My Aching Feet

[liralen]

Two days' of theme parks was just a bit much for my feet and hips, though, honestly, my legs feel better today than they did at the end of yesterday. We did Legoland yesterday and Sea World today, and wow did my feet, legs, and hips hurt after yesterday. I think it was the lines for the rides that did more damage than all the walking we did today.

Amazingly enough my step counts for the two days were just about even, but I think we did a lot less line standing today and sat for some of the shows. Jet was far more tired after today than he was yesterday, but then that might have been expected. I mean.. hey, Legos versus sea life for a little boy? *grin*



Legoland was great for Jet. It's nearly all small kid rides with all the things that Legos can build and then some. His plan was, "I wanna see all the things they built and then go to the store and buy lots of stuff."

We actually saw a LOT of things they'd built. Washington DC, New York, The DayTona Raceway (Jet and I raced funny cars and hot rods), San Francisco, and lots of other places, but the newest crowning glory of the moment was a model of the Las Vegas Strip. Hee. Luxor pryamid, a mini of the minature New York (sitting within view of the other New York), and all the other gaudy hotels. There was a running stream of newly weds out of the Wedding Chapel, and bikini clad beauties of blocks by the pool. The pirates were firing on the other ship in the Pirate Lagoon, and there was a bubbling volcano in the midst of it as well. It was pretty impressive.

It was a bit like seeing Mt Rushmore by a pond or the Taj Mahal by a creek... there were little gems like the Thinker tucked away in an Art plaza, and the usual dragons and other things they had in series of toy sets. The Pirate Cove had a HUGE water park that would have worked better on a colder day, but they had a nice litlte pirate ride where Jet got sprinkled a little and he was very happy to return fire with a small water sprinkler at all the other folks on the ride.

We did the peddle around the hlil ride, the Dragon rollercoaster and various other rides. Jet got to do the knights on horses ride by himself and the Volvo Driving school ride by himself. He was very, very proud of his drivers' license he got from that ride, so much so that he had his grampa print him a picture he could use on it. He did really well, driving his little Lego-like car on the miniature streets, stopping at stop lights and stop signs, looking both ways before going and staying on the right side of the road. It was amazing to see 40-odd kids all driving quite nicely and doing a pretty good job of not bumping each other.

The best was near the last, where kids could check out a set of wheels and build cars to race each other down inclined plane tracks. It was great fun and we met up with silkiemom and her family there for real and the kids all raced each other and had a great time. After having complained about his legs a bit up to that point, Jet was running, bouncing and jumping with the best of them. He did five different designs and got better and better with each one until they called to have all the kids check in their tires...

And that was closing time.

Sea World was a bit less of a hit as Jet really didn't want to go to many shows, but he did like the Sea Lion show. He liked the shark exhibit, with the tunnel thorugh the tank. He liked the churros, the cotton candy, and the smoothie we ended up giving him. He wasn't that much into Shamu. He did really want to do the Atlantis ride. He told me that it would just be a few sprinkles while we were standing in line, so I was convinced to sit in the front of the car with him. We got soaked. The big drop at the front of the ride is actually near the beginning of the ride, not at the end, and it surprised all of us. The bucket of water stops pouring before you go under it, but when we went down the slope we hit the bottom and the bow wave just soake us completely. There was a cool elevator, then, up a bit, and then we did the second down, which started all twisty but ended by dropping us again and we got soaked again. I suspect that it was either the boat or how we were loaded into it, but Jet walked like a dropping scarecrow to Kathy.

Luckily, John had packed a pair of dry pants for Jet and a jacket, so Jet came out of the bathroom in dry clothing. I just got to dry off on my own, and, as Kathy predicted, I never quite got dry until I'd gotten hom and taken a shower.

By the time we got to the rays around 4, Jet was tired and hurting in his feet and legs enough that it was just time to go home. But the pool of rays was just amazing... I wish, a bit, that we could have stayed and seen more of it.

So my legs and feet and hips are worn out, but it was worth doing. We'll have a quiet couple of days next, and then the drive home. Whew.