...oh wait, I have.
For my nephew's birthday he and his parents (plus or minus a few friends) go to LEGOLAND California and spend the day there, ending it with the summer fireworks.
I had the pleasure of joining them.
The first thing we did was head to the new waterpark addition, where I donned my swimming attire and did a bit of swimming. And by swimming, I mean being knee-deep in water for a while. That included floating around the "Lazy River" and going down a waterslide.
The most interesting part of that escapade, I would say, was the Duplo-block-water-table-things. Essentially, a fountain with trays where you could attach blocks to. Apparently, building dams was a very popular thing. It was certainly fun to see more than half the water going into the table overflowing and pouring out the sides rather than heading down the table.
After that we went to the Mindstorms building, where I completed some easy tasks while battling a dying battery. That was not interesting.
Across the way, though, the "Build and Test" building was quite a show.
Essentially, you build a car, place it in a starting position behind a gate (similar to Pine Wood Derby, maybe) and wait until the gate drops. The Differences are: Legos instead of wood, no separated tracks, and no rules (besides using an actual car, not touching it to start, and not touching anyone elses' car).
To spare you the boring details and build logs (which never existed), I ended up with the most diabolical of race-winning devices.
Essentially, it was a large cross, wider than it was taller, like this: -+-
At the bottom point was a hinge, which sat in the starting bay and was held down by me. At the tip sat my car. The cross was supported by the starting gate, holding it at a 20 degree angle.
So there was my car, 3 inches above the track and 10 inches ahead of everyone and in front of a wide bar that spanned the entire width of the track. Can you see where this is going?
I don't have any video, unfortunately, but it's not very different than saying, my car was launched ahead of everyone elses' while everyone else was stopped by the bar.
It was a big hit for most of the older people (like, teenagers (like me) and parents (specifically one dad)), but not so much for the younger kids. One even looked at me like he was going to hurt me because I had made him lose. Seriously.
- - - - - - - - - -
Since I'm pressed for time, I'll outline the more interesting parts:
- look for pictures of everything, maybe, later.
- we won the fireman thing because we were awesome and so was our effort
- fireworks are distracting, especially at the end and if that the only part you get to say
- short, young, kids are easy to bump into
And of course, my APEC estimate: ~40 pages (80 sides) left, so, 10 pages (20 sides) per day and I'll make it. Woo.
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