Universal Studios - Post 2

Day 2 - We were up earlier today and got to the park before they opened at 7:00 am.  We know we are crazy!  Our goal was to get to Diagon alley and ride Gringotts again and then hang out in Diagon Alley for a while and wait until the rest of the park opened.  Diagon Alley opens at 7:00 am for only those visitors staying at Universal hotels!!  Big perk.

This morning we got in line and then waited for a while and we got through the bank and through the back of the bank and down the elevator shafts and then we got stuck.  The ride had gone down.  We waited about 25 minutes and the announcer said we could leave if we wanted to - but the nice girl working said to wait it out a little while longer (lots of people did leave!).  So we waited another ten minutes and we were on the ride!   Such a good ride!

It was already after 8:00 am, so we went to see the other parts of the park and do more rides.  We had never done Transformers, so we went there first.  Then we did Minions, Shrek, Twister and Mummy.  Then we went back to the Leaky Cauldron for lunch!  I wanted to try the Guinness Stew with beef, lamb and veggies cooked in a bread bowl.  Elizabeth had a chicken sandwich with bacon and something else.  Mine also came with a salad.  The Stew was excellent.  I recommend it!  We enjoyed our lunch and decided to take it easy as I had gone on all those spinning rides and then did lunch, so we went on ET!  I thought I would be okay, but I wasn't!   Needless to say, I had to rest for a while after the stew decided to show it's ugly face!

We went back to the hotel after that to sit in the sun and swim.  It was in the 90's so we needed a little break.  One park was open until 8:00 that night, so we knew we were going back to finish some rides.  We went back to Islands of Adventure and had dinner at Mythos that night.  What a great restaurant!   We each had a pulled pork hamburger and fries and it was delicious!   I also had some sort of soup that I just can't remember the name of....

We walked around Islands of adventure and Diagon Alley.  We stopped and took pictures of the Knight bus and Stan Shunpike.

 Elizabeth got chosen to be an extra in the Disaster show.  That was really fun.  She got hit on the head with fake rocks!

Some of the many characters that we had our photo taken with - This is a character from Dora - Elizabeth knew who it was, but I didn't have a clue, but I enjoyed laughing with them. 

 Here is one of the stilt walking pharoah men from Return of the Mummy.  He was great.  He loved Elizabeth's nail polish.

 Elizabeth and I and one of the many transformers that comes out every hour!

 The minions were awesome.  If you haven't seen Despicable Me 1 and 2, you have to watch them.  We did Boogie Fever with them and it is so much fun for kids who love the movies.

 Another Dora the Explorer Character!

 Woody Woodpecker!

Universal Studios - Post 1

We are started our trip on delayed flights.  My daughter only had a 1/2 hour delay, but I actually was delayed a little over three hours.  But....we got out of our respective airports and got to our hotel by 12:45 am!  As long as we didn't lose any time at the parks, I was okay with it!

Day 1 - Our first morning, we were up at 6:15 and at the park by 7:00 - the sun had not even risen yet!  But we didn't care, we were going on the Gringott's ride no matter what...and God was good to us.  We got on three times in a row!!  Unbelievable!   It was so much fun!   They really did a great job with the theming and the goblins and the bank itself.  (If any of you have not read the Harry Potter series, then I apologize, but you probably won't understand a lot of this!!)

These photos are from our first morning.  The sky was still dark.  We walked into Diagon Alley and we were so excited (I cried, but I'm weird)!  

The goblins were very life like, I have more photos in another blog!  Then we got Gringotts Money(I know it is upside down)  and we spent it on Butterbeer Ice cream!!  I WISH we could buy this somewhere besides Diagon Alley - it was so good!   

We went to the Leaky Cauldron for Breakfast - it was just an american breakfast and we split it because it was big and then we got to see the dragon!!

He sits atop Gringotts and spits fire every 20 minutes!  Like clock work!

 The Hoppity Pot is where you can get drinks - we opted for the Fizzy Green Ale which is a Cinnamon/Mint drink with blueberry popping balls on the bottom.  I can't explain the taste, but one gentleman says it tasted like Christmas to him.  I thought the blueberry balls were awesome!! We also got a Lemon Squash which was like a funky lemonade - not sure what was in it, but it was really good.  Another day, we got our Pumpkin Juice - it is really orange and sweet!! Not my favorite.  My favorite is the pear cider!!

 Another view of the dragon atop Gringotts.

 This is Hagrid's bike - he rode it in a few of the movies in the Harry Potter series.  We sat in it and on it, but Elizabeth must have that picture!!

 This is the inside of the Leaky Cauldron.  It is very rustic and realistic looking.

 This is Kreacher - he was in books five and seven, I think.  He is the house elf for the Black home.  He pops his head in and out of the curtains at 12 Grimmauld Place (and you all know what that is!).

 This is a replica of the statue that sits in London with the statue of Eros at the top - they really did a great job of replicating Wyndhams Theatre and the underground and the homes and King's Cross station in London!

 Our favorite platform - 9-3/4!

 The inside of King's Cross.  This is the major London railway station.  I have never been to the real one, but those that have says it is a darn good replica!  You take the Hogwarts Express from King's Cross Station to Hogsmeade when you travel from park to park!

Elizabeth and the conductor at the station in Hogsmeade!   We spent the rest of the day in Islands of Adventure Park after we took the Hogswart express train over to that park.  We did the water rides and got soaked to the skins - so badly that we used one of the people dryers (which doesn't work very good, by the way).  We did every water ride, because we knew we wouldn't be doing them again.  By 3:00 we were exhausted and still wet and went back to the hotel for a nap.  Five hours of sleep just wasn't enough that first night!  Both parks closed early that night so we went to Margaritaville at CityWalk for dinner and then strolled City Walk for an hour or so.  We were both in bed by 8:30 because we knew we were going for round two of Harry tomorrow at 7:00 am again.  

  

With any luck.....

...I will be in Florida tonight!

They just delayed my flight by a half hour, but hopefully, there won't be any other issues.  It is raining here in CT, so I am assuming that is the issue?

Can't wait to see my daughter and of course...Harry!

I will be back to blogging next week with lots of great photos of the trip!!  

National Coffee Day!

Today is National Coffee Day!

Many companies, including Dunkin Donuts are giving away free coffee.

I just went and picked up my free Medium Dunkin Dark Roast.

You gotta love September 29th for that!!!

Go get one for yourself!!   Enjoy!!

Steelers

I have to throw in my annual blogs about the Steelers.

Hubby and Company went to Pittsburgh for the weekend to see the game and it ended up being a bust....but they had a good time anyway!

And I had a nice relaxing weekend, too!

Osbornedale State Park

Sometimes the best adventures can be found in your own backyard.

We have a wonderful state park here in our town.  It takes up about 1/4 of the town, actually.  But do we ever go to it?  Hardly.

Yesterday, my two sisters, the trips (of course) and three of my nieces took a nature walk on the yellow dot and the red dot trail at the state park.  It was absolutely gorgeous.  The sun coming through the trees, the pathways, the rocks....everything.

We found blue jay feathers for my dad, prayed a little, conversed and had an awesome time enjoying Mother Nature....Who knew!???

Brody found an arrowhead (or something that looks like one), the kids climbed trees and rock formations, I got stung by a bee and we found a praying mantis.  But it was all wonderful.  Others were  on the trail also, so it was fun.  I should have put the flash on my iphone, but I didn't realize it was so dark.