"It looked really scary, but it was really cool!" proclaimed my 5-year-old daughter Brooke.

After splashing around in LEGOLAND Water Park's tamer attractions for awhile, she had summoned the courage to ride one of the larger slides. And then she was unstoppable.

The afternoon passed in a blur of twisting trips down the 240-foot long Splash Out, the side-by-side enclosed Twin Chasers, and Orange Rush, a multi-passenger raft slide. With the addition of the water park last year, and the adjacent Sea Life Aquarium, a visit to LEGOLAND is now a multi-day experience if you hope to see it all.

Our recent visit to Oceanside was tightly scheduled, so we didn't have the luxury of coming back for an encore. Frankly, I was relieved. I couldn't have matched Brooke's pace for a second day.

While we had experienced LEGOLAND before, it was our first time in Oceanside. We stayed at the Wyndham Oceanside Pier Resort, which is an ideal destination for families. For starters, it's just minutes from LEGOLAND. So when Mom, Dad and the kids are tired from a full day at the park, it's a short drive back to the room.

And, the rooms are certainly welcoming. Our clean and brightly decorated two-bedroom, two-bathroom unit was roomy enough for the six of us. It featured a full-size kitchen (with a dishwasher!) and a dining nook that provided plenty of space to sit down and enjoy our meals together.

The resort is located at the end of the pier, so it's within walking distance to downtown Oceanside, and the beach. We walked to the end of the pier for dinner at Ruby's the first night and had a front row seat for the fishing action. Anglers brought up several good size rays, the largest of which was five feet across.

While Ruby's creates the atmosphere of a classic American diner, the real thing can be found in downtown Oceanside. 101 Cafe is the oldest continuously-operating restaurant on Highway 101. Owner John Daley wasn't around when the original 20-seat diner opened in 1928, but the Oceanside native does recall walking past the restaurant on his way to school as a kindergartner.

"I like the idea that I live in a town that hasn't changed much in 60 years," Daley says.

The eatery has seen some changes, adding booths in the 1930s, and a large overhanging roof for drive-up service in the 1950s. John and his partner took over in 1988. Today, the inside features historic photos of the area and the outside boasts a colorful mural celebrating SoCal's car culture. Like any respectable diner, the cafe serves breakfast all day. For lunch I recommend the machaca chicken scrambled eggs.

Since our oldest daughter will be in fourth grade next year, we had to make one more historical stop on our trip to Oceanside - Mission San Luis Rey. Known as the "King of the Missions," it was founded in 1798 and is the largest of the 21 California missions. Today it is home to a community of Franciscan friars who operate a retreat center on the grounds and have done an excellent job of preserving the mission's history and artifacts.

History is also on display at downtown's California Surf Museum. The kids enjoyed seeing the old surf and skate boards. But something more modern grabbed their attention - a surf board with a jagged half-moon chunk missing from it. It's the board 13-year-old Bethany Hamilton was riding when she lost her arm in an attack by a tiger shark while surfing off Kauai in 2003.

The kids also stopped to view the photo mural in the center of the museum. Shot from the water, the wave seems poised to wash over the room.

"Do you think it's a tsunami?" Brooke asked.

Now that really would be scary.
Eric Harnish resides in Castaic

Splash into Oceanside
Wyndham Oceanside Pier Resort
www.wyndham.com/hotels/SNAOP/main.wnt

LEGOLAND California
california.legoland.com

Historic 101 Cafe
www.101cafe.net

California Surf Museum
www.surfmuseum.org

Mission San Luis Rey
www.sanluisrey.org