Winter vacation 2013: Legoland

3 years ago, when we visited California, it rained out during our stay, and we didn't manage to go to Legoland California proper, though we managed to visit the SEA LIFE Aquarium instead. So Legoland California has been on the wish list for a while, and it was top of the list in our visit to the USA during the winter break of 2013.

As it was just before Christmas, even Legoland was all ready for winter and to celebrate Christmas, with an event area dedicated to the snowy season, even though there wasn't any snow in Southern California.

But even without snow, we still managed to enjoy a tube ride down a snowy slope, created specially for the winter season. It was a mighty short ride compared to the one we took at Furano Prince Hotel when we went skiing at Hokkaido in 2011.

Here's the budding driver, learning to drive in a blue car at the Junior Driving School.

At Miniland USA, we saw Lego replicas of famous places in the USA, such as this one of Treasure Island at Las Vegas.

There's even a replica of Washington DC. All decked out for Christmas. Brings back memories of our visit 6 years ago to Washington DC.

And at Legoland California's Miniland, there is a section dedicated to Star Wars. Lego blocks were used to reproduce famous scenes from the Star Wars movies, from Episode 1 to 6. The pathway leading to these scenes were lined with Lego replicas of famous Star Wars characters like Luke Skywalker, Darth Vader and R2D2.

Here's the red and green dragons. Wonder which is more scary?

And there are many many rides at Legoland, most of which are kids-friendly. I think we managed to take all the coaster rides (these aren't my thing, so I stayed on the ground taking photos).

We ended the day having a cup of coffee at the lobby of the newly opened Legoland Hotel. Guess who was there beside the giant Lego Christmas tree?