On Monday, we flew straight from Phoenix to Orlando, Florida. Between the time zone difference and the long flight, we were exhausted and fell into bed. The next day, we got up and got breakfast at the hotel. We stayed pretty close to Universal Studios Islands of Adventure. We took the shuttle over, and spent the day there. Inside that park, they have an area dedicated to Harry Potter World. They have replicas of several buildings, including Hogwarts School. It was amazing the amount of detail that went into them. Inside Hogwarts was a simulation ride that made you feel you were riding on a broomstick throughout England and the school. Afterwards, Alisha looked a little out of breath. I asked if she was okay, and she said, "That. Was. AWESOME!!!!!!!" I was so relieved, since she was a scared mess throughout the entire 90 minutes of waiting in line.
The girls both really wanted to get a wand as their souvenir, so we headed to Ollivander's Wand Shop. There was a line outside the store, and we asked the worker at the front what was happening inside. He only said that it was a "presentation." Not excited about the line, but determined to get a wand, we waited. The girls got really cranky in line, and wanted to leave. I found up an app on my phone with Harry Potter Trivia. So that distracted them long enough until we got inside. They let about 10 people inside at a time. Once we got in, it looked just like the shop in the movie where Harry first gets his wand. The old man (can't remember his name) looked at all of us, and singled out Megan and brought her to the front. He proceeded to try to find a wand for her. She tried a couple with spells, and several things fell apart in the store. He was able to "repair" the damage with his wand. The next wand "chose" her, as there was a light over her head and triumphant music played. It was pretty funny. Of course, that was the wand she wanted to buy, and they led us into the rest of the store where wands were available to buy. Genius marketing for all of us suckers. We got their wands, and went to lunch at The Three Broomsticks. They had traditional English food inside, along with Butter Beer. It tasted like cream soda with a thick layer of buttery cream on top. It was good, but not anything too amazing. But again, marketing genius for us suckers.
We also went into the sweet shop where the girls bought chocolate frogs and Every Flavor jellybeans, with flavors like vomit and boogers, along with traditional flavors like cherry. They had the joke shop with gag gifts inside, and the girls had fun trying them out. There were a few more Harry Potter rides there, but Alisha was too chicken to go on them. So Chris took Megan on some rides, and I took Alisha over to Dr. Seuss land, the area for the littler kids. I loved all of the decorations, and we rode the Seuss themed Carousel, the Caro-Seuss-al. It was really cute. After, we all met up to go on a rapids ride, where we got completely soaked. We spent the rest of the day sloshing around in our wet shoes. After we couldn't walk any more, we decided we had enough for the day and went back to the hotel.
The next day, we went to Sea World. It was pretty fun seeing all of the animal shows and the exhibits. Megan liked feeding the stingrays and the sea lions. In the middle of one of the shows, it started raining with thunder and lightning. Luckily we were under a big awning, so we didn't get wet. They postponed the show initially, but when it kept raining, they cancelled the rest of the show. Luckily, the thunder and lightning had passed, so the final Shamu show was still going on. So we sloshed through the lakes on the sidewalk and made it over to the Shamu show just in time. It was amazing to see not one killer whale, but 6 doing the jumps and tricks throughout the show.
The next day was Epcot/Magic Kingdom. My friend Lisa lives in Florida with her husband, Rusty, and they drove over to meet us. My mom and Ross were able to get us all in for free, due to Ross working for the AAU, which has offices at Epcot. Thanks, Ross! After we saw Captain EO, I decided to check my RN status with my phone. I didn't expect any news, since I had already been waiting for 3 weeks. Suddenly, I saw my name posted, and I squealed and made everyone hug me. I thought, this IS the happiest place on Earth! We saw all of the areas at Epcot, and the girls were getting antsy to go on some rides that weren't too intense. So we took the monorail over to the Magic Kingdom, where we went on Pirates of the Caribbean, the Haunted Mansion, and we finally convinced Megan to go on Space Mountain, which she loved. We headed back to Epcot to Japan for some sushi and to watch the final laser light show. We got some yummy chocolates in Germany, and watched the show. After, we drove to Lisa's house, which was about 1 1/2 hours away.
The next day, we spent the afternoon on the beach, where the girls buried each other and played in the waves. It was nice to just sit on the beach in the warm sun. Rusty made us a fabulous dinner, and Lisa and I got some good girl talk in. We had to leave the next day, and it was way too short of a trip. We finally made it home after the long flights, and we were so thankful to be in our own beds again.
