Spring Break - Universal Studios Day 4

The next day we left Universal Studios and City Walk and headed to NASA! We rented a car and drove the 45 minutes to Kennedy Space Center. The weather was hot, but I preferred that to rain.

The first picture was with the iconic clock.

They have an area called the Rocket Garden. There are rockets (duh) and then capsules for people to climb in.

There is a reason astronauts can not be taller than 6 feet.

All the capsules had plaques to explain the missions. I loved it, but was more worried about getting pictures and keeping an eye on the kids. I would have loved more time.

This sums up the visit. Colin LOVED the KSC. He was so into everything, and asked questions and listened to each presentation. He was the most curious. Kevin was tired and hot, and didn't really enjoy the visit. Gwyn was a bit too young to really grasp it all.

All the kids in the shuttle capsule.

As we were on the bus tour, we finally saw an alligator! This is a picture from the bus window, using zoom. We weren't that close. The bus drive told stories of NASA employees finding gators under their cars in parking lots and in the hallways. We were on a bus because there are two different sites at the KSC. The bus ride between the sites was about 30 minutes, and went past launch sites and buildings. We saw the giant vehicle that transports the shuttle from the building to the launch site. It moves about 1 miles an hour, and takes two days to get to the location. Because it moves so slowly, and this is Florida, there are turtles every where. Which means that two people walk alongside the shuttle as it moves, and pick up turtles and move them out of the way. Colin and I both loved this detail. He still talks about it. I also liked that the river rocks that the transporter travels over are completely pulverized under the weight, and need to be replaced each time.

This is the building the rocket is assembled in, and those doors are the tallest doors in the US. They take about an hour to open all the way.

Giant transporter on the river rocks.

Gwyn was so tired and bored, she got one of her "last sucks" on her thumb. (That is what she always says when we tell her to stop sucking her thumb. She stopped at her 6th birthday, and this trip was two weeks before her birthday.)

This is in the second location, at a memorial for Apollo 1.

Gwyn is walking on the moon.

Colin walking. Kevin was too grumpy to get his picture taken.

Touching a piece of the moon.

Moon rover. I like the design of the wheels.

Apollo capsule

Gwyneth took this picture of us.

All the kids loved the water feature at the entrance. It has stars on a giant stone sphere, and can rotate and spin.

Super cool moment - Kevin actually traveled for work to help with this little black piece!

There was a computer simulation about docking at the space station. Of course Kevin (husband) did so great at it. He was proud.

Kevin actually did something!

Kevin had just finished a unit about Mars, so he got his picture with the rovers.

One last family photo... looking into the sun.

After spending the day at Kennedy Space Center, we drove to Melbourne to visit friends. Bryan and Jess moved a few months ago, and Universal is less than an hour away from their new house. Bryan now works at Boeing South, and they just moved into their new home. They cooked us tacos for dinner, and Jess made the best guacamole I have ever had. (I ate an embarrassing amount of it.) But we had to get back to the hotel and get some rest. It had been a long day.

On the way back to the hotel.

Spring Break - Universal Studios Day 3

Our third day - we feel like we had it figured out.

We started the morning having breakfast at the Three Broomsticks. Kevin tried pumpkin juice, and he insists that it is better than butterbeer. Otherwise it was a standard breakfast, although my husband talked about it for days since he got a traditional English breakfast.

Gwyn took this picture!

Family photo in Hogsmeade.

In line for yet another ride on the Hogwarts Express.

We tried to ride all the rides in the parks. Here we are on the (The Simpsons') Twirl n Hurl. We also rode ET, Rip Ride Rocket (MY FAVORITE!), and Men In Black (the boys' favorite after Simpsons, and we rode MIB over and over), but I didn't get pictures of those.

Lunch at Krusty Burger. Kevin had a Krusty Burger, but it was the same burger that you got every where else in the park. He was hoping it would be different, but it wasn't. The good news is that they sold giant donuts, pink like in the Simpsons, and we got to eat that for lunch as well. Of course, Colin loved it.

Remember when I said we were given clues to a speakeasy? We went looking! (I was so excited. I think it embarrassed my husband.) I had no idea that we were looking for a poster. I thought it was an actual pig. (I couldn't remember the poster until I saw it.) Anyway, we spent about 15 minutes walking through NYC looking on the ground, in windows, on signs and buildings. I honestly wasn't sure if I was lied to. I stopped at a restaurant nearby and recited the clue. The first person looked at me like I was crazy and said he had never heard that before. The second woman asked if I was sure they were telling the truth, and I said "No, but I was hoping it was true." The man said, "I am sorry I don't know what you are looking for..." then whispered, "...but it is right around the corner!" I was so ridiculously excited. As I walked around the corner husband had just found it. And this was it! It is the poster on the door to the speakeasy in FBAWTFT! (We tried knocking. No one opened it.)

Another Hogwarts Express trip. It was our main form of travel from one park to the other. And we traveled traveled between parks at least once a day.

How cute are these two?

As we left King's Cross Station, husband noticed Number 12 Grimmauld Place! If you look closely, every few minutes Kreacher will look out the window on the second floor.

The Night Bus.

We finally worked our way through the insane crowds and got each kid a wand. Gwyn choose Hermione's wand. Kevin choose Yaxley's wand, which is an awesome-looking wand, even if it is a death eaters. (Who cares - the kid loved the wand!) And Colin... Oh Colin. Colin had already picked out Lucius Malfoy's wand. Which is in a giant cane that is almost as tall as he is. We had already told the kids that we would pay for the wand, so Colin agreed to pay the extra amount himself. Thankfully, the cane part was sent to our room for us, and Colin could keep the wand part in our bag at the park. (We also bought shirts to wear the last day and had those sent to the room as well.)

THIS is the wand that Colin bought! It is so tall is goes up to his nose. The entire snake head is metal, and is considered a weapon by airport security and can not go on the plane. (We kept the original box and checked it with the luggage. Thankfully it arrived safely.)

This was the only time we rode the Hogwarts Express from King's Cross to Hogmeade, so this is the only time we got to "walk through" the brick wall.

Some with more style than others.

We headed back to Hogsmeade at the end of the day. Kevin took Kevin and Gwyn back on Forbidden Journey. (There was no line since it was about 15 minutes before the park closed. And we again put socks in her shoes, but this time it was even closer to her being too short. The guy who checked her height side-eyed my husband and said "I guess.....?" Good enough.) Which meant that Colin and I got to ride Flight of the Hippogriff 5 times! It was so much fun - we would run from the exit back to the entrance. Our last time we ran around, and the chain was up. Colin was sad, but I pointed out that I think they let us on the ride once or twice after the time was up. As we waited, we got butterbeer for everyone.

As a parent, it was so much fun to see the kids in the hallway since they all had a version of carpet lava. Gwyn always ran on the flowers.

Colin had to step on the middle/dark spot of the flower. Kevin walked on the grey parts.

Spring Break - Universal Studios Day 2

Since we stayed at a park hotel, we got into one of the parks an hour early. We thought it would be bigger, but there were only three rides open early. One of those rides was Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey. It was so awesome. Even the line was amazing. You pretty much walk through Hogwarts castle, so they have talking portraits, classrooms, statues, moving stairways, and other things to make the wait better than standing in a line. We had to stuff extra socks in Gwyn's shoes to give her the extra inch she needed to ride it, which was a close call. (They had two people check her height. Person number one said no, person number two said yes.) Unfortunately, the rode broke down when we were on it. Of course, I took the time to look at the machines while the light was on, as did Kevin (who was on a different car). So we spent the next few days discussing the logistics, until he rode it one more time and figured it all out. I would love to talk more about this, but I also want to have friends. The GOOD NEWS about the ride stopping (for less than 5 minutes) was that we were given 5 free passes to rides. We already had Fast Passes (from staying at the hotel) but there were about 6 rides between the two parks that did not allow Fast Pass. This was good for all but one ride! (More on that ride later.) So we had a free pass to any ride we wanted! This was not a bad way to start the trip. And it was only 8:45 am on our first day. We decided to save those passes until our last day.

We got up early to get into the park early. Unfortunately we waited at the wrong park for about 20 minutes (along with many other people) since we didn't know it is only for one park a month. We still got to into the other park early, but we had to wait about 20 minutes to ride Forbidden Journey. There is no way we can complain about that.

At the entrance to Hogsmeade there is a train, but it is not the one you get to ride. Kevin completely represents my emotions in this picture.

It only looks empty because the park just opened. Spring Breaks is VERY crowded!

Forbidden Journey is in Hogwarts Castle. One of the favorite rides on this trip is Flight of the Hippogriff, which is to the right of the photo. Kevin and I were in awe seeing Hogmeade for the first time. We had to walk through it to get here. It was amazing.

Here is the Monster Book of Monsters. It moved and growled.

Parker let us borrow her interactive wand, so we didn't have to bother getting one right away. It was fun finding the locations to use the wand.

We rode SO MANY rides that day. Here we are at the Storm Force Acceltron. It basically was spinning and spinning, so Kevin and I opted out. (Think teapots on crack.) But Kevin, Colin, and Gwyn liked it!

Kevin/Spiderman waiting at the Storm ride.

A picture of people who DON't vomit when the spin.

This ride. This ride is Pteranadon Pflyers. (Both "p"s are silent. Really, the word Flyers doesn't have a P. But it does when I type it.) This ride is only for children 4and you can not ride without one. You must have a child to ride. So Kevin could ride because Colin rode with him, since Kevin was too tall to ride alone. Gwyn was short enough to require an adult, so daddy rode with her. I had to wait since I didn't have any children to ride with. And this line took for.ev.er. There are only three cars, each one with two people. And as soon as they got in line, they shut the line down and started requiring people to sign up for times. (You go to the computer, sign up for a time, get a ticket, and show your ticket to get in line.) The entire time, I am watching people ask to ride, and be turned away because they are adults. (No shame from me.) It was Gwyn's favorite ride, the ride she always said she wanted to go on again. But nearly every other day the times were sold out before we even got to the computer. And the worst part was the it was the ONLY ride those passes would NOT work for. Those passes we got on the first day, which we called God Passes, worked on every single ride - except this one.

Lunch with the Hulk behind us. Kevin and I rode it. It was AWESOME! You go up the first hill, and about halfway up you accelerate to full speed, so you are going fast by the time you even hit the top of the first drop. We loved it. Our hotel was on the other side of Hulk, so every morning we woke up to the Hulk's yell. (And we could hear it at night.)

We stopped in Hog's Head for butterbeer. It was so crowded, I am amazed we found a table! This is Colin without butterbeer.

Two more butterbeer-less children.

Butterbeer! It is delicious. I love it. I got it nearly every chance I could. (Not nearly often enough though, if you ask me.) One time Kevin, Gwyn and Kevin rode Forbidden Journey right before the park closed, when the line was short. Colin and I rode Flight of the Hippogriff over and over until the park closed. (5 times) When they finally closed the line, I headed to get butterbeer. Then I panicked and thought daddy won't be able to find us, so I sent Colin back up the the Hippogriff ride, which is at the exit to FJ. Colin found everyone walking out, and said he was looking for us since we left the area. My husband said "Mommy is getting butterbeer, isn't she?" Yes, please! It is like cream soda and butterscotch, with whipped cream on top!

Me the rest of the trip.

That afternoon we took the Hogwarts Express for the first time. (It went between parks, and we ended up taking it three other times in this directions, but only once from Diagon Alley to Hogsmeade.) This was Kevin's face when it pulled up. I love this kid.

We knew the window was really a screen when we got on. It has the Weasley's fly by on brooms, and the Nightbus driving through the city of London. We did not expect the doors to have screens! So it looked like Harry was walking by the door and talking to Ron.

Diagon Alley! We saw the dragon breath fire not long after arriving. The dragon is on the top of Gringott's which had one of my favorite rides - The Escape from Gringott's. I got pictures of the dragon breathing fire on my phone, but Kevin really wanted to get the shot from the side. We spend too much time waiting for that dragon, and there is no way of knowing when it will breath since the it goes at random intervals. We would wait, then go to Knockturn Alley and hear it. Or wait, then go to buy candy and hear it. Or wait, then hear it in the bathroom. I am so glad he finally got the shot on our last night!

We went to Ollivander's to look at wands. We did the experience where a child is selected by Ollivander to get a wand. Kevin was selected! He had to try out wands, and perform spells. The spells went wrong until he got the perfect wand. Kevin is so cute. He looked nervous and then the employee whispered to him that he doesn't have to get that specific wand, and he felt better. The shop was crazy crowded, so we didn't get wands right then. Mostly because we didn't want to carry them around the rest of the day though.

Riding the water taxi to dinner.(Wrong day, but oh well.)

Chocolate Emporium - where we did dinner our second night there.

Dinner was fine. There were not a lot of choices since it was really a dessert place. But the desserts were huge, and delicious.

We went back into the park and rode more rides. I think this is our second time on the Minions ride. (That was the ride we rode the most.) It was pretty funny, and was another one where you sit in a car and look at screens and the car moves. That is what so many rides were like - Simpsons (this one made Kevin and I the most sick), Superman, Transformers, Forbidden Journey, Escape From Gringott's, The Mummy, Shrek, etc.) But this was so darn adorable and cute. And there were Minions at the end to take your picture with.

Walking into Knockturn Alley. We heard that there were secret things on the map if you read them under a black light in diagon alley. Which turned out to be true, but we already knew about the little "secrets" on the map.While we were in Borgin & Burkes in Knockturn Alley, I asked if there were any hidden secrets about Ilvermorny (the wizarding school in the United States - the US version of Hogwarts.) And yes, I know it is not real, but I love finding things others miss. Anyway, the employees gave me a hard time saying we were in London and Ilvermorny is in an entirely different country. Then one said she went to New York and saw a speak easy that I might be interested in. It took me a moment to realize that she wasn't talking about actualy NYC, since I forgot that the other park had a NYC area. Anyway, she told me "If there is a Transformer in front of you, and a Mummy behind you, look for the Blind Pig." I wasn't following, but husband remembered that from Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. We didn't have time to look for it though, since the park was closing.

Sirius' motorcycle that Hagrid drove.

Look at Colin's face!