Now that you have finished your Master's in Music Education, what will you do now? I'M GOING TO DISNEY WORLD! I've always wanted to say that:)
Ever since I can remember there has been one place I have wanted to visit- Orlando, Florida. I think it started with my obsession with all things Disney as a kid and wanting to be on the Mickey Mouse Club with Justin Timberlake and Christina Aguilera. I would always see "Lake Buena Vista, FL" at the end of the production and think, "one day soon, I will be there." Well, it finally happened, just at the ripe old age of 33. Two years ago I was looking over Masters programs for Music Education and I was undecided between Kent State in Ohio and University of Florida in Gainesville, Florida. I decided Florida because it would be cool to have an east coast school degree along with a west coast bachelor's at BYU. But the other deciding factor was that we could go to Disney World when the degree was said and done. There were many time when it felt like this degree would NEVER be said and done, but we finally reached it!
Right after we moved back to Thatcher, we were off to Florida. We had about a week to get things orderly, then we left Gemma and Lottie with the Martindell's and the boys with mom. We had an early morning flight out of Phoenix and were off to Atlanta.
We arrived in Atlanta around lunchtime so we thought it would be nice to grab a delicious bite to eat. Lucky for us one of the best restaurants in Atlanta was in the airport. We were feeling adventurous so we went to Sky High.
I had a delicious but adventurous meatloaf sandwich with a fried egg, bacon, pimento cheese, collard greens and barbecue sauce. It was very tasty. LOTS going on with the pallet.
Ari had a delicious kobe beef burger. We scored with this one!
Next we flew into Jacksonville, FL. It was very overcast, thick with heavy clouds. We were not prepared for the downpour that we were driving into. I've never seen anything like it. The windshield wipers could not move fast enough for me to even see the road.
Florida trip is on!
A little bit of the Jacksonville skyline.
Driving by Daytona Beach. We decided to eat dinner at Daytona Beach and found a little forgettable pizza joint. I had parmagian chicken and Ari had a pizza. We were the only patrons there and it wasn't hard to see why. Watery salad is never fun.
Bright eyed and bushy tailed at Universal studios! First stop- Universal Islands of Adventure.
Right away we kept saying how the boys would love this, or the girls would love that. It's so fun to walk into an amusement park you've never been to- just taking it all in.
We (along with everyone else) had the idea of going strait to Harry Potter world so we could check that off the list right away. This was also the thing I was most excited about. We had watched all the Harry Potter movies getting ready for this trip.
To get to Harry Potter World, we had to walk through Dr. Seuss Land and that was really cool. Very cartoony and colorful.
The cat in the hat Hat!
The Lorax!
Everyone BOOKED it through the Lost World over to Harry Potter. It was like starting a marathon or triathlon.
HOGSMEADE! Woo hoo!
Those roller coasters are the Dragon Challenge. We road this after I had the butter beer later on. This was a low point of the trip for Ariana. We had no idea how crazy these coasters were and they were just too much for Ariana. Bad way to start the day for her, in fact it almost ruined the whole Harry Potter/Universal experience. She had only yogurt that morning for breakfast and did not carb up enough. Too low of blood sugar for her or something. I talked her into riding the Hungarian Horntail first and it was pretty insane. One of the most intense coasters in the park. We should have known when they were telling us to remove everything from our pockets and put them in a locker. It was a coaster that your legs were free and hanging and that really bothered Ari. It was also very twisty. She was whimpering toward the end and I've never seen her so done and ready to leave a ride. Since there was no line I immediately jumped back into the line to ride the Chinese Fireball. Ari waited for me at the entrance. Riding these two coasters back to back was pretty intense, but I was ok. It took Ari all day to recover from this one. Note for the future- no dragon challenge ride for Ari.
Walking through downtown Hogsmeade. It was magical. Quite disorienting walking through a wintery village when it's hotter than Hades. Seriously, I had no idea how hot and humid August in Florida was actually going to be. In the morning it was ok, but after noon- sheesh!
The Butterbeer cart! I could not WAIT to try this stuff! $6 a pop, but totaly worth every drop.
Here we are at the Hogwarts castle! So cool! The detail was amazing!
Everything was much smaller than I thought it would be. Scaled down, but very much like the movie.
There was even loads of fake moss on the rocks leading up to the castle.
One thing that's awesome about Universal, is you can take the "single ride" line and by pass the hour long wait (usually). Because we took this option on Harry Potter's Forbidden Journey, we missed the walk through the castle, but we did see the Sorting Hat. It was cool. And giving us warnings and directions for the ride.
Next we road the Hipporiff coaster which was right outside of the castle. This is where Hagrid keeps all of his magical creatures including Buckbeak picture below.
After Hippogriff Coaster, I finally had my taste of Butterbeer. Nectar of the Gods I say. The closest thing I can relate it to is liquid candy corn. A little salty, a little sweet, but the perfect combo. I highly recommend the frozen version- especially on a hot, Florida, August day.
A real life Mandrake plant in the window at Hogsmeade. These things are not easy on the eyes!
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