Gina Bean!

For those of you I haven’t gushed about my trip to in person, here’s the quick and dirty.  It.  Was.  Awesome!  We flew to Orlando on Friday (Jasmine and I were both post-call) and witnessed Michelle throwing out her back in the airport.  We arrived at the hotel, bemoaned being ready to go to the park at 8:30am, ate, and got some sleep before the big day.  We basically raced through the rest of the Islands of Adventure to get to the back, where Hogsmeade is located, and then spend the rest of the day there.

After looking around and taking in the beautiful scenery (and doing a little bit of shopping), we went to The Three Broomsticks for lunch.  Here, Jasmine is the happiest she’d been since starting the trip.  She has her frozen butterbeer, ribs, chicken, corn, and most importantly, her wand.

Once we were all seated, we toasted Michelle.  That’s 3 frozen butterbeers, and apple cider, and 2 Hog’s Head wheat ales.  Michelle’s first legal drink!  At 11am!!!

Some more fake window-shopping led us to find this mandrake.  Obviously, the only thing one can do in the presence of a mandrake is to plug up one’s ears to block out the horrible screeching.

From Hogsmeade, we headed over to Hogwarts Castle!

After getting the chance to experience one of the most awesomest motion rides ever, we winded down by visiting Ollivander’s.  Michelle even got fitted for her wand by the old man himself!  (And check out the stacks and stacks of wands behind him.  His whole shop was like that.)

And now we’re back home.  I’m already looking forward to when Evan and I will get to go again!