Michelangelo's new favorite thing

OK; I know we're not on vacation right now; but this was a Christmas gift from his Pop; and he loves it!

Paso - Home

El Paso Des Robles to Alameda via King City

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We took a mid morning start from Paso as we wanted to stop at a couple of wineries first - Tablas Creek again and Linne Colado. Tablas because we wanted to pick up one of their great T-shits with "Estate Sponsored Terroirism" on it. (only a wine geek would get it). Linne because I couldn't bare to stop in Paso without tasting something.
Tablas is very kid friendly - they supply a kid size table with coloring paper and crayons. Linne, while having good wine and not being kid hostile will unlikely be visited by me again. I don't mind paying a tasting fee, but I expect it waived if I buy wine, or at least if they insist then let me keep the glass! They would do neither, and there is so much great wine in California that I do not need to spend money on theirs.
We also stopped for lunch at our favorite King city restaurant Lugarcitos.

San Diego to Paso Robles

Carlsbad to El Paso De Robles via Los Olivos

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No photos today. We left Carlsbad fairly early and headed to Los Olivos to try out Carina again and pick up some heirloom garlic. Alas, Carina still did not live up to the experience of our first trip; and the Garlic guy appears to be gone, so the Los Olivos stop was a bust. We did have a good lunch at Panino's though, so while a bust it wasn't a total bust.

Lazy Day

Lazy Day

We planned to spend this do looking around San Diego. Since the previous night at Roy's involved quite a bit of wine, we made a late start of it and ended up lounging around the pool, and catching Despereauxat the local cinema.

Leftover chicken fingers for breakfast

Donna's Crickets

Donna's Crickets

Michael's cousin Roy has a pond in his back yard, and during the recent rains it filled up with water, inviting the local frog population to breed. When Donna and Roy returned from Christmas at Roy's sister (Michael's cousin) Susan's in New Hampshire, this sound is what greeted them.

New Years Day

Grand Pacific Palisades

This is one of two hotels that have a private entrance to Legoland. It's a Hilton property, and is about ¾ timeshare. It is also very kid friendly with a pirate's nest in the pool, to s'mores pits placed around the perimeter.
Since Legoland does not open until 10:00 and my kids get up at 06:00 we killed a few morning hours at the year round heated pool.

Fun at the pool

Daddy fix my goggles!

Back at Legoland

Kids play while parents wait
Legoland has at the front of each line a play area for your kids - that way they can play with Duplos while you wait in line. Keeps the boredom down. It's the best thing ever.

She's a good driver

So is he!

Back on the joust!

Watching the pirate band

Nice Doggie!

On the road again

Hi!

Caught dancing

Legoland Christmas Tree

Legoland New Years card

Sana's lap is bumpy!

I Know; let's ride the reindeer instead!

Lego Christmas ornaments

Marilyn Monroe
(For Kristin)

Albert Einstein
(For Pop-Pop)

Lego firemen try and rescue Santa on a nameless San Francisco street
(note the cable car)

Lego Alamo Square

At Roy and Donna's

My cousin Roy and his wife Donna live in Poway, and we usually stop in to see them on our Baja road trips. Donna baked a yummy ham for the occasion. The kids mostly slept through the visit.

Roy shows Michelangelo his tool truck
My cousin Roy owns a Matco franchise in the San Diego Area. His store is a big truck that he drives around to the various shops. Michelangelo loves it because isn't a giant truck full of tools every male's dream?

Michelangelo dances a jig at Legoland

Michelangelo dances a jig

There is this music fountain at Legoland where a sensor detects motion and causes the tune to play and water to spurt. Michelangelo loved it.