Harry Potter Land!!!!

A life dream came true for four of us the weekend after Thanksgiving.  We went to HARRY POTTER LAND in Orlando, Florida!!!  [For all of you Sean fans out there, Sean unfortunately is not a part of this story.  That just means I'll have to go again with him!]


The four of us:
Jessica: Lab mate at SDSU, dear friend, and Hufflepuff House
Luisa: Teach For America friend, flew in from Delaware, Gryffindor House
Samantha: Former SDSU lab mate, dear friend, Hufflepuff House
Me: Goofball, enthusiast extraordinaire, Ravenclaw House

Ready for this life experience to begin!!!

From the parking lot at Universal Studios, we could see Hogswarts castle!  This meant that I wanted to run the entire way there.  This was not actually possible (something about having to buy tickets first).

Can you see it?  Can you see it?

After buying our tickets, we quickly wound our way through Dr. Seuss-land (which would have been a lot cooler if it wasn't between us and HP Land).

Directions to Harry Potter from Seuss Land

And, finally, FINALLY, we were there.  Diagon Alley in Hogsmeade lay before us in all of its wintery glory!

Outside of Hogwarts!

The first thing you see when you walk in is, of course...

The Hogwarts Express

And the shops of Diagon Alley!

We pretty much ran from one store front to another (starting with Zonko's).

The girl had eaten Puking Pastilles!

The Owl Post, complete with owls!

Luisa entering Honeydukes!

Outside the Three Broomsticks, where
we of course had lunch!

The inside of the shops was, if possible, even more wonderful!

Wearing our respective house colors

Inside Zonko's Gift Shop

Honeydukes with its amazing candy assortment,
including blood and acid pops (which I'm holding)!

We saw both the Beaubaxtons and Durmstrang students perform...

The strong Durmstrang students

The lovely Beaubaxton students

and even got to meet them!

After exploring Hogsmeade, we ventured up to Hogwarts,

A sign pointing the way

Jess and her butterbeer leading the way!

which was, of course, magical!

Dumbledore's office guardian!

The Mirror of Erised!

A room of moving, talking pictures!

We drank butterbeer,

Jess's commemorative mug

tried out wands

Sam holding the ELDER wand

Testing whether or not the want chose us (this one didn't)

(in some cases buying a wand),

Luna Lovegood and I have the same wand
(even though no two are exactly alike, obviously).

rode broomsticks, 

I think I chose the wrong size broom...

and ate delicious Bertie Bots Beans

and disgusting Bertie Bots Every Flavor Beans. 

And, when the time (eight hours later) came to go, I did not handle it well.

"I don't want to go!"

But, then, neither did Luisa!  (Ignore the fact that I'm in both pictures!)

Expressing our extreme sadness at having to leave
such a magical, magical place!

While it was very bittersweet leaving the Wizarding World to return to the Muggle world, I know that as a true wizard, I'll be back (hopefully with Sean too next time).