Fun with My Family!

I talked about birth and death in my last two posts. Now it’s time to talk about what happens in between – LIFE!! I had so much fun with my kids at the Wizarding World of Harry Potter in Orlando! Dorothy (DC) and Q invited Al and me to go with them. We were scheduled to go in February but DC ended up in the hospital so we had to cancel. She was on vacation this week. I have read all the Harry Potter books and seen all the movies. I am constantly amazed by J.K. Rowling’s imagination! She created a whole new world that exists beside the real world. So clever! And she used her knowledge of Latin to name the wizards and the spells. The theme is the age-old one of good versus evil. An evil wizard and his followers are trying to take over the world and the good wizards must stop them! A mother’s love saved her child’s life and he grew up to defeat the evil one! So inspiring!

When we got to the theme park, we realized that Harry Potter World was one of six sections of Islands of Adventure. Our tickets allowed us to see all six. And we were amazed at the number of British tourists in the Harry Potter section! One of the park workers told DC that most of the visitors come to see the Wizarding World; all the other sections had much fewer tourists. And, like most of the tourists, we headed straight for Harry Potter’s World! It consisted of the town of Hogsmeade and the castle at Hogwarts School. In Hogsmeade we drank butterbeer and shopped at Honeydukes Homemade Sweets shop for chocolate frogs, fudge flies, and other delights. The butterbeer tasted like butterscotch and root beer. It was delicious! While DC and Q went into the ride through Hogwarts Castle, I stayed outside and enjoyed the songs of the Hogwarts Choir with croaking frogs. Four people sang while carrying large frogs that croaked periodically in a deep voice. Oh, by the way, the frogs were artificial; no animals were harmed in the concert. We ate a hearty lunch of chicken, vegetables, meat pies and salads at the Three Broomsticks restaurant. And we shopped at Ollivander’s wand shop, where the Book of Monsters was on display, constantly growling and snarling at us!

That night we had an adventure. DC and Q intended to buy a time travel necklace. A clerk pulled it from the back storage area and left it at the cashier’s for them to get when they checked out, but they forgot it. After supper we went back to retrieve it. We were able to park and get in without having to pay again, but when Q and Al tried to go into the theme park to make the purchase, they said it was too late to let anyone else in, because there was not enough time to take any of the rides. It was 7:00pm by now and the park closes at 8:00. They were directed to a theater at the City Walk but the manager was not available to talk to them because a show was going on. So Al went to Starbucks, where DC and I joined him, while Q went “on a mission” to get the necklace. He returned to the park gates and located a man wearing a shirt that said, “Director.” Q said, “Excuse me, sir, are you married?” The man replied, “Yes.” Q said, “Then you will understand my predicament.” He explained how they meant to buy the necklace earlier but forgot it and that his wife had been complaining, yelling and whining at him all afternoon and evening! Not true, but it made a dramatic point! HA HA! He finished with, “Sir, if I don’t get this gift for my wife, I don’t know what I’m going to do!” The man turned to a worker and said, “Take this man to the store and get him what he needs!” The store was closing; they had already returned the merchandise to the storeroom and closed out the cash registers. But they got Q what he needed! And he had a very happy wife! I told him, “Now I know, Q! You can do anything!”

At the hotel, Al met some British tourists. He happened to be wearing the Hard Rock Café T-shirt that my sister bought him from London. On the back, it has a picture of a royal palace guard playing an electric guitar! Those are the guards that are not supposed to move or change expressions while on duty, much less play guitar in their uniforms! Al walked over to the tourists, showed them his shirt, and they laughed hysterically!

Pictures show the train to Hogwarts School and Hogwarts Castle; a street scene in Hogsmeade; DC and Q, the loving couple; DC and Q drinking butterbeer in front of the Honeydukes Homemade Sweets; and the three of us in front of the Spiderman exhibit in the Marvel Super Hero section.