (Lego Discovery Center) and Legoland do a top notch job appealing to kids they lack so severely in appealing to adults it is rather remarkable; considering I really love Lego a lot.

After this we discovered the mall (where LDC was located) and I remembered why I hate the mall from November to the end of December.  But not to be discouraged we had planned a dinner with Cristina's Cousins who were locals to Dallas and wanted to meet up with us at a restaurant for dinner.  

Two nights in a row meeting with family/friends was great.  We went to La Hacienda Ranch.  A little history I guess the owner of the place invented the frozen margarita machine which is now on display at the Smithsonian.  Having dinner with adults again at a fantastic TexMex restaurant was a blast.  The fajita platter was through the roof good and my wife enjoyed her margarita.  The boys got to play on "horse" and they even had saddle bar stools.

The boys loved the 25 cent horse

Our trip has 4 multi-night stops, Santa Fe, Dallas, Lake Charles and San Antonio.  If the latter two can get close to equalling the first two this trip will be an overwhelming success.  We loved Dallas and I would come back in a heartbeat, but next time I will have to hit up a football game.