Universal Islands of Adventure! Hogsmeade!

When we were planning our trip to Florida we knew we would go to Universal to see the Wizarding World of Harry Potter! It so happens out tripped ending up being about three weeks after the opened the new Diagon Alley portion of the park! Perfect! My grandparents live about 30 minutes away from Universal so we got up early and got there about 15 minutes after opening. Thankfully we missed the terrible crowds. Grandma said cars had been backed up on the interstate recently, in line just to get to the parking garage!

We decided to do Hogsmeade Village first. Travis and I visited about two years ago (See our first visit here!) but Crystal and Marc hadn't been. We figured most people would head to the new section first so the line for The Forbidden Journey would be short.

 I didn't cry this time! A nice lady offered to take our photo and it actually turned out! As you can see, we were right. It was pretty empty!

 Please respect the spell limits.

Hogwarts! It is so amazing to see it in person. The line for the ride inside it was only about 20 minutes long. We ended up riding it four times during our two days in the park. One time the ride got stuck RIGHT when the first Dementor swoops down on you. It was SO SCARY and fun! Thankfully it was only stuck for about a minute, and we weren't upside down!

 I'm glad I was able to experience butter beer before we went vegan. It is SO GOOD. The frozen is better than the non and it is like the best cream soda-ish frostie kind of thing you can imagine!

I could have pumpkin juice though! It is yummy! And I didn't notice until after my second one that these bottles of it are 6.99! Crazy! I feel like the prices went up since the first time we visited the park.

They have styled everything so perfectly. It feels like you are really walking the streets of Hogsmeade. I wonder why they don't have characters walking around for you to meet. Like Hagrid! Or Voldemort!

They cleared out Zonko's Joke shop and expanded Honeyduke's. I guess because they opened Weasley's Wizard Wheezes over on the Diagon Alley side. I did NOT spend 10 dollars on a chocolate frog this time.

 I'm not a big roller coaster rider but after some convincing I decided to ride the dragon challenge. And promptly threw up. Dang it! So I sat out the rest of the big rides.

 Cute bathroom sign!

 Our Harry Potter pose! Wands out! Haha, you might notice some outfit changes in the next few posts. I decided to post by location instead of chronologically since we were in the same spots multiple times. It is kind of throwing me off!) We stopped at the Three Broomsticks for a snack. There is almost nothing vegan in the park, so Travis and I ate a lot of fries.

 Fizzy pumpkin juice! Even better than the regular!

 Early in the afternoon we decided to head over to Diagon Alley. They have constructed a train station so you can take the Hogwart's Express between the two parks! Of course that guarantees that most people will buy the park hopper passes. It's so expensive!

 It was pouring down rain when we got in line. The perfect time to ride a train.

You better believe there were lots of "Diaganelly" jokes that day! You know, the floo powder fiasco in the Chamber of Secrets? 

 You get directed into a compartment (thanks Nicki!) that seats 8 people. We were with a family of three. They window is a video screen and it plays stuff like flying hippogriffs and Hangrid waving, etc. And stuff goes on out in the hall too! It's cute. Sadly, the family in our cabin didn't care and were leaning forward looking at their dang phones blocking our view! When we rode the train back we made sure to get in a cabin first! Here we are, after standing in the rain!

Allright, I'll be back tomorrow to tell you all about Diagon Alley! It was AMAZING! Even better than Hogsmeade and if you've been to the park before I know that's hard to believe! I'm going to try to cut down my photos, but it is going to be hard!

100 Books 2014: 49 to 56

A little break in the vacation photos to update you on my reading challenge! I've gotten really behind in posting these. I'm actually reading my 70th book right now! But here are eight more of the books I've read this year. Starting with some YA stuff: 

Looking for Alaska by John Green I'm not 100% sure I haven't read this book before, a few years ago. It seemed so familiar yet I couldn't remember what happened at all. I'm still going to count it. Alaska is a classic manic pixie dream girl who our hero meets when he goes away to a boarding school in the american south. A coming of age story, and a pretty good one. I enjoy John Green's writing even though his books aren't ones I want to read over and over.
Attachments: A Novel by Rainbow Rowell A charming love story about an IT guy whose job it is to read the emails sent by people in his company and flag them for inappropriate content. He starts to fall in love with one of the women in the office through her emails with a friend. This was a pretty light read, a break I really needed. I have been reading lots of dark books this year and sometimes a light romantic book is just what you need. It isn't totally predictable though.
We Were Liars by E. Lockhart Someone must have recommended this book to me because I went into it not knowing much about it except it was about well to do teenagers who spend their summers on a private island. There is an unreliable narrator which keeps things interesting, and this book made me cry! Which of course I love. This is kind of a thriller, lots of secrets and slow reveals. If you read it, I would go into it not knowing more than that. You don't want to spoil it!
Elenor & Park by Rainbow Rowell I LOVED this. Absolutely loved it. I read it in two days. I felt like Rainbow Rowell captured what it feels like to fall in love for the first time (as a teenager) in such a perfect way. I became really attached to Elenor and Park and was sad when the book was over and I had to let them go. I liked this book just as much as I liked Fangirl earlier in the year. I'm going to buy myself a copy so I can read it again.

A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier by Ishmael Beah This book was on a feature table at the downtown library and I had to check it out. It is intense, as you can imagine. The memoir of a boy recruited at age 13 to be a child soldier in Sierra Leon. It is grim and shocking and a little unbelievable that this was happening not even 20 years ago. The book is pretty riveting, thought I wish there was a little more closure at the end. Ishmael obviously makes it out and to safety in America but that part of his life isn't really explained.
Sacred Hearts by Sarah Dunant I really liked the other books I've read by Dunant (The Birth of Venus and In the Company of the Courtesan) but this one was just ok. It takes place in the 1500's in Spain. Then dowries were so expensive lots of wealthy families would put their daughters into convents because it was cheaper. I found that fascinating and want to read more about it. The story itself was just ok. It took me a while to get through the book, it wasn't one that kept me up at night reading.
Heart Shaped Box by Joe Hill This is the third Joe Hill book I've read this year and I think it was the most terrifying. One morning I was home alone and reading it and got so freaked out I didn't want to walk into our hall to get the dogs! It is the story of aging rock star Judas Coyne who has an interest in the occult. He buys a haunted suit on eBay and it starts a horrifying sequence of events. I don't want to give anything away, but I loved it!
Call the Midwife by Jennifer Worth I checked this out because I loved the tv series so much! All the stories are represented in the show and are worth a read. You don't get much more info than you got in the show but I enjoyed reading the book. If you haven't seen it, it's about a young midwife in training in the slums of England's East End in the 1950's. The conditions people live in are sometimes shocking and the stories range from sad to heart warming.

There you go! I'll share some more soon!

A Rainy Orlando Afternoon

We were gone for 10 days and it felt like we went on two different vacations. After we left the beach we drove to my Grandparent's house in Sanford, then headed into Orlando with an afternoon to kill. I am usually a big planner but I hadn't looked up much to do while we were there. I found an Oddities shop that looked cool, but when we got there it was closed (we texted the number and the guy who own sit said he had to leave town at the last minute to take an exam? haha!). Thankfully getting to the oddities shop put us in a part of town with some cool places to check out. First we went in Boom Art. 

It is a store run by artist Glen Rodgers and his wife. He entertained us by telling us tons of stories and talking about all the cool people he has worked for. His work was mostly pop culture, you know I'm into that! Everything in the shop is handmade. I found tons of stuff I would have loved to take home! I ended up with a really cute original series Star Trek trinket box.

 Oh Elvis. 

 There's Travis and Glenn. 

There were a bunch of cute old storefronts on the street, and some vintage shops. It started to POUR down rain about this time so I put the camera away. We went in one lady's shop and she was so fun to talk to! She and I both like all the same stuff apparently and she was just putting out some great vintage Christmas. And her prices were crazy! She was like "Oh those will be expensive, how about, 3 dollars?" Ha! I can handle "high" prices like that! She gave me a free Dream Pet too. Threw it in as a gift.

It turned out to be a pretty good stop. Here are Crystal and Marc expressing their feelings about the oddities shop being closed.

 Then we went looking for a coffee shop and ended up at a place called Stardust. 

Travis and I shared a pot of Earl Grey and we played a game called "Do You Look Like Your Dog". It involved convincing the other players that certain dogs and people looked a like. You earned bones. It was dumb but really funny.

 They had a real photo booth! You know, one that actually develops the photos, not just a digital printer. I haven't seen one in a long time!

 We got an actual stripe, but I forgot to take a photo of it. I should have gotten another because the first one wasn't great. But it was five bucks! While we were waiting for ours to develop I used my photobooth app in the actual booth. These turned out cute!

 While we were sitting at Stardust I put a picture up on instagram asking for suggestions for what to do in Orlando. My blog friend Katie just happened to be in the same shop, browsing her instagram feed while waiting in line and saw that I had posted that just a few minutes before. How perfect is that? She invited us over to her house to see her dogs and chickens.

 Her house was so cute! And she has the most beautiful backyard! And four dogs! Its like my dream land! She also pulled out a box of vintage photos for me to look through. What a good hostess! I love meeting people I know through blogging. You think it might be weird, but you already know so much about each other and like the same kind of stuff and it just feels like someone you have known forever. At least that has always been my experience.

 She has the coolest cabinet full of bones and specimens and just neat nature stuff. Katie, I wish we had gotten a photo together! I don't know why I didn't think of it.

 Oh my gosh I love senior dogs so much.

 Polly was rescued this year and was in awful shape when Katie picked her up. I loved seeing her running around happy and healthy (as an old blind dog can be!). Such a sweet girl.

 Katie took us to a vegan restaurant called Ethos. We loved it so much we ate there again the next night! I wish it was in Tennessee!

 I got vegan mac and cheese and peas with some "chicken" added. Oh man it was delicious. 

 And Travis had the shepard's pie. That is something he loved to get before we went vegan so I know he was excited to see it on the menu.

 We headed back to Sanford after dinner to get ready for our big day at Universal Studios! I'll be back soon to tell you all about it!

Roadside Fruit Stand!

On our way to Juniper Springs we passed this roadside "fruit stand." There was only a little fruit, but tons of yard statues and made in Mexico pottery and weird taxidermy. What a perfect stop!

Have you ever had a boiled peanut? I had them once and Charleston and they were so gross! I don't know the ones I had were just a bad example, or they are always so slimy and gooey and disgusting.

 "Act like a chicken!" "Coo-coo-ca CHAW"

 I love that giant giraffe as an archway! If I had a fancy garden that is what I would use as the entrance.

 This big green guy might be my favorite. Something about all those teeth! And that cow who looks like he is trying to get in the photo.

 There were rows and rows of this stuff just piled everywhere. Some of it full of rainwater. Or an occasional bird nest.

 This bird was so cute! They had a radio on playing pop music and he was singing along! Not the words or anything, just kind of a parrot yodel? If you tried to talk to him he would just stare at you, then as you walked away he would chatter away. He seemed like such a happy bird, and the girl working the register kept laughing at him.

There was weird taxidermy scattered around. Those half squirrels were just stuck on top of pill bottles! With marble eyes! There was a whole peacock! And it's just sitting out. Under a roof but not inside.

So weird! That whole squirrel Crystal is holding wasn't even sewn up on the bottom, the cotton balls were just falling out.

Bar stools.

Random santa.

Bagged dogs.

This thing was the grossest! A half squirrel/half stake! Who made this? Why??? Look at those red eyes!

Geeeeeze

I ended up bringing home one of these squirrels. The one on the left. I have a bunch of wall squirrels at home but none as bright as this! This place was the perfect little stop on our road into the Ocala National Forest.