Keeping up with the Manssons: Driving, Rainy Day at Legoland and Construction.

I have decided to break up the posts about our vacation because I am sure that I can't write it all at once. We left on Sunday morning and drove to Carlsbad. The drive did not go too bad. We stopped for lunch in a town called Wellington and I googled a park on my phone. The park was fun, very clean and maintained. Henry and Jillian had fun running around and the weather was beautiful. After about 2 hours we packed the kids back in the car and made it about 3 more hours (both kids slept) and made another stop at a rest area in CA. We only stayed there for about 30 minutes, but it was long enough to stretch our legs and play hide and seek with the kids. The were definately done with driving at this point, but we still had about an hour left to drive. Thanks to the DVD player in the car (for Henry, who faces forward), and the iTouch for Jillian (who faces backwards), the drive was not terrible. We got checked into the hotel, got groceries for the week, and had to request a crib 3 times before one showed up. This crib was TERRIBLE. It was squeaky and rusty looking. But seeing as how Jillian can climb up and not down yet, I didn't want to leave her on the bed. Needless to say, we didn't sleep a wink because every time she moved or twitched, the crib squeaked. In the morning, Andrew took a closer look at the crib and the bottom of the frame was bent. So, we had to request a new crib (only twice!) and it was in much better shape.

Monday morning we drove the short drive to Legoland. There was basically no one there due to the weather report saying it was going to rain. Seeing as we had already purchased our tickets, we figured we should just go and make the best of it. Henry loved not having to wait for any of the rides and really enjoyed all the rides we did. We only lasted a couple of hours, but then we headed to the aquarium which Jillian absolutely loved! We called it an early day and went back to the hotel for naps, but they were doing construction above us. So...think walls shaking, tile chipping jackhammers, and pachyderms (they were probably not elephants, but it should sounded like them they way they were stomping around.) I did nap with Henry so he took a relatively good nap, but Jillian could not sleep through the racket!

Tuesday, we had a day of much needed rest. We ended up buying swimsuits since the weather was predicted to be so nice over the last part of the week. Plus, we had a sushi dinner which was outstanding. The 'highlight' of the day was the fun construction which culminated in a worker accidentally cutting a pipe and our bathrooms flooding with water. This meant two hours of workers in our room trying to clean up the mess and us having to request new towels from Housekeeping twice. Now, any guesses as to what the prize was for having a flooded hotel room and the disturbance of workmen in your living space for 2 hours? Four (that is right a whopping 4) cookies, and a note saying to 'please fill out our comment card.' HA...almost as good as my payment for a rack of lamb falling on my head! Overall, not a great start to the vacation. (and as a side note, I don't think we will ever stay at this hotel again and definitely would not recommend it!)