New Beginnings Day 2 Universal Studios

May 9

We were up early for our trip to Hogwarts. I am not a huge Harry Potter fan, but the excitement was contagious.
Universal divides their parking into 3 seperate areas and charges accordingly. The most expensive one was already full. I asked if the other two sections had a shuttle. The girl at the parking stand said no, so we chose the middle one. Later on, we found out that there was indeed a shuttle, because we saw it running. Plan accordingly.

Myself, DD, DD's boyfriend and DGD arrived first. We explored Citywalk for a few mins. We were going to hop into the photo booth to take some pics, but we got the call that the others had arrived. We met up at Bubba Gump and then tried to cram all of us into a selfie in front of the globe. Thankfully, my oldest son had a selfie stick and has very long arms (he is 6'4"). Even then, we were all leaning in at crazy angles and Megan was yelling "just take the picture" after several attempts (in a fun way. She isn't a mean type of person.)

We made it through the front gate and headed to Platform 9 3/4. The conductor was standing there in front of Hogwart's Express welcoming people and taking pictures with them. Being the muggles that we are, we chose to go unnoticed. We scurried through the streets of Hogsmeade, eager to get to the castle proper. We were shown where to park the stroller, where to find a locker to put our stuff in and then which line to go in for the baby swap area. There were some interesting things to see - the founders of hogwarts, projections of harry, hermione and ron talking to each other, a dragon skeleton, etc - some very pretty areas. I almost lit the spiders on fire, but the rest of the group dissuaded me. Once we reached the end of the line, I was shown to the baby muggle room. Since I have a muscle condition, the pattern became that I watched Lillian, and then they would report to me how rough the ride was by comparing it to a Disney ride. If I was able to ride it, we would do the baby swap. (Before all of the naysayers kick in, my doctor is ok with this arrangement. He says I can do what I feel capable of doing.) The scouting report was that I could physically handle it, but that the giant spiders in the Forbidden Forest may attack me. (Did I mention that I believe all spiders should be burned to death?)

My daughter took my hand and we battled giant spiders, dementors and a dragon. We hopped onto broomsticks and flew high into the air playing quidditch, over the ocean, and into the castle to avoid being eaten by a dragon. Soon, we were safely back in Hogsmeade, deciding which wand to buy and heading to Honeyduke's for some goodies. While we were there, we decided to grab a little snack at the Three Broomsticks.

I watched Lillian at a table while they ordered. Then I ran to use the restroom. While I was peeing, a voice came out of the toilet. I hurried back to the table and reported what happened which gave everyone a good laugh. We smuggled our wizarding goodies past the Ministry of Magic and headed for the Studio Tour.

For those of you who do not know, I play World of Warcraft, and the posters for the upcoming movie just got me more and more excited. They were everywhere. I wanted to just take one down and take it home as a souvenir. Too bad they didn't have any Warcraft stuff in their shops. :(

As we learned about how movies are made, we were entangled in a battle between dinosaurs and King Kong. One of the cars of our train fell into a deep dark pit. Megan yelled "See you later nerds!", which became the laughing point of our whole day.

Apparently we had someone on board who was an eyewitness in the witness protection program. Our security was taken over by Luke Hobbs, and we were hidden in an automotive garage. Soon, the party was over, because we were attacked. Dom Toretto and his crew had to act fast and furiously to save us. It was a bit over the top, but we all escaped unscathed.

We took a vacation to Springfield after our narrow getaway. Kyle found a giant donut in the Kwik E Mart. He acted as if it was his greatest treasure ever. Chief Wiggum almost took it, but Kyle fought him off to keep his prize.

Then we took the escalators down, down, down and down. It was really rather ridiculous, but we finally made it to visit the Transformers. We arrived just in time for the kids to help Optimus Prime protect the Allspark from the Decepticons. Lillian and I went for bottles and diaper changes. A bit later, the kids said they needed more back up, so Alaric, Megan and I went for a spin in our very own transformer with Bumblebee and Optimus Prime. Once the Allspark was safe once again, we browsed through the Autobot shop.

Kyle said that the Mummy ride was a lot like Indiana Jones. I can't ride Indiana Jones, so Lillian and I watched a dinosaur tamer keep his dino under control while tourists took pictures in front of it. It was pretty entertaining. After the kids escaped the Mummy, Alaric, Megan, Danielle and Darren decided to venture into Jurassic Park. If they could survive dementors, mummies and Megatron, dinosaurs were no big deal.

In the meantime, Lillian and I wandered around to get into our own trouble. We touched high voltage wires, almost gotten eaten by dinosaurs and waited to get splashed by explorers finishing their dinosaur journey. It was finally time for the part of the day that I had been waiting for - we headed back to Disneyland. :D

My youngest son Alaric had a work emergency come up, so he was leaving the next morning. My biggest desire was to get a picture of the whole family in Disneyland, so we headed back to the magic. We didn't have a whole lot of time (an hour), so we chose to fight the fireworks/parade crowd and ride Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. It is my favorite ride, so they indulged me. On the way, we stopped and had a castmember take a picture of our group in front of the Haunted Mansion. I thought Lillian might get scared on the Haunted Mansion ride, but I didn't hear any crying from their doombuggy.

Then it was off to the wildest ride in the west! Darren watched Lillian, and I sat next to Danielle. Kyle was in the seat behind us, making insane comments about the girls who were screaming in terror before the ride even started. It was rather annoying, but I was in my own heaven with my kids on my favorite ride with me. Alaric and Megan were in the first car, so he snapped a selfie that got all of us in. I love that picture. <3.

We headed to the Rainforest Cafe to eat after the park closed. The service and food there were very good. I have been there for several trips, and it never disappoints. After dinner, we headed back to our rooms. Megan and Alaric went to bed right away, since they had to drive back home early in the morning. The rest of us stayed up and talked for a while, setting up a plan of attack for the next day when we would have a California Adventure.