Lunch with a master

I think everyone has someone they would like to just sit down and talk with someday.  As a musician, I would love to spend an afternoon with Beethoven, or jam out with Chopin or Vivaldi.  It would be fun to visit with J.R.R. Tolkien or C.S. Lewis, then turn around and interview the Apostles Peter and Paul.

Well, I did have a similar opportunity today.

Legoland California Master Builder Gary McIntire has been in town the past couple days promoting the new Miniland Star Wars display that opens in the park this spring.




Well, Gary's kind of a big name around the Lego community, or at least here in Utah; before he landed the Dream Job, he founded the Utah Lego User Group (a club of which I am a proud member).  And so, he wanted to see the club while he was in town.  What an exciting opportunity!  Luckily a few of us were able to get together with Gary today, along with Legoland Public Relations Representative Beth and Park Security/Glorified Truck Driver Reuben. 

And we just sat down and had lunch.

Now this wasn't quite one of those sit-downs where we "picked the master's brain" and basked in his wisdom, as anyone might imagine a musician's visit with Beethoven or a fantasy writer's evening with Tolkien.  Granted, we had our questions (I finally learned that Lego Master Builders do, in fact, run out of pieces!), and it was a blast to hear about the Legoland experience from the inside.  But mostly, we all just talked about our mutual passion: the Brick.  It was as natural a conversation as it would have been with any other club member.  We talked about what we like to build, how we acquire our pieces, where we keep our collections, ideas for future builds, what we do with our creations, experiences from shows, upcoming Lego products. . . .  Stuff like that.  Naturally the subject of addiction to the drug-like collectible minifigures also came up, and our methods for finding all of them as well as adventure stories of shopping for them.  The whole time was just plain awesome.

And you know, I think that's how most visits with "the masters" would probably be: just chilling over some food and talking about stuff.