"We're off to see the Wizards..."

"...the most wonderful wizards of all!"

That's right - we went to Hogwart's School of Wizardry for our summer vacation. To the Harry Potter fans, you'll enjoy this blog more than the muggles as you will understand what I'm actually saying at all points of this blog entry.

Since apparating and disapparating, are not allowed, I flew with Jet Blue to meet up with Logan for a day before leaving. Not have floo powder available, we thought of taking Ron's dad's car...but couldn't find it. I guess its still in the Forbidden Forest. Kris was kind enough to drive us across Florida to a small inn in Orlando.

As soon as we got to the inn, we traded our galleons for tickets to The Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Island of Adventure/Universal Studios. That evening much to Tina's dismay, we enjoyed dinner at Logan's favorite restaurant that was less than a half-mile from the inn. Buffalo Wild Wings for all! We went on to City Walk and enjoyed some ice cream in the sweltering heat of August...in Florida. (Need I say more!)

Early the next morning, Kris dropped us off at the shuttle bus and off we went. You should have seen my eyes light up when we walked into Hogsmeade Village. It was like walking into the favorite part of my literary mind. No longer did I have to steal visions from the movies or create them in my mind...I was walking, touching, breathing, seeing, smelling, and yes, tasting Harry Potter (literately not literally.)

Unfortunately, the "big ride" was not big enough for me. Yet. We were fortunate to walk to the front of the line and walk through the Hogwart's castle. It was too short for my excitement, but it was so darn neat. We went on to enjoy some Pumpkin Juice as we waited to buy a wand at Olivander's Wand Shop. Two young siblings were chosen out of the group of 30 or so to find their ideal wands. The first was too strong, the other too unpredictable, but the third -- ahhh ahhhhh -- perfect. ("William - stand straight!") We went on to purchase Logan's birth wand made of holly, but alas, there were no more.

We moved on quickly through the Owlry which was under a wooden canopy...barn would have been so more inviting. And then it was off for lunch (10:30am) at the Three Broomsticks. Here is where we had our first official Hogsmeade Butterbeer. Personally, my own recipe at home is better but only on a cold day. The chilled and frozen versions that we imbibed were quite yummy.

After walking through Honeyduke's Sweet Shop and Zonko's Magic Shop, we left Hogsmeade to enjoy the rest of the park. Quickly deciding that Island of Adventure was not our thing, we went to the other park, Universal, and spent the day on line, drinking cold beverages, eating snacks, and going on rides. Logan's favorite was Disaster where the crowd was part of the four-part movie process. To enjoy and see his excitement at the development of picking actors, assigning parts, doing stunts, and putting it all together...makes me think that perhaps acting could be part of his future.

It was time for me to put on my ruby slippers and click my heels together. "There's no place like home, there's no place like home, there's....hooray, Kris waiting for us down by buses." And home to mom it was!