Because the day before had been so long and tiring, we took the opportunity to sleep late. Which, as it turned out, was probably a mistake.

The plan for today was to go to Universal Orlando and visit The Wizarding World Of Harry Potter (w) . Terry and I have been Harry Potter fans for years, ever since a friend of ours gave us the audio version of the first book in the series, as a going away present when we moved to Marin County a few years ago. Since then, we've read all of the books on audio, I've re-read the first four in print, we've seen all of the movies except for the most recent one, and I've read most of the ancillary books that have been released by J.K Rowling (or as I refer to her, J.Ro).

Universal Orlando consists of two parts. One part is Universal Studios Florida, which is, as far as I know, substantially the same as Universal Studios here in L.A. The other part is Islands Of Adventure, a theme park consisting of several sections, each based around a movie. The two parts are connected by a Universal City Walk, like the one in L.A.

So we got there, and parked, and had a loooong walk from the parking garage to the main gate, by way of the City Walk, which was crowded and incredibly noisy:

The tower in the distance marks the entrance to Islands Of Adventure, where we had a loooong wait to buy tickets. Then we had a loooong walk from the gate to HP World. Our walk took us through the Port Of Entry - kind of like Disneyland's Main Street, with no rides, but lots of shops and restaurants - and through Seussland, where everything is done in Dr. Seuss' distinctive visual style:

We finally got to HP World, and discovered, to our dismay, that there was an hour and a half wait in line just to get in! Well, we had come too far, and spent too much, to turn back, so we got in line. After 15 or 20 minutes, a park employee let us jump the line and get in... it seems he was worried about the dog having to wait in line for so long!

Now, those of you who have read the Harry Potter books will recognize the names and references in what follows. Those who haven't... won't. Sorry, but I'm not going to go into explanations. Go read the books, and then come back here, and everything will make sense.

Here are some pictures I took while waiting to get in:

Hogwarts


Hogsmeade

Once we got in, it was more of the same. Lines everywhere. Long lines to get on the rides. That's to be expected, of course. But there were also long lines to get into the stores. Long line to buy refreshments. And wall to wall people everywhere:

And this was on a Tuesday! I shudder to think of what the place must be like on the weekend.

Well, we made the best of it. What else could we do? HP World basically consists of three rides, a restaurant, and several shops. Not all that much, really, and if not for all the people, we probably could have seen the whole thing with time left over to explore some of the other areas of the park. As it was, by the time we finished with HP World, we were too exhausted to do anything else.

As we entered, we were greeted by the Hogwarts Express:

There was also an Owl Post office, where (I discovered later) you can send mail, and it will have a Hogsmeade postmark.

There are a number of shops, some of which are working shops, while others are "window dressing." The fake shops all have signs in the windows saying that they're closed for lunch, or that they'll be right back, etc. Here are some pictures of some of the shops:

Gladrags Wizardwear


McHavelock's Wizarding Headgear


Scrivenshaft's Parchments, Inks and Quills


Tomes and Scrolls bookshop


Wiseacres Wizarding Equipment

One feature that often appears in the book is moving photographs. That's accomplished here with flat screen monitors. For example, here's a "photograph" of Gilderoy Lockhart that appeared in the bookstore window:

Of course, this picture - the one here on the page - doesn't move... although if I'd thought of it, I could have used the video recorder function on my camera. Anyway, the picture in the window did move. And on the subject of moving photographs, here's one of Sirius Black:

The working stores included:

Dervish and Banges' gift shop


Honeyduke's sweet shop


Ollivander's wand shop


Zonko's joke shop

We went into Honeyduke's, where of course they sold:

The one in the window was animated, of course... it moved up and down and made croaking noises. The smaller ones that you can actually buy and eat are, we hope, motionless.

And of course, the store also sold:

We passed on those (no earwax flavor jelly beans for me, thanks), but bought some other candies, including a chocolate bar, which Terry says was the best she'd ever had. We also bought a cauldron cake - which turned out to be a cake with a chocolate mousse filling, in the shape of a small cauldron.

Speaking of edibles, there were also refreshment stands selling:

...which tasted like cream soda with butterscotch flavor. And of course:

... which tasted like apple cider, with pumpkin puree and pumpkin pie spices added. It was delicious

I also went into Dervish and Banges, where I saw this copy of "The Monster Book of Monsters," the snapping textbook mentioned in one of the HP books. This one was, of course, snarling and snapping. The picture isn't very good, though:

Outside Dervish and Bange's, there was a park employee holding a smaller version of the book, which also snarled and snapped at passers-by... unless you pet it, of course. When Terry went by, I had her pet the book. She asked, "But what if it bites?" The park employee said, "Oh, you can go ahead and pet me!" I found out later that Terry had thought it was the book talking!

And to close out this overly long section on Hogsmeade shops, here's a picture of a set of Quidditch balls in a shop window:

The two bludgers were, of course, vibrating and straining against their chains, while the Golden Snitch (which, you will notice, is not in its place) was flying around somewhere.

As I said, there were three rides. The first ride we went on was Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey (w) . I recommend that you stop here and read the Wikipedia article - it gives a more comprehensive description of the ride than I can give. In fact, having read the article, I want to go back and do the ride again, so I can look for the things I missed!

The ride takes place inside a replica of Hogwarts:

Again, the line was long, but again, someone came and pulled us out of line. And again, it was because of the dog. I have to say, Universal is way ahead of the curve on their handling of guests with disabilities. We were taken to a special area, where they had a kennel waiting for Trooper, and then we got on our "magic bench" and were on our way. Now, normally the mechanics of these rides are carefully hidden from the riders. But we weren't boarding the ride where everyone else did, but were instead in a special area off to the side. So, just before our ride started, I was able to get a glimpse of the robot arms controlling the motion of the benches.

The only down side of our special treatment was that, by jumping the line, we missed the attractions in the queue area. So after the ride was over, we walked through the queue area to see what we had missed. There were the talking portraits, the Gryffindor common room (complete with the painting of The Fat Lady), and Dumbledore's office:

Notice the railing above and behind Dumbledore's desk chair. There was a screen there, on which was rear-projected a film clip of Dumbledore giving a short speech of welcome to the guests. Unfortunately, it didn't come through on the picture.

The next ride was the Dragon Challenge (w) . This is a roller coaster. Actually, it's two roller coasters, whose tracks intertwine with each other. It's one of those coasters where you ride suspended from the track above you, and you're thrown upside down several times. It's like the Batman ride at Magic Mountain... and thereby hangs a tale.

The last time Terry and I went to Magic Mountain, when we rode the Batman ride, I got violently sick. I started throwing up just as the ride finished, even before I had a chance to get off. Then after I got off, I ran into a corner and continued throwing up for what seemed like forever. I then staggered to a restroom, totally humiliated, and cleaned myself off as best as I could. And then we went home. I haven't been back since.

So you can imagine that I approached this ride with some trepidation. But I thought I'd be okay. At Magic Mountain, I had eaten lunch just before we went on the ride. Also, I could barely fit in the seat - the harness was such a tight fit that I could hardly breathe. This time, however, I hadn't eaten lunch yet, and I'd lost over twenty pounds since the Magic Mountain incident. So I thought I could handle it.

Right. And denial is a river in Egypt. I didn't throw up, but as soon as the we finished riding the first of the two coasters, I told Terry that I wasn't going to be able to do the second one. So she went without me, while I waited for her, and kept telling my stomach to shut up and leave me alone.

This was most distressing. I've never been able to handle rides that spin you around, like the teacups at Disneyland. But I've always been able to ride roller coasters. I may still be able to deal with traditional sit-down coasters, but it looks like the suspended ones are out of the question.

The third ride, The Flight Of The Hippogriff, is a traditional roller coaster. I wish we'd done that one first... but after the Dragon Challenge, there was no way I was getting on any roller coaster, so we passed. Instead, we went for lunch at:

The Three Broomsticks...outside


...and inside

As we ate, occasionally I would see on the wall a shadow of an arriving owl.

At one point - I think it was after the Forbidden Journey ride, but before the Dragon Challenge - we were treated to a musical performance by a group of Hogwarts students... and their frogs:

The frogs, of course, sang the bass notes.

After we left HP World, we went back to the hotel. I went back to Flipper's for some sub sandwiches, and we relaxed and watched a movie in our room. It had been a long day.

There's not much to tell about the last day. We got up, packed up, checked out, drove to the airport, returned the rental car, and flew home. We had a three hour layover in Seattle. Because we have an Alaska Airlines branded Visa card, once a year we get a free pass to the Alaska Airline Boardroom - sort of a lounge area, with free drinks and snacks, where passengers can wait for their flights in comfort. So we hung out there while we waited for our flight home.

Terry took the opportunity to check our voice mail. When she hung up, she told me that there was a message from the HR manager at my company. So I called to see what was up. That's when I was told that the day before, while we were enjoying ourselves at Harry Potter World, the announcement had been made that my company's California office was going to be shut down and merged with the Texas office, and that in the process, several positions had been eliminated, including (you knew this was coming, didn't you?) mine.

Wonderful. I go away on vacation, spend too much money, buy a timeshare, and come home to discover I don't have a job.

As of this writing, about three weeks later, I'm still looking for work. But I've had lots of interviews, and lots of contacts from recruiters. So I'm fairly confident that I'll have a new job soon. Let us pray.