Advertisement
Published: June 20th 2017
Button
Birthday buttonGeo: 28.5377, -81.3774
What a wonderful day. Today is my birthday (I'm 59), and Jeff and I had lunch at the Leaky Cauldron!!
We got up and drove to Universal. We aren't carrying much today - just fanny packs for water bottles, tissues, keys and our "just-in-case" ponchos.
When we get to the park entrance I tell the attendant that it is my birthday and I get this button. It is thanks to dear Chrysta ( my friend and daughter-in-law) that I know about the buttons. Thanks, Chrysta!! The buttons don't get you anything special that we're aware of but all the park employees see it and wish me happy birthday. It makes me happy every time.
We have a plan for the day. When we were in the park on Saturday we rode the Hogwarts Express one way. Today we want to ride it the other way. Then we are going to ride the "old" Harry Potter ride again, and we'll stand in line to ride the newest Harry Potter - Escape from Gringott's ride - remember? That's the one I screamed myself hoarse on last Saturday.
YIKES!! It has started to rain. No, it has started to POUR!!! We
Rain, rain
Rain, rain.... have just gotten off the Escape from Gringott's ride and have found the exits blocked by people not wanting to go into the deluge. We step aside, open our handy-dandy ponchos and put them on; Jeff, who is wearing sandals slips them off and takes off his socks. (Yes, he was wearing socks with sandals but it doesn't look stupid - really.) So, anyway he tucks his dry socks into his pack and we step out. Okay! Someone is dumping BUCKETS of rain on us... Those folks without rain gear look as though they've been swimming with all of their clothes on. Wow!
We hurry to the Hogsmeade train station to catch the Hogwart's Express. Part of that line is covered and people are stripping off ponchos. One mother is wringing out her sons' shirt. Claps of thunder and the darkening clouds add to the ambience. Jeff asks me "how far is London from Hogsmeade?" I told him that it is at least three hours - he thinks the weather will be better when we arrive there. Hahaha (It is a 5 minute train ride).Nope, still raining in London but certainly not enough to dampen my enthusiasm.
We spend most
Lunch at the Leaky Cauldron with butter beer
Lunch at the Leaky Cauldron - with butter beer of the afternoon exploring Diagonal Alley and some of the photos are below.Then, a very late lunch at the Leaky Cauldron! When I ordered the waitress noticed my birthday button and asked if I would like a free butter beer with my lunch. YES! I sure would! (So, apparently you do get something special with your button.)
I really enjoyed my lunch; sitting in the corner gazing into the restaurant I pretended I could see Snape giving Mundungus instructions; or Hermione floating a Christmas tree in front of her table to provide cover to herself, Ron and Harry. Imagination is a wonderful gift.
After lunch we went back into Diagonal Alley and the dragon on top of Gringott's starting growling and suddenly breathed fire! We were far away and his breathe was hot!
Oh, I just had so much fun!
Knowing that we have another day on our Universal passes made it easier to leave this cool wizarding area and go back into the Muggle world and enjoy other attractions.
We are walking by the Simpson's ride and notice there is only a 10 minute wait. We really like this ride and hurried to get in line. It was
Inside the Leaky Cauldron
Inside the Leaky Cauldron even more fun than when we rode on Saturday
When we exit the ride, the weather has changed A LOT! It is very chilly, super windy and pouring rain. People trying to use umbrellas to keep dry give up and there are people running everywhere. Holy crow! We join a huge crowd of people under a marquee hoping the rain will let up. Eventually it does, minimally, and we slog out (my sneakers and wool socks are totally water sodden). I'm happy to keep my poncho on not only as protection against the rain but for its warmth.
We head for the Revenge of the Mummy ride - we enjoyed that one when we were here a couple of years ago. We got turned around trying to find it and ducked into a shop to regroup. About then I realized how very cold I was and decided I'd had a great birthday day and was pooped (and soggy and cold). We finished up with some souvenir purchases (guess who has a new t-shirt? Haha)
The rain stopped as we got to the car.
Thank heavens we have a washer/dryer in our condo. Do you have any idea how noisy sneakers
Flourish & Blots
Flourish & Blots are when they bang around in the dryer?? It suddenly occurred to me to throw a couple of towels in with them to muffle the racket. Once they are dry, I do our laundry. We packed so light for this trip that we are both out of clean clothes and everything we brought, plus my new shirt, fits into the small apartment sized washing machine.
Jeff woke up feeling not great this morning and spending the day in the weather has, I'm sure, not done him any good. Yesterday we'd made a quick trip to Walgreens to get him some daytime cold medicine. I think he has plane plague, but now we're both thinking it might be really bad allergies.
By the way, I did find some good postcards and bought a bunch of them, BUT we can't find the mailing labels!! So, you may be receiving your postcard mailed from Colorado! Sorry, Eve""We took everything out of the suitcase, backpack, they aren't in the iPad case or tucked into a book and we're out of places to search. Oh, and neither of us can find our earbuds either. Hmmm...I wonder if Peeves has been around....?
We had such a
The Daily Prophet offices
The Daily Prophet offices big lunch that neither of us is hungry, so we just have wine and talk about an off-the-wall idea we have for our "rest" day tomorrow. Until then...
Advertisement
Tot: 0.096s; Tpl: 0.013s; cc: 9; qc: 46; dbt: 0.0515s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
Bev
non-member comment
What a great way to spend your birthday!