Thanksgiving in Carlsbad

Thursday, November 26-Sunday, November 30

I met up with J & C in Carlsbad at the Legoland Castle Hotel for a non-traditional Thanksgiving. We all traveled on Thursday (only 55 people on my flight!) and flew into San Diego. Since I arrived first, I picked up a rental car and then checked into the hotel to get settled. They were able to switch to an earlier flight once they arrived in PHX, so I had just enough time to find a local grocery store to pick up some snacks and drinks to keep in the room before they got to the hotel via Uber. We just hung out in the room and chatted [a lot] on Thursday before turning in around 9pm, since they were still on CST time. 

Our room was on the 3rd floor and decorated in a wizard theme, which included a big Lego cat and a Lego owl trio.

One of the kid's activities was a scavenger hunt that produced a code to open the "treasure chest" in the room (under the Lego cat). J and C took care of solving that on Friday morning while I was working out in the room. They discovered several small Lego sets in the treasure chest, which C worked on during breakfast in the heated tent, where I met up with them a bit later. I then headed off to a nearby Starbucks to bring back [more] breakfast and coffee, which became a daily ritual.

Our primary activity Friday was a visit to the San Diego Zoo Safari Park in Escondido. We enjoyed strolling around all of the various habitats to see lions, tigers, birds, and other wild animals. The food options were a bit limited, but we managed to find a spot that had acceptable offerings with a cheese quesadilla kids meal, which both C and I ordered! We also got souvenir plastic cups and little tote bags with the meal. The elephants were last on our tour, and we saw them being herded from their upper level to their lower level, which was a perfect end to the visit. 

We attempted to visit the pool when we got back to the hotel but were unsuccessful because of the height limitation that requires kids under 48" to wear a life jacket. C is such an excellent swimmer that he was quite understandably annoyed by this rule, so we decided to skip any further pool visits and instead took advantage of Happy Hour and our first round of casino (card game). For dinner, we went to the Karl Strauss Brewing Company, where we continued our casino game and had an excellent dinner on the heated patio -- fish tacos, grilled salmon salad, roasted Brussels sprouts, and mac & cheese. Awesome! We ended the evening with a viewing of "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" in our hotel room.

Saturday morning followed a similar routine as Friday, and we then headed off to Torrey Pines State Natural Reserve to check out the hiking trails, thanks to the recommendation of J's friend A. The beach trail looked like the best option, and we found a parking spot right by the trailhead. The path wound through some dunes down to the beach, so we all got to get a bit wet as C saw and entered the Pacific Ocean for the first time. After strolling along the beach for a bit, we returned to the car via a different (and longer) set of trails, which were also less crowded than if we had tried returning along the beach trail. We decided to pick up some sushi to go from Ralph's for lunch and ate in the hotel room. 

Once we had relaxed a bit and cleaned up from our hiking adventure, we drove to Carlsbad Village to check out some of the local shops and find a spot for dinner. J & C bought a few souvenirs, and as we wandered around the area, we realized that we were just a few blocks away from the beach. Our timing was perfect to watch sunset over the ocean!

We ended up at The Compass restaurant for dinner, beginning again with a round of casino once we found a table with sufficient lighting. Since we were in time for Happy Hour, J ordered a few appetizers as part of our meal, which again was delicious -- shrimp taco, roasted beet salad, cheesy tater tots, and oven-baked mac & cheese. Then back to the hotel where our holiday movie choice this time around was "Miracle on 34th Street."

On Sunday morning, I decided to head out for a run. While I had my breakfast and coffee afterwards, J & C took a walk along the entry road, which is lined with Lego people and letters that spell out "welcome." J took pictures of C posing or perching on each of the figures! I managed to find a mini-golf course not too far away at the Del Mar Golf Center, so we played one round, which was only C's second time on a mini-gold course. Fun! 

When we got back to the hotel, we dropped off some stuff in the room and then headed into Legoland for the winter holiday activities. The theme park overall is not open at the moment, but they have ticketed entry on certain days for some winter fun, including a Lego reindeer scavenger hunt that helps lead you through the park to certain areas to find each of the nine reindeer, ending with a prize at the station for Rudolph. Along the way, we admired the cities in Miniland, built and raced a Lego boat, tried the special Granny's Apple Fries, played in the Raven's Nest wood and net structure, and had lunch at the Urban Kitchen (freshly-prepared allium-free tofu and veggie stir fry over rice for me -- best theme park food ever!!!!). 

By the time we made our way back towards the entrance for some shopping at the Big Store, it was about time for me to return to the room to finish my packing and head to the airport for my early evening flight. The hotel was nearly empty by this point, as most people had already checked out and finish up their stay. A bit eerie...! J & C stayed one more night and had an early morning flight on Monday back to Texas.

What an awesome trip!!! I think both J and I were actually quite glad to visit Legoland at this particular [weird] time since the crowds would have been overwhelming in the "before times" when both hotels could have been filled to capacity and the park could have been welcoming a significant number of day visitors as well. 

Next up will be a week for Mr. E and me with J and family over the Christmas holiday. So glad we're still able to travel to be with family even if our other leisure travel plans have taken quite a hit this year!