Travels part 1

Last month I had an opportunity to travel to Orlando, Florida. While there I forced my husband to go to Universal to see the new Wizarding World of Harry Potter . I knew this was terrible timing being the height of tourist season and only one week after opening but that little voice of warning was quickly squashed because I knew this would be my only chance to go. We would never make a specific trip just to do this. We were piggybacking this onto a business trip and you do what you can.

The tree above is in the first section of Universal-Islands of Adventure. I have never seen such a cool palm tree and am sure this will make it's way into my art at some point. There were many wonderful architectural details that I snapped photos of for inspiration.

The weather was hot and sticky and may have helped in my argument against moving to Florida on our next military transfer (he has always wanted to live there) since he was just as miserable as I was. The lines were excrutiatingly long- 1 1/2 hours just to make it to the picture below....

Welcome to Hogsmeade

The bottom of the sign states: Please Respect the Spell Limits....the 'spells' were moving sooooooo sllloooooow.

Lines and weather aside, the whole place was amazing. I know I am not the only adult to be totally entranced by this fantasy world and being able to walk through areas from the movie was wonderful. The attention to detail was fantastic and inspiring and I so wanted to be able to walk across that bridge in the picture.

I was very happy to be able to walk through the town and have a Butter Beer and be a part of something that has entertained my whole family for a decade now. Then we got on the ride....they did a phenomenal job of putting you into that world via a 4D ride that allowed you to feel like you were flying, and brought you through a few of the frights we have all read about and seen on screen. If the lines had been shorter, I would have ridden this multiple times. There is something to be said about finding your inner child from time to time. She was there with me and we had a ball:)