Day 4 – Twentynine Palms, CA – Carlsbad, CA

There was pretty much a single item on our itinerary for the day: Legoland. I will freely admit that the road trip idea started as a desire to visit the theme park. Call it daddy’s influence, guilty as charged. When I was little, my family had no means to afford even the tiniest LEGO sets – they were prohibitively expensive for what my parents were making. The first real “hands on” experience came when I was 12 – my father bought us our first set. The magic happened and never left since. Me and my younger brother would spent countless hours applying our creativity to get the best of the limited pieces and would wish for access to other sets, so we can build more advanced structures. You would be amazed what one can come out with given so little. The true power of imagination.
Ironically, as years passed by and priorities have changed,  I don’t have as much much time to “play” with LEGOs anymore. I do buy a Technic set here and there on occasion, to keep that childhood’s spark alive. The ultimate dream was always to visit Legoland one day. Since we were planning a trip to California there was no way I would let this idea go. Other points of attraction were for the family, this one was to satisfy my inner ego :).

There was only one stop needed to charge on the way, at Cabazon supercharger, so the journey was rather uneventful. Good – the sooner we get the mundane out of the way, the better! We were all getting excited to enter the theme park as soon as possible, to beat the crowds. A nice (and unrelated) surprise upon arrival – there are free public charging stations (Level 2), courtesy of ChargePoint.

It was interesting to see some of the latest EV (or PHEV) models from Volvo, Chevrolet and Honda sipping the electrons upon arrival. Yet another example where California dominates in electric vehicle adoption in US – some of these cars are not even available for purchase in other states. Hopefully this will change soon.

Since we were staying at the Legoland hotel we would have an “early bird” advantage (we could enter the resort 1 hour before others). This was helpful in exploring the park without rushing or competing with the crowds for access to individual attractions. Since we were spending the whole day there it helped to get a bit more organized and plan ahead, so we could make the most of the visit.

It was a long day, filled with excitement and joy. I grew even stronger in my admiration to what a global phenomenon LEGO has become – from a simple wooden toy to inspiration for many generations.
The words cannot describe what I’ve experienced – that is not the point anyway, to give an accurate account of what I’ve seen. I also don’t want to spoil the fun by posting any giveaway pictures (where’s the fun in that?). Everyone who has an inner child in them should come and visit at least once in their lifetime, period.

For what it’s worth, here are a few shots of the hotel we stayed in though:

While the one in California will not remove or replace Billund on my bucket list any time soon, it comes really close to fulfilling that dream. I’ve had a blast.

Charging stops:

• Twentynine Palms, CA (44 miles left; avg 280 Wh/mi; charged to 121 miles)
• Cabazon, CA (64 miles left; avg 276 Wh/mi; charged to 170 miles)

Continue to Part 4…