While Kim worked on her grant deadlines this afternoon, Skylar and I made a return visit to Legoland expressly to ride the roller coasters. The lines were shorter than yesterday, but still long enough that we barely got all three in during our two-hour stay. The rides themselves were fun. I especially like the Technic "wild mouse" coaster. But hanging out with the Bean was the real treat. She's such a wonderful travel companion these days. The two of us went to Legoland last June so Kim could have some alone time. She was already a blast back then. But now she's so much easier to be with. She gets over disappointments with far less fuss than before. She has a lot more stamina for walking -- and sometimes running -- around. And the fact that she wants to read everything she sees makes the time pass faster than before.

We had some great conversations today. By the time we were waiting for our third and final coaster, the mellow Coastasaurus, we were having an intense exchange about horror movies, in which we covered everything from the concept of genre to the thin line between monster and madman. I told her I prefer abstract horror, explaining the Big Wheel scenes in The Shining. She confessed to still wanting to wear the mask from Scream for a Halloween costume. We debated whether Dracula should be classified as a creature feature or not. And, needless to stay, we spent considerable time pondering The Never-Ending Story and its Creature of Darkness, which has been the receptacle for all her fears since she first saw the film at age three.

Later, as we drove to pick up Kim in New Silver, I reframed our earlier discussion in psychoanalytic terms, holding up the current issue of Newsweek, which has Sigmund Freud on the cover. I explained the relationship between the "I" and the "it" that animates his theory, noting that the translation of Freud's German terms into Latin -- "ego" and "id" -- in the English-speaking world has gone a long way towards undermining the clarity of his concepts. Skylar said she understood. "So, dad, the 'I' is an archist and the 'it' is an anarchist, right?" I told her that was a great way of thinking about the terms. As we were driving up to the market in Cardif by the Sea, she was formulating her own theory of the psyche. "The trick is to get the 'I' and the 'it' to work together for goals they share. Like when my friend comes over to help me complete a picture. We get more done working together than we could working apart." To quote Kim, "I love my kid."

Tags: everyday, family, travel
Mode: sun-and-sea-blissed
Muse: Camera Obscura at Starbucks in Cardiff by the Sea