Party in Florida!

May has basically been the coolest month ever. I graduated from nursing school, my parents came out to Georgia and we got to hang out with them and show them around Atlanta, and we went to Florida!  Seriously, life is good...REAL good (a Nacho Libre reference for Matt).

Ever since we moved to Georgia, I have been excited to visit Orlando, Florida so we could visit the Wizarding World of Harry Potter in Universal's Islands of Adventure park. So as a happy graduation, happy birthday, and our summer vacation, we decided to go!  

We got an amazing deal and got to stay in the Animal Kingdom Jambo House Resort for 2 nights!  Our view from our 5th floor room overlooked a savannah where Giraffes, Zebra, Ankole Cattle, Antelopes, various birds, and other animals roam.  It was SO cool.

 

View from our balcony.  We loved watching these giraffes.

Animal Kingdom was so much fun.  I loved how they had the animals in huge areas, not pent up in tight spaces.  

First we went on a safari.  We rode in a big jeep that drives through the savannah.  We actually got some really good photos because a few times an animal walked in the road ahead of another jeep, so we got to stay put and look around while they waited for it to move out of the way. While waiting for one animal to move, we saw and heard a male lion roar.  SO COOL. We also sat in front of these elephants for a few minutes just enjoying them running around and eating.

   

One of our favorite roller coaster rides was Expedition Everest.  We went on it 3 times through the course of the day (thank you fastpass!). 

 

 This is Matt's Yeti impression.

We went to a few shows at Animal Kingdom.  We saw a musical theater version of Finding Nemo which had amazing costumes and puppetry.  We also saw a show with various birds called Flights of Wonder and a musical show called The Festival of the Lion King.  In the bird show, they had birds fly over our heads, talk, sing, and just look beautiful. 

We walked around plenty of trails that had animals along them.  There were small apes and tigers in the Asia area, gorillas, monkeys, bats, and hippos in the Africa area, and other fun ones like Kangaroos and lemurs around this big tree, called the Tree of Life.  It has animals carved into it.  We had fun finding different ones in the trunk and branches. 

 We loved animal kingdom! 

The next day we went to Universal's Islands of Adventure.  We got there before the park opened so we could go straight to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter.  We wanted to do the ride that you walk through the castle first, since it usually has the longest line.  I could barely keep walking once we entered Hogsmeade because I wanted to look at EVERYTHING!  It is a Potterfan's dream come true.  

 

Inside the castle there are loads of recognizable rooms, artifacts, and items from the books and films.  The mirror of Erised, the statue at the entrance to Dumbledore's office as well as his entire office (including the pensieve), talking portraits, floating candles in the great hall, the Defense against the dark arts classroom (where a projection of Ron accidentally makes it snow) and the talking sorting hat.  It is the most fun you will ever have while waiting in a line.  The actual ride was really cool too.  Look at this excitement before the ride!

Next to the castle is the Dragon Challenge.  They are two roller coasters that intertwine, each named after a dragon: the Chinese Fireball and the Hungarian Horntail.  We rode each one once because the lines were short.  Walking up to the roller coasters had lots of fun things to look at too, like the goblet of fire (complete with blue flames) and the triwizard cup.  And don't worry that the flying car is in the woods next to you as you walk through the line.

After the ride we took a quick look around, but it had gotten extremely busy.  We decided to go explore the rest of the park and come back later in the afternoon when it might be a little calmer.  As we were leaving we heard music, and a little show was being put on!  Representatives from Beauxbatons and Dermstrang performed their introductions just like in HP4.  Very cool. 

 We visited Jurassic Park, did a water ride in the cartoon land, saw two cool shows, went on the Cat in the Hat in Dr. Seuss land, and went on two great rides in the superhero area.  The Hulk is a huge rollercoaster, and Spiderman is a 3D thrill ride that uses actual props as well as screens/projections.  

After we had done everything we'd wanted to and we figured some of the crowds may have gone home, we headed back to Harry Potter land.  We got ourselves some delicious butterbeer, which tastes like cream soda with some buttery sweet foam on the top.  

Love the details!  The chimneys are crooked, the shop windows are filled with items that move on their own, and everything feels so magical!

We went on a hippogriff ride that takes you around Hagrid's hut, and shows Buckbeak hanging out.  Then we went on the castle ride again.  I wanted to be in the park when all the lights came on in the castle windows and the store windows.  LOVED it!

 We bid farewell to Orlando, extremely happy and thoroughly tired after having packed in everything possible into 2 days and 2 parks.  We drove to Clearwater, Florida, which is on the gulf side of Florida just a bit southwest of Tampa.  It was amazing!

After swimming for a few hours, we went home and rested.  Then we drove back to the beach for the sunset.  It was beautiful.

The next day was Sunday, so we found a local congregation of our church and went there.  I actually got to help out in the 3-5 year old children's class because they needed an extra helper.  Those kids were hilarious.  After church we went back to our hotel and relaxed.  Then we drove to the beach later to see the sunset again.