February 2011 Update - Florida
February was a great month. We were able to get away on a little family vacation and had a wonderful time. After reading the entire Harry Potter series to the kids last year, we decided that we all wanted to experience the Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Universal Studios Orlando. So, we decided on a Florida trip during the kids' mid-winter break. At first we thought of renting a car and heading down to the Keys since none of us have ever been there, but we found out the Space Shuttle Discovery was scheduled to launch while we were there. Plans were changed and we planned on a day at the beach to watch the shuttle launch. I'm getting a little ahead of myself. When we first arrived in Orlando, we headed to Universal Studios. We planned on spending 2 days there and I'm glad we did. It was so busy, especially Harry Potter. You had to get a ticket once inside that told you what time you could enter Harry Potter's Wizarding World. It was really cool, but there were so many people. The castle was really cool:
And we all got our "butter beer":
And, of course, the kids had to go into Honey Dukes Candy shop to get their chocolate wands, chocolate frogs, and Bertie Bots every flavor beans:
Every place you wanted to go in had a line and at least 30 min wait. It was worth it. The kids enjoyed it so much. They even got wands from Olivander's wand shop. A couple boat bucks down the drain for this little vacation, but overall it was totally a good thing to do.
The second night we decided to have dinner at Margaritaville (of course) and it was wonderful:
The margaritas were perfect:
4 years ago we went to Florida and took a pictures on the surf board. Check out the difference 4 years makes:
This year:
November 2006:
The next day we went to Seaworld and had a great time, but we all agreed we like seeing these beautiful creatures in the wild. We are so lucky to live where we do and have whales, porpoises, seals, sea lions, and so much more in our back yard. The highlight of the day was Ellie was chosen to go up on stage and help Clyde the sea lion:
The next day we headed to the coast in our rented convertible to spend the day at the beach:
And the highlight of this day is seeing the shuttle Discovery take off for the last time:
We had a great time. The drive home and the sunburns we all got was a bit of a bummer, but otherwise it was a great ending to our trip. The next day we headed home. It was hard to step off the plane to snow in Seattle. Oh well, now only a couple more months until summer (hopefully). Time to get back to work.
