Lego Land Discovery Center, Grapevine Texas

Lego Land Discovery Center, Grapevine Texas

For Ticket Prices Click Here

How we met...

My kids really really enjoy Legos. We were gearing up to visit the Lego Land in San Diego and found Legoland Discovery Center. It's actually inside the Grapevine Mills Mall, amazingly enough, in Grapevine Texas

So what is LegoLand Discovery Center?

You walk in, there's a Disney style presentation about Lego making, kids jump up and down to make the lego machine run, and they walk out that door with a souvenir Duplo type Lego brick.

Then you go on a Disney style ride, Kingdom Quest, where you shoot bad guys and spiders with lasers guns as you pass through trying to save the queen. All that is the entrance.

Once inside you have choices.

• 4D movie theater playing three 15 minute lego-movies back to back continuously. 
• Two rides (other than the one at the start) 
• Merlin's Apprentice: is a round and round that goes up as you peddle faster on bikes. 
• Forest Ranger Pursuit. is a mini car track. The kids actually drive the cars too, it's not stuck on a rail, they can crash into each other, not recommended by Lego Land, and drive with steering wheels and all. My kids really enjoy that one. 
• There is a playground in the center, very cool playground, large, my kids spend a lot of time running circles in here, and there are rubber Lego bricks that are the size of shoe boxes and they build small houses out of them inside the playground. It's pretty cool. 
• Two lego building stations. 
• There is another building station for young kids (1-3) with over sized bricks.
• A girly area where you can be a princess and sing Karaoke. 
• Miniland: entire cities built out of lego, and a whole other section with Star Wars, including a replica of Tatooine. 
• Lego Racers: This is my kids favorite part, and what they spend a good third of their time on. They build lego cars are race them against other kids down a timed racetrack. That's cool!
• There are several other things, check out their website for full details. 

My Review

I like:

The place is fun for kids. It's primarily built for kids older than 3 but under 10. My kids beg to go over and over. Lego movies are fun to watch in 4D. If you have a child that really enjoys Lego, or a Lego Fanatic like mine, they will have a great time! I'm all for making this a part of my annual pass portfolio.

My kids want me to make sure to tell you to give your kid time to build racers, drive the cars, and play in the playground where they can build life sized houses out of shoe box sized rubber Lego bricks.


I don't like: 

The whole thing is NOT very big in fact I can't see spending more than 2-3 hours there tops, and that's having done everything more than once. However, I could easily spend a few hours there every other Monday or so, it's better than McDonald's or the Park. I don't know how they justify charging that much for adult admission as there is nothing for adults to do but stand around (or sit around) and watch kids do things.

I don't like the price for a one trip. The Karaoke machine is way too loud, in fact bring ear plugs for adults the whole place is loud. The food is theme park quality at best and over priced. If they'd lower the price I'd eat there but I don't spend money there because it's not worth it, I can wait and go eat better food for less just a hundred yards away in the mall.

My Tips:

• Annual Pass is a better deal than one time pass if you plan to go thrice or more this year. 
• It cost two adults and two kids (4 tickets) $50-72. But the family of four annual pass is only $150. That's three trips. If you are likely to go three times or more get the annual pass. We probably go about 12-15 times a year. 
• Buy Tickets/Annual Passes online. before you go, much better deal. 
• TAKE SOCKS for the kids feet. They need socks to go into the playground, which they WILL want to do, and the ones you buy there are too small but for the smallest feet. 
• Adults BYOD (Bring Your Own Distraction): Take a book, laptop, tablet, or a friend to talk to, something to do, Legoland Discovery Center was NOT built for adults in any way. The best you can hope for is to distract yourself while your kids have fun. You may get into it the first time you go, but from the second time forward you need something to do while your kids play. 
• Fun Distraction: It's a good place to take the kids when it's too hot or too cold outside, which it almost always is in Texas. 

Photos:

Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.

Texas Living Info by Darrell G. Wolfe

Blog:

• http://texaslivinginfo.blogspot.com/

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Whiskey Cake Kitchen & Bar

As we walk past the covered patios and see the fire from the kitchen within behind glass behind the bar; Whiskey Cake is already promising to be a unique dining experience. We then walk in the double set of double doors into the restaurant and are greeted by warm and friendly hosts. The first thing I noticed was the firewood which doubled as fuel for the kitchen and decoration as well.

As we are walking through to our table we pass rocking chairs and other unique seating arrangements. We are seated at a booth with industrial lightening made from pipes and wires. Everything about this restaurant is first class yet home-grown. It's a true farm to garden experience. They even recycle as much as possible. The napkin rolls are held together by large plumbing fittings. The coasters are cut up squares from cardboard boxes and stamped with the logo. There is this feeling that current (fresh, organic, all natural, clean, west coast style) meets farm fresh (down home, comfortable, easy-going, raw, rustic, old west).

As we are seated we are handed menus. Not just any menus either. They are one page. No flipping for pages and pages to find 100's of items. All the drinks, apps, food, salad, burgers... one page. It is located on an equally sized cardboard cut out for to add firmness and clipped together with office clips.

They create their food from scratch made from all fresh/never frozen ingredients. All the vegetables are from right here in texas and even the herbs used for seasoning are grown right on property in their greenhouse. They fly in fresh meats from around the world as well. I had an amazing piece of Scottish Salmon!

We started our meal with a special treat of Friend Egg Plant and dipping sauce. I then turned to my Live Wood Grilled Salmon. It was served over wilted spinach, shiitake mushrooms, and cherry tomatoes. This was all mixed with a shallot vinaigrette. My friend had the Mesquite Grilled Redfish. Both were fresh and perfectly prepared. Topping that meal off was our Whiskey Cake; served warm. It was crispy on the outside and soft in the middle served over a creamy sugary sauce.

It was a an organic farm fresh food and home-style experience. But it was also high quality food and thoughtfully created. One can tell from the presentations and preparations that there is a first class chef behind it all.

Well done Whiskey Cake! DW

Photos:

Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.

*Special thanks to my friend Brent Wickham for finding and taking me to this very cool place! 

* I didn't have my camera so I'll be borrowing pictures from their own Facebook page to help with the descriptions.

Please comment below if you have anything to add, say, or correct.

Texas Living Info by Darrell G. Wolfe

Blog:

• http://texaslivinginfo.blogspot.com/

Connect:

      

Disqus:

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Monster Yogurt

http://www.scarytastesgood.com/

Fro Yo! 

Well there is a new place you can add to your list of must visits in Dallas Texas. What an amazing concept. Not only is this great, high quality frozen yogurt, but it has so many toppings to choose from. There are containers on three walls with options, options, options. Then at the register you have your traditional fruits, and brownies, and cookie dough, etc. If there were nothing more than this, which is true for most other frozen yogurt places, it would still be worth a visit to this place. But that is where Monster Yogurt takes their restaurant concept to a whole new level.

It's always nice to find a new great place to take the kids. Monster Yogurt provided an excellent experience. You walk in to a well decorated, bright, cheery little Yogurt shop. There is a wonderful playground to one side in it's own room, cut's down the noise, with it's own seating area built just for the little ones. Just outside of the playground, on the other side of the glass is the adults seating area. This is the perfect place to stop off for a quick treat at any time of day, or grab your book, kindle, or laptop and enjoy their free WiFi.

Whereas so many of these yogurt places have hard plastic like seats that invite you to leave as soon as your are done, this place has comfortable chairs to sit in, with a more coffee shop like feel. Free WiFi. An assortment of non-traditional cold drinks, like Jones Soda! They even have a drip coffee bar for FREE just to help you enjoy your experience further, warm coffee with your cold yogurt? Yummm.... The free coffee is part of their grass-roots effort to help local charities. Any donation you can provide will be sent to the featured charity for that month. "Give and ye shall receive" is being lived out in this little shop.

To all of this they add something that sent me over the top. My wife and I are always discussing restaurant concepts as we are wanting to open one someday. We were just saying recently how we'd love to see more with playgrounds, even yogurt places.

Well Monster Yogurt did it! They have a playground and you can bring the kids in and let them play.

The President, Ava Skipworth, calls it a coffee shop for parents. Next time you are going to meet with someone to talk, but need to bring the kids along, just meet at Monster Yogurt! It's in Dallas, TX on 9540 Garland Road. As someone who is keenly interested in successful business ventures, I am very happy to see that this theme is so well thought out, from decor and concept to execution. Having been open just less than one year, they have already hit the top of the charts as one of the best places to visit when you are in Dallas.

My family heads in to Dallas often for the Museum, Zoo, and now the Arboretum. This place is just a quick drive over from there. Spend the day having fun, then jump over to Monster Yogurt for a great time and fun treat before heading to the car for the hour drive back home.

My kids gave this place a major thumbs up too! This place will be a must visit on many of our upcoming trips. I strongly suggest you make it part of yours as well! DW

Life In Fort Worth By Darrell Wolfe

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Darrell's Curry Peanut Creation

I have learned that Curry is a random name for a bunch of different stuff thrown together to make a tasty sauce. For a brief description see Wikipedia:

Curry ( /ˈkʌri/) is a generic description used throughout Western culture to describe a variety of dishes from Indian, Pakistani, Bangladeshi, Sri Lankan, Thai or other Southeast Asian cuisines. The chief spices found in most South Asian curry powders are turmeric, coriander, and cumin; a wide range of additional spices may be included depending on the geographic region and the foods being included (white/red meat, fish, lentils, rice and vegetables).^[1]

Curry's popularity in recent decades has spread outward from Southern Asia to figure prominently in international cooking. Consequently, each culture has adopted spices in its indigenous cooking to suit its own unique tastes and cultural sensibilities. Curry can therefore be called a pan-Asian or global phenomenon with immense popularity in Thai, British, Japanese and Caribbean cuisines.

I prefer above all else Thai Curry's. Specifically Red Curry with bamboo shoots. However, I have yet to get the process for making a good Thai curry anywhere close to the restaurants so I don't even try these days. I just go to a Thai restaurant.

Locally, if you live in the DFW area, a very decent set of Thai Curry dishes is produced by: Sea Siam in Keller Texasa

My favorite Curry Recipe to throw together is a thicker peanut style.

This one has rice, black beans, red kidney beans, ground turkey, and sauce. Simple

Ingredients:

• Favorite Meat (Ground Beef, Ground Turkey, Cubed Chicken Breasts, and/or other meats)
• Favorite Veggies (Whatever you have around the house. My favorite are things like Corn, Celery, Bell Peppers, Carrots... whatever you want, sometimes less if more)
• Favorite Starches/Beans (Rice cooked slightly al dente', Red Kidney Beans, Black Beans, Whatever you want.

For the Sauce:

• Butter
• 1/2 Onion
• Ketchup
• Peanut Butter
• Milk
• Turmeric
• Cinnamon
• Basil
• Lime (lime juice)(Lemon works too if you don't have lime)
• Salt/Pepper

Also Optional are:

• Pumpkin Spice Seasoning
• Cumin
• Heat (by adding Cajun Seasoning, or Chili Powder, or Crushed red pepper, or other hot pepper spice or hot sauce use sparingly and to taste.)

Instructions:

To Cook the Curry Sauce Itself:

• Melt 2-3 Tablespoons of butter
• Saute' in the butter some chopped onions (More or less than a 1/2 an onion your choice I like onions!)
• Optional affects the taste profile. (Depending on how I feel that day I may also add some fresh chopped garlic cloves with the onions)

Once saute'd for a few moments add:

• Good squeeze of Ketchup (which is really just sugar and tomato paste)(Less than a quarter cup)
• Two-Four heaping spoons of Peanut Butter (Crunchy works best)
• 1/2 to 1 cup of Milk (I prefer vanilla soy milk, it adds a sweetness to the sauce)
• 3 or 4  heavy dashes of Turmeric
• 4-5 heavy dashes of Cinnamon (Substitute Cinnamon with Pumpkin Spice Seasoning for more complexity)
• 1-2 Dashes of Basil
• Squeeze of concentrated lime juice or half a lime.
• Little bit of salt and pepper

Also Optional:

• 2-3 dashes of Cumin (optional but adds to complexity)
• Heat ( Cajun Spice Seasoning)(Or favorite hot pepper spice)
• Pumpkin Spice Seasoning

Pumpkin Spice Seasoning has

• 1 Tbsp. cinnamon
• 1-1/2 tsp. ground ginger
• 1/2 tsp. ground cloves
• 1/2 tsp. ground nutmeg
• 1/8 tsp. salt

If you don't have pumpkin spice seasoning just add some Cinnamon and Turmeric... all other spices just add to the complexity and make it better but are not essential for the mix. 

The sauce should be the consistency of a runny, maybe even chunky, pancake batter. Don't cook or simmer too long or the peanut butter will separate into it's natural oils and ruin the whole batch.

If choosing to serve all combined in a bowl it will more thick not like a soup. Still tasty!

Once ingredients heat to a good steam and bubble remove from heat immediately. 

After getting the sauce ready you can add the sauce on top of Rice, Beans (Black, Red Kidney, and/or Pinto) and Ground Turky or Beef browned, and or Chicken cubed and saute'd. Also feel free to cook your favorite veggies I like Bell Peppers, Carrots, Corn removed from Cobb, Celery, Etc... More or less is all up to you. Try different combinations, or deal with what you have. This is really a toss together meal.

You could also add all these to the curry itself for a more soup like presentation, great with a good Dr. Pepper and garlic toast and a good movie, like Iron Man or Stargate SG1! 

Darrell G. Wolfe

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Twisted Root Burger Co

Twisted Root Burger Co

The Twisted Root is among my all time favorite burger joints in all of Texas.

When you are in the mood for fast food nothing fits the bill like an Inn and Out, Carl's Jr, Whataburger, etc... but when you want to hang out for a little while; this rustic twisted restaurant fits the bill, even if it costs just a little bit more. The burgers are in the neighborhood of $9 a piece, sides and drinks sold separately. If two adults and two kids go all out you could easily spend $30 or more. If you share a drink and don't get sides you can get out for much less, but I call this place the place to indulge so break out a few extra dollars and enjoy.

Why is it twisted? The restaurant starts with a rustic barn bar type feel. The decor is made up of rusted aluminium siding, wood benches, random tables, and beer containers as condiment holders. Why have napkins when you can have a roll of paper towels at each table?

Twisted Flavors: They have a root beer flavor that changes frequently, sometimes within one visit it could change if a keg runs dry. My favorite so far was watermelon root beer. However other flavors of root beer have been: cotton candy, raspberry, more. They also carry twisted condiments, such as ancho-chipotle-ketchup.

My favorite burger when I go? Green Chile, Guac & Pepperjack Burger 7.99. This is a mouth watering burger with just enough spice to nice but not overwhelming. It's topped with guacamole and friend onions. Mmmmmm........

Their solution to graffiti? Graffiti their own walls first! Black-chalkboard type paint around certain areas, like the bathroom, where odd sayings and thoughts are written for all to enjoy. My home location is in Roanoke, TX however there are many locations around DFW now and more on the way it would seem.

This place is so good that it even made it on to the food networks Diners Drive In's and Dives. I suggest you check out that review and then go yourself if you are near a location... it's worth the drive... really!

Check Out You Tube:

Life In Fort Worth By Darrell Wolfe

• New to the blog? Start HERE

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What is YOUR favorite thing about Texas? Comment Below!

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Voting

For help knowing what county you are in: http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/maps/texas_map.html

Election and Voting Information

Who Represents You? http://www.fyi.legis.state.tx.us/

Tarrant County: http://tarrantcounty.com/evote/site/default.asp

Wise County: http://www.co.wise.tx.us/

Denton County: http://elections.dentoncounty.com/go.asp?Dept=82

Parker County: http://co.parker.tx.us/ips/cms

Proverbs 14:34 Righteousness exalts a nation

Important Links:

http://texaseagle.org/

http://www.heritagealliance.com/

Local Christian Political Movers and Shakers:

http://richardclough.com/node/145

http://www.jackernest.com/

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Moving with Kids

Remember the Kids

Moving can be a time of uncertainty and excitement for anyone. However for many children the uncertainty can throw them off balance. I remember that each time we have moved, within a city or to another state, my children needed some reassurance. For the young mind home is home. They don't understand how we could leave one home to go to another because that is THEIR home! Even when we left a small two bedroom apartment to a larger four bedroom house with a backyard, my oldest would ask why we couldn't visit our old house.

When we left California to come to Texas we decided for budget reasons to take the Amtrak. My loving wife made it quite the adventure for them.They loved Thomas the Train and now they would go on a train. We brought toys and video players. We watched the country go by out of the observatory windows.

Once we arrived, the very first thing we did when settling in was to get their rooms in order. Once they had a settled room they were more settled and we could focus on the rest of the apartment.

Take time to understand that kids cannot always see the big picture and just need a sense of normalcy in their life. Help them settle in to the idea, prepare them ahead of time, make it a grand adventure. See below for tips that helped us:

Links to tips for Moving with Kids

• 10 Tips for relocating with kids. 
• Information from Leslie Levine Communications:
• Eagle Mountain International Church  Relocation Guide had the following to say:

CHILDREN AND RELOCATION
Moving can be a tumultuous time for all involved, but
especially so for children. Your kids will look to you for clues
on how to deal with their emotions and settle in to your new
home. You can help your child adjust more easily by
incorporating a few of the following suggestions into your
family’s routine:
• Encourage your children to openly discuss their feelings about the move,
their new home, new school or anything else that concerns them.
• Listen to their fears and reassure them that you understand their feelings.
• Be honest with your own feelings about the move, but try to keep a positive
attitude. Your kids will sense your inner feelings about this lifestyle
change.
• Subscribe to a magazine of your child’s choice. Receiving mail addressed
in his name will help him feel at home in unfamiliar surroundings.
• Take your child’s artwork from your old refrigerator and place it
prominently on the new one. This act of love will give him a sense of
consistency and normalcy.
This information was obtained from Will This Place Ever Feel Like Home? By Leslie Levine, published by Real Estate Education Company, 1998.

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