Best Vacation in the Univers(al)

My family LOVES to go to Universal.

I've written about it a few times (here, here, here, here, and here), but that definitely won't stop me from writing about it again. We started going to Universal in 2010 when they opened The Wizarding World of Harry Potter (Hogsmeade and Hogwarts). It was such a hit that we returned in 2011 and again in 2013. Then, they opened Diagon Alley this year, and obviously, we HAD to go check it out! (If you haven't read the books/seen the movies, here's your crash course: Hogsmeade: village that the school is located near; Hogwarts: the magical school Harry attends/castle the school is housed in; Diagon Alley: area in London where major magical shopping takes place.) 

Since I've already posted about Hogsmeade and Hogwarts previously, I'll write mostly about Diagon Alley (but I reserve the right to do a short post about Hogsmeade, should I feel the urge). 

Diagon Alley is kind of magical for Harry fans. If you've seen the movies, Universal's re-creation is an amazing duplication of the Diagon Alley set. Visitors truly feel as though they have walked in to the Real Diagon Alley. Now, if you're looking for Harry-themed rides, you're only going to find one (Escape from Gringotts) in Diagon Alley, BUT you'll find all manner of Harry Culture everywhere you turn. Amiee and I were geeking out about all the incredible detail covering every inch. 

Diagon Alley is located in Universal Studios, while Hogsmeade is located in Universal's Islands of Adventure. Visitors can take the Hogwart's Express (train) between the two parks/magical locations, but you have to have tickets to both parks (which we did). I'm fairly certain that the train (TWAIN!) was Claire's absolute favorite thing. I'm thinking we rode it 5-6 times while we were there. It takes you from the platform in Hogsmeade on a trip through Great Britain, ending at King's Cross station in London. It is CRAZY how realistic the King's Cross station is. You forget you're in a theme park and genuinely feel you're in a train station. (You can also do the reverse journey; the "countryside" out the window of the train is different each way.)

How realistic is this? I mean.

Sunset view.

Platform 9 3/4 in King's Cross. When you're going through the line in King's Cross on your way to board the train to Hogsmeade, there's this awesome visual effect that makes it look like the folks in line ahead of you are actually walking through the brick barrier. Of course, when you actually walk through the "barrier," you're just walking through a normal walkway...but it's magical for those behind you.

Trying to get the 9 3/4 sign in the background. Meh. Good try.

Claire waiting (semi-patiently) for the train.


Anyone recognize this billboard from movie 6?

Claire and some porters at the station! She was SO excited and gave me a thumbs-up!

Leicester Square outside the entrance to King's Cross.

The Knight Bus, complete with a Stan Shunpike.

Number 12, Grimmauld Place. Kreacher makes regular appearanced in the window.

Amiee and Claire trying to get in.

The brick wall leading into Diagon Alley (not exactly from the Leaky Cauldron...but right next to it).

The Dragon guarding the top of Gringott's is the focal point of the Alley. Every twenty-ish minutes, the dragon rumbles and breathes fire. It's impressive. 

Better shot.

The main attraction in Diagon Alley is the ride housed inside Gringott's (that's the wizarding bank, for those of you who may not know). It's a cool ride, but honestly, a huge part of the cool factor comes from the awesome detail and attractions that you pass as you wind your way in line through the bank. It's incredible. There are even animatronic goblins (they run the bank, non-Potter fans) that look REAL (you know, as real as goblins can look). You travel into the depths of the bank (like Harry, Ron, and Hermione in book 7), so you see a wide variety of Potter-esque details. Absolutely incredible.

There were hilarious signs like this along the line to the ride.

This chandeliers are breathtaking. And GINORMOUS.


Goblins. They move and work and interact with each other. It's so weird/crazy/cool.


Goblin statue outside of Gringott's. He's standing on a mountain of galleons, by the way. Also, see how high the houses behind him rise? I learned that Universal intentionally built everything in Diagon Alley tall enough that, when in the Alley, you cannot see anything outside. It really helps sell the magic.

Weasleys Wizard Wheezes. Fred's/George's head bobs up and down while raising and lowering the top hat. It's nutty crazy in there...which is very appropriate.

Close up!

There are a couple of really great shows that we watched a few times, as well. Celestina Warbeck performs some of the songs mentioned in book 6 (at the Weasleys' house during Christmas break), and she is quite the performer. The songs are super catchy and she's pulls in easily-embarrassed guys for audience participation. I REALLY wanted her to pull Brad up on stage, but she didn't. Brad is just too cool and collected, I guess.

Celestina doing her thang.

There is also an amazing dramatic/puppet (very sophisticated puppets) show depicting the story of the Three Brothers from the Tales of Beedle the Bard. It was absolutely fantastic. The effects were so so so good, and we really enjoyed it. Twice. And a half, I think.

The beginning of the Three Brothers.

The first brother re-meeting Death.


The second brother using his stone.


The third brother meeting death as an old friend.


Claire was an enthusiastic supporter of all of the shows.

And a few other details, just for fun:

Quality Quidditch Supplies

Madam Malkins

Outside of the Magical Menagerie. Fun fact: Diagon Alley is designed so that if you buy the (very expensive) interactive wands, you can use them to perform "magic" at various locations. The magic includes making it rain and turning lights off and on. Claire was watching someone do that while Amiee was smiling for this picture.
The array of magical pets.

Unicorns!

A peck of owls!

There's even a Knockturn Alley. Now, we're not into dark magic, but we ARE into shade and air conditioning, both of which can be found in Knockturn Alley.

Borgin and Bourkes. 

 Flourish and Blotts

The signs for the bathrooms were "Witches" and "Wizards," rather than "Women" and "Men."

Yes, I did take a picture of the toilet.

Florean Fortescue's Ice Cream Parlor is, perhaps, one of the best parts. We had ice cream from there at least three- but I'm thinking four- times. The flavors are incredible and really unique. Some of our favorites: clotted cream, peanut butter and strawberry (my favorite), chocolate chili, butterbeer, and sticky toffee. UN-BE-LIEVABLE. Trust me on this. They let you get two flavors in one cup. I highly recommend a peanut butter strawberry-chocolate chili combo or a clotted cream-sticky toffee combo.

Florean's is the yellow building.

Another view.

These (sorta creepy) little guys bob up and down while you wait in line. Claire was highly entertained.

The Leaky Cauldron serves classic pub food that is quite yummy. It's also just a fun place to look around. The detail is so fun for Potter fans.

We thoroughly enjoyed exploring and experiencing Diagon Alley. There was so much more I couldn't even get pictures of. The detail is just unbelievable. Now, we still love Hogsmeade and prefer the abundance of rides that it offers, but the sheer experience of being immersed in a "wizarding world" is just really fun. I have even more I could write (and maybe one day I will), but it is HIGH TIME I get this post up. I've only been talking about it since May...

Happy Daddy's Day!

Between the fabled post I'm planning about Universal and our recent trip to Tennessee and Alabama, I should be posting a little bit more AND more frequently than I am. I realize this. 

And yet.

I'm a slow blogger. That's the long and short of it.

So, despite being behind on other posts that need to happen, I wanted to do a little tribute to Father's Day, or Daddy's Day, as Claire calls it. 

To the incomparable dads in our lives: we LOVE you. We RESPECT you. We think you're the very BEST that there ever was. We're so glad you are ours!

Anniversary #4

It's taking me forever to sort through all of our pictures and experiences from Orlando, but it will happen. Just not exactly sure when...

Brad and I celebrated our 4th anniversary last week. Yay, us! We actually were able to do quite a few fun things, just the two of us. Two days before our anniversary, we ventured out for a date to see "Newsies!" I LOVE the movie, so I was extremely excited when I saw it was coming to the DPAC. Thankfully, I discovered it was coming before Christmas last year and asked Santa for tickets. I'm a thinker, I am. The performance was fantastic. The set was so cool, the dancing was phenomenal, and I didn't mind too many of the plot differences between movie and stage production (not too many...but I did mind a few of them, truth be told. Has anyone else seen it? Opinions on the plot changes?).

The part of the evening I wasn't crazy about was childcare. Because we still haven't found a church to call home (I don't want to talk about it...it's the bane of my existence), we don't have a natural pool of people to draw from when it comes to babysitters. This left us resorting to relying on recommendations...which led us to paying $12/hour for a- very sweet- gal to watch our child watch a "VeggieTales" for 45 minutes and then sleep for the next three hours. It was almost physically painful to part with that money. I'm still a little traumatized by it.

My mom came in the next day and enabled us to go out without the sick feeling in our stomachs that we would be paying through the nose for someone reliable to sit with our daughter while she slept (she also played with her quite a lot). THANKS, MOM! We were able to go to Dame's Chicken and Waffles, finally. It's an extremely popular restaurant in town, and we have been wanting to check it out since, um, we moved here. You pretty much need to get a reservation, and we have actually tried to several times- unsuccessfully. Thank you, anniversary (and mom), for providing the opportunity. Y'all. It was SO GOOD. Weird and trendy, yes, but SO GOOD. We cleaned our plates and started talking about when we could return. If you come visit us, we'll make sure to get a reservation a week or two beforehand so that we can take you. Take our advice on this: GET MACARONI AND CHEESE AS YOUR SIDE. Even if you don't usually like it. You'll thank us later.

Playing with rocket exhibit at the museum

At Dame's. Fantastic date.

My dad came into town for the weekend so that he and mom could keep Claire for us while we headed out of town for a wedding. It was fabulous. We drove down to Augusta, Georgia for our friends' wedding. It was our very first Catholic wedding and was a fun- and very different- experience. It was absolutely beautiful! It was also much lengthier than your average protestant wedding (2 hours). We were so glad to get to be a part of the celebrating! We were, however, reminded that we are not late night people. We headed out from the reception at 11:30, and the garter and bouquet tossing had not even happened yet. (Also, I got to sleep in until 9:30 since we were at a hotel sans daughter. 9:30! I did not even know I was still capable of that. Can I get an "Amen," moms of littles??) 

Not sure what was so funny, but something was! Photo credit: Mom.

National Donut Day = free donuts at Krispy Kreme! It is a little unfortunate how close KK is to our house... Also, we learned KK is a North Carolina-based chain. Did you know that? 

I should also mention that Brad was on top of his game and got gorgeous flowers for the anniversary celebrating. Good job, Brad!

And for posterity, a list of things that have happened since our last anniversary:
1. Said our goodbyes to Boston and Boston friends.
2. Moved to Durham, North Carolina (almost 20-hour trip with the world's largest moving truck and an 18-month-old).
3. Brad started his Ph.D. program like a BOSS.
4. Claire started walking! And talking in paragraphs! And turned 2!
5. Duke won the national championship.
6. Brad finished his first year of Ph.D. work like a BOSS.
(plus a lot of other things, fun and not-so-fun)

It's been a great year. I'm looking forward to about 60(ish) more!

Pre-vacation excursion.

A couple of weeks ago, we went on vacation with my family to Universal Studios. That was fantastic, and I do plan to write about it. However, it'll be a long post, so until I get it done, I thought I'd post a little bit about our stop in Savannah, GA.

Brad and I decided to break our trip to Orlando into two days (yes, we drove rather than flew), and we spent the night a little south of Savannah. Ergo, we needed to stop and see some sights in Savannah. Obviously.

Due to the time of day we would be going through Savannah/the lack of a good nap/the fact that it was HOT and HUMID, we decided to spend about an hour looking around and then find a spot to eat a picnic dinner (I'm a big believer in not throwing out food, so I packed whatever was in our fridge into a cooler, and we ate on it all day while traveling). I found this list of free things to do in Savannah, and we picked a couple of things to try out.

We headed down to River Street, parked the car for an hour ($1/hour), and started strolling. It was slow going at first, given that the street was very cobblestone-y, and we didn't realize there was a nice PAVED walkway running parallel. Oops. We picked up a map of the historic district at a very conveniently located visitors desk (that was next to a bathroom!) and made a plan to check out a few of the historic parks located close to one another. Now, we went up (from the river to the main streets) the hard way, but we learned a better way to go down: right next to the Hyatt, there is a public elevator. MUCH better option than pushing a stroller uphill on cobblestone streets. Bless us.

We found a Black Dog shop on River Street. It's a New England thing, so it made us wistful and nostalgic. At least it made me those things.

This is what most of the streets looked like down by the river. Rough on the feet and the stroller, guys.

The Savannah Cotton Exchange and the Free Mason meeting hall. Also, the first Free Mason guild of Savannah was started by Bostonians.

The gate surrounding the shrubbery in the picture above had a different famous silhouette on each section. This is Jefferson. Looks just like a nickel.

Spanish moss everywhere.

The Savannah College of Art and Design is sprawling. Just everywhere. This is the prettiest of the buildings, by far.

Check out those fishy drains!

I had no idea that the Wesleys were all entrenched in Savannah's history.

I told Claire to come over for a picture, and this is what I got...

The Secret Garden, I think.

We hung out for a while in the War Memorial park. It was really beautiful and thoughtfully designed.

There were quite a lot of these quaint little bridges. If you look, you can see another tourist to the left of the greenery arch. She was rather annoyed that we were on the bridge, spoiling her picture. I wasn't crazy about her being in MY picture. Hmph.

Within just a few blocks, we were able to wander through several of the parks listed on the Historic District map. We probably would have enjoyed doing more, but again, it was HOT. Sweltering, even.

After roaming around for a while, we headed back to our air conditioned car and headed to Forsyth Park to eat supper. It was a gorgeous park. If we lived in Savannah, I'm pretty sure that Brad would go there everyday to study. And run. And eat. Basically, he would live there. 

Maybe on future trips to Florida we will be able to explore more, but we thoroughly enjoyed our short little excursion in Historic Savannah. It was a beautiful place to see...and let our toddler run out some energy. :)