Where the Legos Fart

Our final stop of the day was the Legoland Discovery Center out in Schaumburg. Woodfield Mall was, as it always is, a zoo. We parked in the far corner of the lot and walked inside only to take our place in line behind a few other families. While waiting to pay to get in, we were serenaded by a Lego figure near the entrance that farted. The joint is all class. At least there was the gigantic Albert Einstein head before us.



The first room we entered had an incredibly neat replica of downtown Chicago. Here's the north end of Michigan Avenue with the old Water Tower and the John Hancock building:



Next up is the Wrigley Building:



And Navy Pier:



The Lego Sears Tower* was about 8' tall and the lights dimmed and got brighter to mimic the passage of time. Really cool.

Down the hall, Miles got his picture taken with Barack Obama.



The D cozied up with Hagrid.



And I had a little run-in with Darth Vader.



The walls of the joint were littered with Lego replicas of paintings including this ditty by Edvard Munch which you may recognize:



One section was called Jungle Adventure. You got this trivia card thingy to mark off your answers to the questions that were inside on the walls. They related to the Lego simulacra of the animals therein such as these monkeys. (Why do they call it a urine monkey?)



There was also a life-sized figure of Indiana Jones.



The last bit with the giant spider reminded me of True Dungeon.



There is a model builders workshop is which you get a set of Legos, in our case, a snowman, and some guy shows you how to build it. His work area has a camera looking down on it and the feed is projected onto a screen. I didn't build one but instead looked at the selection of Legos from the past that were in a glass case in the same room.

Here are some Legos from the first batch back in 1949. Notice how they're completely hollow and have slits.



I had this spaceship as a kid and suddenly felt very old when I learned that it was from 1979.



We did the Dragon Ride twice. You hop in this roller coaster-like car and go through a winding tunnel laden with medieval fantasy Lego figures.

This is a freaked-out page boy.



Being a Dungeons & Dragons player, I appreciated this one where a guy is trying to hold a door that has a dragon's tail bursting through.



And here's the front side of that dragon.



When we were done wandering around, it was off to the store where Miles got his Christmas presents. Before heading home we ate dinner at the Big Bowl. While waiting for a table, we looked at a dessert menu and I lamented the absence of the chocolate/banana wontons. It would prove a sign of things to come. Now, I haven't eaten at a Big Bowl in several years (2002?) but I can tell you that the menu has been overhauled and they have totally gone to shite. The menu reads much more like that of a crappy Chinese take-out joint. Long gone are the blazing big rice noodles with beef, a favorite of mine. Indeed, there wasn't much for noodles at all (only 3 items in the Noodles section, not including Pad Thai) which is odd considering that the name of the joint comes from how they served the noodle dishes. Mine came on a plate. At least the ginger ale was still on the menu.

Next time I'll drive into Arlington Heights as there's gotta be some good Japanese food to be had there.

We got home safely despite the icy bridges south of Janesville which scared the living crap out of me. Miles stayed up till the wee hours assembling Legos and fending off the cat who was, no doubt, keen on playing with some of those pieces. We are hoping that master Lego builders make a ton of cash as this seems to be the direction he's pointed in for a career.

*Yeah, I know it's the Wills or Willis Tower or whatever it's called these days but it's still the Sears Tower to me. Marshall Fields is dead. Long live Marshall Fields!