Florida - Saturday

I thought about lumping the drive home into one post, but today was kind of remarkable on its own, so why not a post of its own! The plan for today was to check out by 10, then head to the Kennedy Space Center and then drive north to Jacksonville to meet Wendy Means aka Wendevious. Then after dinner with Wendy drive north to somewhere, beginning the drive home.

We cleaned up, packed up, started the laundry and away we went. We loved our week at our VRBO rental. It was perfect. I'm honestly not sure if there was anything I would have changed about it.

Oh and happy 22nd anniversary my love!

Trying to engage the girls about going to Kennedy proved fruitless. Kate wanted to go until she found out how much it cost. At some point Ken switched gears. One thing that Ken really wanted to do was to see alligators. He had read about the Lake Apopka Wildlife drive through a nature preserve. That seemed like a good idea that only cost us time and gas money. On our way there we made one stop at an Ulta to buy Fiona a much desired scented hand sanitizing spray. She chose watermelon when we were at the store. After gassing up we were on the way to Lake Apopka.

We entered the area, Ken as passenger, and began our slow drive through. The posted speed limit is 10 miles/hour. In some areas you can safely go around a stopped car, but in a few places it was too narrow to safely do so. There were a few places to turn out and stop, but for the most post you were not supposed to stop on the road way. It was a gravel/sand road that was white in colour. The drive was through the wetlands and marshy areas on the north shore of lake Apopka. The first wildlife that we saw in abundance were birds. It was a good few minutes before we saw our first alligator and oh the excitement! We drove and drove and took picture after picture. Fiona had climbed into the front seat and sat on Ken's lap. Alice was on the passenger side and at first she had all the best gators on her side, but eventually Kate had some good sightings too. All in the girls counted 72 gators! Ken was happy, we were all happy, it was awesome!

After the awesome drive we started to make our way up to Jacksonville. We needed gas and stopped at a gas station that had a taco bar in it. It was definitely not a touristy place at all and what did we see, more boiled peanuts, this time in cans. After we drove away Ken was sad we didn't buy a can.

Oh and this is Spanish moss. It hangs from oak trees. I just looked it up, it is neither from Spain nor is it actual moss. It's actually a flowering plant not a parasite and generally it doesn't kill the trees but it may slow down their growth. (The Spanish moss is the bits of stuff hanging down from the branches, this isn't the best picture.)

We drove through Ocala National Forest. The trees were really pretty. I love how different the trees are in the south. 

Six years ago, maybe seven years ago now, Ken was playing a game called wordscapes on his phone. I would steal his phone to play the game. He was mildly annoyed by this and encouraged me to just download the app myself, which I eventually ended up doing. In April of 2020 during the pandemic (I thought it was March but I googled it) wordscapes introduced teams. I started to get these messages about joining a team, or creating a team. On a whim I decided to create a team. Pretty soon other people started joining the team. I called the team Light. I felt like we all needed light during the pandemic and it just fit. One of the people that joined the team was a player named Wendevious. At some point Wendevious - Wendy Means and I became Facebook friends and we would chat privately from time to time. I told her a few months ago that we would be driving to Florida at Christmas and we started talking about meeting up. I was nervous. This is the first time that I've ever met someone in real life that I met online. It was our whole family, not sure if that was overwhelming or not for Wendy. We had a nice dinner at Longhorn's Steak House. It was brief but good. And it didn't feel like meeting a stranger, it felt like meeting a friend.

I think it was a street light that I accidentally caught on top of Wendy's head, but it just seemed kind of perfect!

From there the girls and I walked to CVS pharmacy across the street. I thought it would be so fun to find this book "What Makes a Rainbow". My high school friend Nicole is actually in Florida right now too. Her family is having a fun trip in the Florida keys. They're in a camper van and they've been visiting CVS stores finding copies of Matthias's favourite board book when he was little. I didn't find the book but saw Shaq gummies and they made me giggle - Ken had shown them to me in Target I think, or maybe Publix, in any case, I thought I'd take a pic.

And then we were on the road driving north. You can a little bit make out that the sign says Georgia.

But you really can't make out that this is the welcome to South Carolina even a little bit! 

The drive tonight was without incident which was a great blessing. This whole trip has been one blessing after another. We're in Florence, South Carolina at the Home2Suites by Hilton. 

Florida - What do you want to remember?

It's Saturday morning and we're packing up and all getting ready to go and I wanted to capture everyone's thoughts while they were fresh. I think this has been an absolutely amazing family trip and I am so thankful for the memories that we've created.

Fiona - The memories. Walking in through the gates of Magic Kingdom and seeing the castle and main street. And turning corners on rides and we're right next to the castle. And how there was a passage from Diagon Alley to Knockturn Alley and how there was snow on the roofs at Hosgmeade. Just how cool the Howarts castle looked. Yeah, Christams was fun, I don't really think about Christmas with this trip. I think about those two days, Tuesday and Thursday. The Mickey sheets. Disney was the best day of my life.

Alice - Disney World. (Anything specific) Um, no. I mean this trip right? But I don't know what specifically. Maybe Christmas. 

Kate - Seeing the castle with my own eyes for the first time. Seeing both castles really, Hogwarts and Cinderella's castle.

Ken - Disney is the happiest place on earth and that doesn't happen by accident, it's carefully manufactured. 

Wendy - The happy looks on my kids. The wonder at being somewhere warm in December. Happy squeals from the pool. How smoothly everything went. How much fun I had being with my Ken and my kids. 

Florida - The Last Full Day

We were supposed to hang out with the cousins again today. We were supposed to drive 3 hours round trip to go check out St. Petersburg and the beach and go for dinner. We were supposed to. But we woke up this morning tired and just wanting to chill. I looked at what was between us, which wasn't much.

I messaged Suzanne and she phoned me and we laughed together about the fact that we wanted to see each other but not enough to actually drive to see each other. It's sad and a little pathetic but we were tired and we both just wanted to relax and be and not drive. So we didn't. I'm a little sad, but it is what it is. We had such a lovely visit on Christmas. It was so lovely. 

Fiona wanted me to send a pic of Penelope to Suzanne. So I did.

Ken and I went to Publix again but we went to the Post Office first where I purchased a $1 money order and a stamp for a total of $4.08. UGH, but at least it's all taken care of!

There was swimming. Lots of lovely, lovely swimming in our own private heated pool. 

I even went swimming today. I hadn't been swimming yet. I do love to swim but sometimes I need to force myself to do it.

And then just like that the sun was sinking into the horizon and I went out to take a pic and then I ended up going on a little walk to chase the sunset.

One more cute nativity set because, why not!

And I caught a gecko on camera!

I love my Ken, I love my family. We had such a great week away. 

Florida - Universal

What. A. Day. I need some perspective I think, but today was a day. Universal is not Disney.

We left around 9 I think? We had a little hiccup on the way. Maps took us to a toll road and I didn't think we had a dollar in change. We ended up driving away with a little envelope that we need to mail a money order for a dollar into the Florida Interstate and then a few miles later I realized we had a dollar in change. Ugh and sigh.

We got to the parking garage and we parked in Spiderman. Universal is right smack in the middle of Orlando so instead of parking for days and a ferry and a monorail, there was just a parking garage. We took two escalators down two floors, two or three sections of people movers and then we walked along a boardwalk to the entrance of Islands of Adventure. We had chatted with Suzanne a bit yesterday and she gave us some of her tips and recommendations. She suggested starting at Islands of Adventure so we did.

We headed into the park and went right which took us to Dr. Seuss land. The Cat in the Hat ride was our first ride. It was cute. Kind of like the Winnie the Pooh ride but Cat in the Hat.

After that we kept heading further into the park, destination Hogsmeade. Our first mission was to get an interactive wand. There were Ollivander's wand shops in both park locations - Hogsmeade and Diagon Alley. We lined up outside the shop to participate in the little theatrical before buying the wand. It was cute. We waited about 30 minutes to go into the shop and we were standing still most of the time and we were tired and a little short with each other. I'm not 100% sure the little theatrical 5 minute someone in the crowd trying out wands was worth the 30 minutes, but maybe it was.

We decided to buy Fleur's wand in the shop. The wand comes with a map. There are several interactive spots all over Hosmeade and Diagon Alley. You stand on the spot, do the spell and then something happens. 

We had to take a pic with Hogwarts!

Trying out the wand. 

It seemed like it always took a few tries.

And all three girls wanted to always try and do the spell.

The wait times for the rides were really long and there weren't as many rides that we wanted to go on. I wish that I could go back in time and tell myself not to worry about how long all the casting of spells took. Maybe I should have joined in the fun and tried it out too.

After the wand we lined up for the Flight of the Hippogriff ride. Kate was super stressed. She had worked herself up. Didn't help that Ken had told her she had to go on rides. Kate doesn't like crazy rides which is why Disney is so perfect. We knew that the universal rides were more intense and I had repeatedly told Kate she doesn't have to go on scary rides. I think Ken worries that Kate shrinks when things are hard. For me, roller coasters aren't the hard thing she needs to stand up to. I think the wait for the ride was about 45 minutes? I can't remember exactly, but the ride was really cute and we all liked it!

After the ride we walked around for a bit and soaked in the ambience. We also went into Filch's Emporium and bought a couple of souvenirs. We bought a Christmas ornament, some magnets and Kate picked out a time turner. 

Ken lined up and bought one regular butter beer and one frozen butter beer. I tried a little mouthful of each - as they aren't dairy free. We all liked them a lot.

We did not buy the every flavour beans. I thought it appropriate for Alice to pose with the box inside the candy shop as Alice was brave enough to try them when we had a box in 2020.

The line up for Hagrid's Magical Creatures Motorbike Adventure was still two hours long and the simulation ride inside of Hogwarts we deemed too much for us, so we decided to hop into the line for the train to the other park. 

The wait for the train was LONG. We waited over an hour. 

We took a pic of the wand when we were waiting.

The building was cool but there wasn't much to look at or do while we waited. This is something that Disney did way better than Universal. I shouldn't keep comparing but seeing the ways they infuse everything with their magic is really inspiring.

You weren't supposed to take any pics or recordings during the train trip so I didn't. It was cute. They had shades on the window and you watched a movie on one of the screens. We were on a real train and we did go from Islands of Adventure to Universal Main and it was cute, but the line up. 

King's Cross Station on the other side, was really cool. The details were incredible.

We walked around London and went to the bathroom. We took a picture in front of 12 Grimmauld Place and I took a couple of other pics until we walked over to Diagon Alley.

Walking around the corner into Diagon Alley was so cool. It was incredible. There were so many stores and aside from merchandise there were just cool things to check out in the stores too. 

And there were more spells to cast. Our favourite had to be the one that produced water out of a frog's mouth, or water spraying out over your head into a poor unsuspecting pedestrian. I totally missed it but Kate got sprayed right in her stomach. Her shirt and pants were quite wet and stayed wet for a while. Thankfully she laughed about it. After she got sprayed the girls took turns seeing if they could catch someone unawares. 

The dragon on top of Gringots bank would randomly breathe fire. It was funny to see so many people holding up their phones to capture the moment. Kate got a cool pic so naturally I wanted my own. The dragon made some noises before breathing fire so you could get ready which was very nice of him.

Hagrid's Bike.

We wandered around quite a bit and after Alice protested her hunger for the fourth time we finally went to the Leaky Cauldron for lunch. You are encouraged to order on the app which we did. You were able to flag your order if there was an allergy and then one of the chefs came out to talk to you about your order. It was great. It was all British pub food and Ken, Alice and I were really happy with our food. I think Kate and Fiona were okay with the offerings.

My favourite though was my very own butter beer with a dairy free topping. It was so yummy!

We went back to Knockturn Alley after lunch and into Borgin and Burkes. They had all the death eater and deathly hallows stuff and the staff in the store were cheeky!

After soaking up the last little bit of Harry Potter World, we ventured out into the rest of the park in search of the Minion ride, another of Suzanne's recommendations. 

Minion Mayhem is a simulator ride. The line was long and it felt long. Many times the only reason we moved up was because people left the line. 

The ride itself was pretty cute. You were changed into a Minion and you had to help Gru plan a surprise party for the girls. The animation on the big screen showed you getting banged into things, going down coaster tracks, explosions - you felt all of it and it felt like you were going through everything on screen.

After the ride we got kind of stuck in the parade. We weren't sure where we were going or how to get there so we just watched the parade. It's sponsored by Macey's so it has big balloons being carried by people. We only saw the end of it. It was pretty cute seeing Shrek and Fiona and Santa.

Ken wanted to go back to Hogsmeade at night and to see the castle at night. We decided not to take the train this time and instead we exited the park and walked back into the other park. It was actually really quick.

I took a pic of the Green Eggs and Ham cafe - my favourite Dr. Seuss book when I was a kid.

Hogsmeade lit up and the castle lit up, it was really pretty. 

Again we got a little caught up in some mayhem. They blocked off the road just as we got there and we ended up on the side going to see the castle light show, so we did. I'm glad we ended up seeing it. It was a brief little show and it was really pretty, with a little burst of fireworks at the end.

After the light show things got a little ugly. Fiona thought she wanted a Hufflepuff badger but she couldn't decide. She also wanted to go on a coaster. It wasn't pretty. I didn't handle it well. Alice was able to calm Fiona down and thankfully no one else lost it. We went back to Filch's and picked up a badger. Oh and somewhere in Diagon Alley Alice picked out some earrings. After looking at all the different rides and finding nothing that fit Fiona's ride requirement with a reasonable time limit, we decided to go back to Dr. Seuss land and go on The high in the sky Seuss trolley train ride. We went to the bathroom first and then got in our last line of the night. It was a very long 45 minute wait, and the music in the background just about made me lose my mind, but we made it on the ride.

The ride itself was pretty cute even if I was still feeling a little (or a lot) bit grumpy.

After that we walked back through the park, picked up a Nutcracker for Ken's parents and a churro for Fiona and Alice. We went to the car and after a quick trip into Whole Foods we headed back to our rental place in very slow traffic. 

It was a long day. I enjoyed most of it, but the end of the night really soured me. I texted my sister that I hated Universal. I didn't really hate it, but we're definitely more a Disney family than a Universal family. I am however really grateful that we had the opportunity to go see all the really cool Harry Potter stuff. The Harry Potter books have given our family so much joy over the years.