Universal's Islands of Adventure, Day 2

The morning started at 6am. Michanne and I hit the hotel gym and then everyone got cleaned up and ready for the day. Breakfast was waiting for us downstairs and we could choose between hot waffles, cereals, fresh fruit, eggs and sausage and any other kind of breakfast carb you can think of. There were three boys with their book bags eating with no visible parent in sight. The youngest got all eight of the powered donuts off the platter and sat with them and then grabbed about five oatmeal packets. Once the hotel attendant was busy he and his brothers ran off with the food. It's funny because those were huge donuts and he was a little boy. It's sad because their parent probably drops them off at different hotels during the week.

Anyway, we got the vehicles loaded and headed to the Islands park before they opened at 9am. Once we were allowed to pass through the gate everyone seemed to be making a mad dash for The Wizarding World of Harry Potter. I'm not kidding, no one was headed anywhere else. As soon as we stepped into the HP park I started taking pictures left and right.

Zonkos shop
Honeydukes shop
The Three Broomsticks
It really is a neat place. It wasn't as big as I expected but it was so much fun being there. We tried to look at everything at once as we headed to the Forbidden Journey ride which takes you through Hogwarts as you wait in line to take the journey ride.


We had to stow our stuff in lockers but hardly had any wait. We rushed through all the cool stuff to look at. The ride was awesome! Dragons, dementors, quidditch, oh, my! After the ride we walked through a gift shop and found a wand kiosk. Mom was hooked and bought the Harry Potter edition wand.
Michanne and I rode the Flight of the Hippogriff. My parents aren't big on roller coasters. It was kind of a kiddie roller coaster but we did see Buckbeak!
This is a picture of Hagrid's Hut.
Then Michanne and I rode the Dragon Challenge roller coaster.
It's two roller coasters that twist and loop and the brochure says they almost collide but I didn't see most of it. I got a little sick after that. Unfortunately, we bought our butterbeer after that ride.

It did taste yummy but my stomach was a little uneasy. I'm now using my butterbeer mug as a pen/pencil cup at work. Ralph tried the pumpkin juice.
After that we walked around a little and I took more pictures and went in some of the many shops.

Chocolate frog pictures
We also listened to some Hogwarts singers perform with those gross frogs from the movie. It was pretty funny actually and they sang very well.
We walked through the Jurassic Park River Adventure.

The main ride there was a water ride and people were getting soaked so we skipped that and walked on through to Marvel Superhero Island.
We were looking for the Spiderman ride when several 4-wheelers came barrelling through with Captain America, Spiderman, Wolverine, Rogue, and Storm! It was awesome. They stopped and hopped off to take pictures. Rogue is my hero, and I told her so.


After my shameful groupie behavior we rode the Spiderman ride. We also rode the Storm force acceletron which is similar to the teacup ride at Disney. Needless to say that ride did not help my stomach. I did want some food and we passed a place in Jurassic Park that smelled fantastic.
We dined on roasted chicken and potatoes, fresh corn on the cob and soda. It really was good. Mom stated that she needed another ride on the Forbidden Journey. We didn't stow our things this time because Michanne and Ralph weren't going to ride again and kept our stuff. So, this time I had my camera and I went a bit crazy taking pictures of everything.

The Mirror of Erised
Mandrakes
The House Points
Entrance to Dumbledore's office
Unicorn tapestry
Hogwarts tapestry
Portraits that moved and spoke. This room had very high ceilings . There was so much to look at and listen to.

Warning for people like me. I loved the little picture on the left.
The Pensive
Funny sign
I think this was meant to be the Gryffindor common room
The ride was even more fun the second time. We went back through the gift shop and I desperately searched for a t-shirt to buy. I didn't find anything. I even looked at the gift shops around the Islands Park, nothing appealed to me. We left around mid-afternoon and headed to the Shades of Green Resort at Disney.
Main entry way of the resort
The room Michanne and I shared.
Our view from the balcony

We had dinner at the hotel and all went to bed to rest for the full day to follow at Disney's Animal Kingdom. This was a really long post! The others won't be so bad. It seems I took fewer and fewer pictures as the week went on.

Family Vacation, Day 1

I've been back since Sunday evening and I'm still recovering from this trip. It was a blast, exhausting, but a blast. I'm a little undecided on how to post the 404 pictures I took (yes, that's 100 more pictures than I took in 10 days in England!). By day, by event, etc? Day 1 is easy enough. It was our travel day to Orlando. Here's my dad's new truck, which we took for the trip, and my parents.
Here's the Wizarding World of Harry Potter billboard just outside the Islands of Adventure Universal Studios Theme Park. Our hotel was less than a mile from the entrance.
I know it's blurry but this is the best shot of about 4 pictures I tried to take while hanging out the window of the truck. We arrived in Orlando around 9:30pm and met up with Michanne (my sister) at the hotel. We had the biggest hotel room I've ever stayed in. Breakfast at the hotel was funny but sad, but that's part of day 2 so I'll save that story for the next post.

The Power of Persuasion

My sister is awesome. Allow me to explain. Next week my family is going to DISNEY WORLD! We've been planning this for a couple months now. We're going to stay at one of the resorts (a must in order to enjoy all that Disney World has to offer) and will have hopper passes for 4 days to enjoy all the parks.

Our hopper pass includes the 15th through the 18th. That's right folks, I'm going to be at the happiest place on Earth for my 30th birthday! I'm so excited! Now, here's where my sister's awesomeness is revealed. I figured since we were already going to be in Orlando that a trip to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter might be a necessity. My parents were unsure. In steps my sister and guess what? We are going to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter on the 14th!! I'm so excited I can hardly breathe!
This is going to be the Greatest. Vacation. Ever. I have not been to Disney since 2005 and I checked out this website yesterday and a lot has changed. I also perused this site to learn what to expect at Harry Potter. A colleague went this summer and I asked her for tips as well. Butterbeer is apparently a must. I'm also going to get myself some snazzy, shameless fan t-shirts and other souvenirs at Harry Potter and Disney. I'll take lots of pictures and try my hardest to remember every magical detail.

Rowling the Philanthropist

J.K. Rowling (author of the Harry Potter books) is in the news today. She has donated millions of dollars to the building of a new MS research facility and clinic in Scotland. Her mother passed away from complications of MS. I'm just so proud of nearly everything this woman has done in her life and I wanted to share the news. The article also included this great picture from the new Wizarding World of Harry Potter theme park.
It's the Hogwarts Express at the Universal Orlando Resort and I remembered that when I went to England in 2001 I actually rode on the official train used in the movies. It was before the first movie actually came out. This is one of the few things that I consistently brag about to new acquaintances. There's riding on the Hogwarts Express Train, Meeting Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, and holding a baby anteater. I would not throw all three out at once. Usually, just one of the three would apply to that person or group. Literary people would get the train bit, celebrity or wrestling people would get "The Rock" bit, and nature folks would get the anteater bit. Here's a site about some of the actual locations in the UK where parts of the Harry Potter movies were filmed. Anyway, I may have a chance to visit the Wizarding World of Harry Potter in Orlando in a couple of weeks. More on that detail later.

P&P: The Graphic Novel

Five boxes of new books arrived last week. A huge smile broke out on my face as I was elbow deep in the shiny literature. Book 7 of The Last Apprentice Series arrived, Rise of the Huntress. I read A Coven of Witches this summer. It's not part of the 7 books in the series but it gives some background information about some of the main characters. It was short but it was also one of the grossest, scariest books I've ever read. That's not saying much because I tend to not read horror and if I do it's usually teen horror (V.C. Andrews, Mary Downing Hahn, Christopher Pike, etc.). I hope Huntress is not as scary.We also got Sizzling Sixteen by Janet Evanovich which I'm reading this week. They are great books for something funny and low key. I've written a couple dozen down for my "to read later" list from the order.

I was most excited about Pride and Prejudice: The Graphic Novel by Jane Austen and Nancy Butler. I read it all Friday night. It is so wonderful to see those beloved characters in yet another format. Very fun. Sense and Sensibility will be available in a graphic novel in November.
I've already pre-ordered it through Amazon. I can't wait to add it to my collection. I recently ordered and received an 8-in-1 complete volume of Jane's work, illustrations included. It's a huge book and the font is very small. I read Writing Jane Austen a few weeks ago.
The main character reads all Jane's major 6 novels in like 2 days. I'm sorry, but that's totally unbelievable. It was one of the worst Jane Austen themed books I've read so far. Stay away from that one folks. I saw Eat, Pray, Love on it's opening night. I thought it was okay. I didn't really understand the need for the personal and physical journey but perhaps I should read the book. Bad librarian. I also saw The Switch on opening night. I thought it was really cute. The critics hated it but I can say it was way better than The Bounty Hunter.