NERD ALERT!

WARNING! If you have no interest in hearing me prattle on about how much we loved Harry Potter land, flip to another blog now. . .

I don't know if you can tell or not, but this is a girl in heaven. I'm sort of embarrassed to admit it, but I never grew out of my love for theme parks. It really does bring out the ugliest of humanity, but oh the thrill of a roller coaster that will flip me upside down. Bliss.

We first heard about Universal Studios opening a Harry Potter section of its theme park three years ago when we were on vacation in Dublin and have been waiting to visit ever since. This year, we decided that we got so many lovely wedding gifts that neither of us wanted a big Christmas gift so we decided instead to get away for a weekend and drive to Florida. I booked our trip about a month ago and our package included early admission tickets to the park and breakfast at the Three Broomsticks - a full English which included actual black pudding!! (If you don't know what that is, it's pretty gnarly stuff but sooo yummy. But don't google it if you have a weak stomach.) We dashed into the park an hour before opening and were able to ride the main coaster in the Harry Potter section of the park. It was a 3D type ride that took you on a broomstick tour of Hogwarts. Awesome. Then breakfast. Then we toured the shops, had butterbeer and rode the other rides. Butterbeer? You don't know the joy that is butterbeer???

Here's a picture of one of the butterbeer carts in Diagon Alley.

And this is photographic evidence of its deliciousness. I'm not a soda drinker but this thing was so amazing that we had one in the morning and I begged the Mr. to go back to the park that night so I could have another. It's like cream soda with butterscotch and some sort of whipped cream on top. Scrummy. We found a recipe online so we're going to do our best to recreate it tomorrow.

Here's the view of Diagon Alley from the butterbeer cart at night.

And here's how I felt at the end of our trip.

It was a whirlwind and we came home exhausted. Two days at the parks, three outlet malls (I love you J. Crew outlet!!) and lots of bad, fried (delicious) fast food. And our first ever all-by-ourselves trip is done and I can't wait for the next one!!

xoxoxox