I was doing a good job keeping track of what day we were on for awhile there, but now we’re definitely at the point where the days are blurring together and I have no idea how long we’ve been on the road: just that it feels like it’s been forever!

So Disney was definitely our main California attraction, but it wasn’t the only thing we came here to see. I was actually probably the most excited about the beaches, and they certainly delivered!

The first beach we visited was in Ventura. It’s about a two hour drive from where we were staying with friends (actually a fellow Ben’s editor and his family!). We were there on a Friday, and the beach was surprisingly not crowded at all! We had the best time playing in the water and watching people surf.

Our second beach day was spent in Oceanside. We ended up there because it was close to LEGOLAND and we got a nice Priceline Express deal on a hotel there. I am so glad we stumbled upon it! Such a beautiful beach and adorable little town. I’ve been waiting and hoping to see a beach sunset on this trip and boy did I get one in Oceanside! It was a night I won’t soon forget.

I also got to check another item off my list of must-do California experiences in Oceanside: fish tacos on the beach!

There’s just nothing like being at the ocean. We’re leaving with a van full of sand, and lots of happy memories.

While the beaches were kind of my thing, LEGOLAND was the part of California my 5 year old was most excited about. It was no Disneyland, but it was actually a lot of fun. Definitely geared toward younger kids, which actually worked out well for our family.

If you ever decide to visit LEGOLAND, you can basically always find a couple that gets you a free kids’ ticket with each adult ticket you buy. Just google “BOGO Legoland tickets” and you’ll find a code you can redeem at their discount website. Weirdly, you had to do a separate transaction for each free ticket though; so if you have two kids, you have to buy one adult/kid pair with the coupon, then start over and buy the second adult/kid pair with the same coupon.

Like Disneyland, you can pay extra once you get inside the park to do their version of the FastPass thing (allows you to skip to the front of the line for some rides), but we didn’t bother. The lines are much shorter than Disney and it didn’t seem necessary or worth it. Also like Disneyland, you can bring in snacks and drinks, which I definitely recommend doing!

The kids had a lot of fun on the rides, but I thought the coolest part was the Miniland area. Just tons and tons of awesomely huge and intricate LEGO versions of well-known cities, buildings and landmarks to marvel at.

They also had an entire area dedicated to Star Wars LEGO builds! So you know we spent a lot of time there!

My son really wanted to stay at the attached LEGOLAND hotel, but it was super expensive. We made a deal and told him he could pick out any LEGO set he wanted from the massive lego shop for under $50 and we’d stay somewhere cheaper. He was completely happy with that arrangement, and we definitely still came out ahead money wise. Win/win!

If you ever go, I thought the best rides were LEGO Ninjago: The Ride, The Dragon (a fun kid-friendly dragon rollercoaster), and the Royal Joust Ride. Actually, all of the Castle Hill area was pretty great.

I’m really sad to say goodbye to Cali. We’re already scheming ways to make a kid-free long weekend happen someday—maybe when Star Wars Land opens in a couple years!

For now it’s onto Arizona and the Grand Canyon. Stay tuned!

Ben’s on the Road: California Love

Well, we haven’t turned the car around and driven home yet (despite threatening it a few times), so I’m calling this trip a major win so far!

The last couple days have been spent time in Capitol Reef National Park in Utah, and Las Vegas. One was beautifully remote, the other was basically the opposite, but both were a lot of fun.

I have never been to Utah before, and the drive into the area we were staying was one of the most interesting 5-6 hours of my life. It seemed like with every turn the scenery completely changed. By the time we got into the national park, it was so cool I was definitely definitely doing that “KIDS LOOK OUT THE WINDOW HOW DO YOU NOT THINK THIS IS AS AMAZING AS I DO” thing that my own parents used to do on vacation. I get it now, Mom. It’s really awesome!

We were lucky enough to get to stay at a friends’ beautiful family cabin about 15 minutes from the national park. We spent a day hiking with the kids, and it went really well. A lot of the hikes were pretty short, and while they took you up to some amazing views, they were totally doable with young children. The great thing about national parks is that they make it super easy to explore an area (safely!). All the foot paths are marked and you can just park your car right at the beginning and take off.

If you ever find yourself in at Capitol Reef, there’s a really cute place within the park called Gifford Homestead that has ice cream for $1 (seriously, what can you buy for $1 these days?). The pie was awesome too!

After Utah, we hit the road again. The drive from Utah to Las Vegas was another beautiful one, but the first half of it put a major kink in my working from the road plan. I had no idea there was so much remote “dead” space in the area!At one point, we literally had to stop and wait for a cow to cross the road, so yeah, I had no service at all on either of my devices. If/when we do a trip like this again, I’ll have to be better about looking ahead to see how much “stuff” is around the routes we’re taking, and plan on being without WiFi when it looks remote.

Once we got back on the interstate, it was a pretty fast drive to Las Vegas. I’ve been to Vegas a few times, pre-kids, and distinctly remember saying “this would be the last place I’d ever want to bring my kids!” Well, I still don’t think I’d ever choose to do a full Vegas vacation with the kids, but 20 hours there was about perfect. We actually had a lot more fun than I thought we would.

The nice thing about Vegas is it’s ridiculously cheap to stay there. Makes sense if you think about it–the hotels want you to gamble in their casinos! We ended up going real cheap and staying at the Flamingo. It was like $35 for a room and it’s right on the strip, next to all the nicer casinos like Caesar’s Palace, Bellagio, etc. One thing to note, is that the pools in Vegas all close at 5PM (except for Planet Hollywood, which is apparently open until 8). So we checked in around 4:30, got our swimsuits on and headed down to the pool with two very excited kids, annnnd, it was closing. We got to use it in the morning, but still would have been nice to know!

We originally thought we’d do a buffet for dinner, but the thought of spending $75 to sit down and keep our antsy kids from kicking each other under the table for an hour or two didn’t sound so appealing. So we ended up just walking around the strip and getting food to share as we walked. We got some amazing fish and chips at Gordon Ramsey’s super creatively named Gordon Ramsey Fish & Chips ($15, and the portion was huge!), steamed pork buns at Momofuku (a place we’ve been wanting to check out forever after reading the cookbook), cookies and ice cream at Milk Bar (the cereal milk soft serve was ridiculously good), and of course a cheeseburger at In & Out.

If you’ve ever been to Vegas you know there are a million places to stop and get a drink, too, but it’s just as easy (and a lot cheaper) to pop into one of the many convenience stores located inside the casinos or along the strip, and buy single beers. They have good craft beer in the fridges and it was only like $3-$4 (vs about double or more if you buy one from a bar). The bottle of Gatorade we bought for the kids to split was actually more expensive than the beer!

We didn’t go to any shows or anything, but the fountain at Bellagio, the M&Ms Store, the mini Eiffel Tower, and just wandering around the fancy casinos, provided more than enough entertainment for the night.

While I’m not organized enough to be keeping track of exactly how much money we’ve spent on this trip so far, I’m feeling really good about where we’re at. Turns out you really don’t have to spend a ton of money to have an amazing vacation. Lots of memories being made. And we’re not even halfway done!

Tonight we finally get into California, another state I’ve never been to. I can’t wait to see what adventures await us on the West Coast!

PS. This is my time not bringing any camera, other than my iPhone, on a trip. With so much stuff to drag around, I just didn’t want to add my heavy DSLR to the mix. So far I don’t regret the decision at all!

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Ben’s on the Road: Days 4 & 5