Hogwarts!!

This had to be the highlight of our trip!  I loved it, I truly felt that I was in the book! We decided to go on Friday when Ryan was finished with meetings so he could go with us. The only thing that I felt bad about was that Rainee, Doug and their family decided not to go. Rainee had read some reviews before we left and they had all talked about how big of lines and wait times their were. Because of that she decided that with 5 little kids she didn't want to be waiting in a line for 3 hours. Well, the reviews for this time of year were not correct because it was less crowded than all of the parks we had visited previously. (Maybe everyone else read the reviews and stayed away as well. So, I felt really bad that they didn't get to see what we saw.  Rainee is planning on going back though so they will get to see it someday.

All I can say was that it was fabulous, no detail was undone and because I am a detail person I loved it.

This is at Universal studio's and we decided to go to the Harry Potter Hogsmeade first. From the moment you walk in the gate you are in England. It really isn't snowing but they made it to look like it is in the winter time. It was funny how many English accents we heard and people that we talked to who were visiting from England. They loved it as well.

Here is the Hogwarts express. It is the first thing that you see.

Here is the village of Hogsmeade.

The first ride that we went on was the Dragon's challenge, it was very high speed and there was a lot of G force on that ride. You felt like you were on a broom getting away from the dragon. This is a good view of the castle.

Don't you feel like you are there?

Here is the car that Harry and Ron crashed into the whomping willow.

I expected the tree to start beating us up.

more of the village

We heard that we had to try the butter beer so we decided we were ready to try!

They served them in these mugs and no, it really isn't beer but it was delicious and we think that we have it figured out what was in it. It tasted like a cream soda with whipped french vanilla ice cream on the top. There was just a thin layer of the ice cream but it was soooo good. We are going to experiment and let everyone have a taste.

When I saw what the pumpkin juice came in, it just made me laugh, I had to have one the container was so cute, I didn't care what it tasted like. Tasting it though it was very good! the taste matches the container. It tasted like spiced citrus apple juice with pumpkin puree. We brought some back so the Cannon's could taste it. Don't you just love the container!

Cheers!

They even have owls, in one of the shops they were perched up above the merchandise. I even brought one home because they are so cute. You will have to come and see it.

There was even a snow man. After drinking the butter beer we had to have a bathroom stop. I was so taken by surprise while in the restroom. Guess who was in there? Yep, moaning Myrtle! I told you they didn't leave any detail undone. It was hilarious to listen to her while in there. When we came out I asked Ryan if moaning Myrtle was in his bathroom and he said, "Yes, she made it very hard to concentrate on what you were doing, he had to stand there a few minutes to do what he needed to do! Ha, that part was hilarious!

This was out side Hagrids house, I am thinking I need to make one to put outside my house for Halloween!

Here is Hagrid's house!

and his pet who is chained to his nest.

We then went into the castle, you get to walk through the whole castle while waiting in line to go on the Quidditch cup ride. It was fascinating because you get to see so much while waiting for the ride.

We even went through the green house where they studied herbology! They had these plants hanging all through the green house, they were real and totally looked like they came out of the book.

These ones were real as well, don't they just look like if you pulled them up they would start screaming!

We even went through the room with the floating candles, it was dark so the picture didn't turn out very well.

This picture is out of order but here is the out side of the castle.

Someone wanted us to take their picture so they took ours as well.

Here is the biting book!

We had to stop at Olivander's wand shop. It was fascinating and looked like the real thing, there were even guys there to help you pick out the wand for you. Caitlin really like this shop, and yes she did buy a wand!

It was hard to decide which one you would want.

We stopped at the Hog's Head pub and yes, there is the hog's head.

This is inside, you are able to sit down and eat and the menu is fish and chips and lots of other yummy England treats. Ryan liked all of the horns.

I loved the architecture!

We had to stop at Honey dukes! It was a candy store like no other!

It made you just want to buy one of everything!

They even had a sweets counter. Ryan bought the rock cake. There were these little cupcakes that looked like caldron's and I'm thinking I need to make those for Halloween as well.

The Joke shop was there as well. The extend able ears haven't been approved by the ministry yet, but Caitlin was hoping to get some.

This was out side the Weasly brothers joke shop and Puking Pastilles had an ever flowing candy puke coming out of her mouth!

I could have stayed there the rest of the day it was so fun but we did see the rest of the park and noticed how short the lines were. I don't think we waited longer than 20 minutes anywhere we went. Sometimes you just walked on the ride because there were no lines. We really had a lot of fun exploring all of Adventure Island and like I said, "It was fantastic!!"