Maybe I got lost in Diagon Alley..

That could be a perfectly valid reason for me not stopping by, but really I have to apologize.  I know it has been a long while since there have been any entries here in the Diary. I have been a little on the busy side. When I say that I have been busy, I just mean that there have been some awesome things going on for me to share with you!

In the early part of November, my nephew was celebrating his birthday. He also happens to be a huge Harry Potter fan..like complete with my sister making themed meals around the books as he reads them. There are all kinds of things about Harry Potter that I just didn’t know about, such as butter beer, and coordinating colors for different “houses” at the Wizard school. My sister, brother in law, and nephew live in North Carolina, and traveled to Jacksonville the day before his birthday. When they got here we were able to have some catch up time, get a meal of food, and tons of laughs before we needed to get to bed. We had an early morning, as we were heading to Universal Studios to see the Wizarding World of Harry Potter! The park opens at 9 am and we were determined to get a day full of fun in, so our alarms went off really, really early. We had a quick breakfast, and my nephew was able to open some gifts and then we hit the road. In a way that maybe only Clark Griswald would understand, things seemed to be going wrong. Tickets were forgotten, wallets left at home, we were not off to a great start. We did not get on the way to the park at the early hour that we wanted, but my sister and I did enjoy a super fun karaoke session on the drive there!

Soon enough we were parking and walking into Universal Studios, which if you haven’t been there before, is really amazing and intense at the same time. There is so much to look at and take in, and we hadn’t even really gotten started yet! We made our way through New York, and I think San Francisco while we were heading towards Harry Potter. My first introduction into all of this was the Knight Bus Driver. I will say now that I think it may have helped me that I didn’t learn a whole lot about Harry Potter before going on this adventure, as everything was a surprise to me, and my nephew could teach me all kinds of things. Meeting the Knight Bus Driver, I didn’t know who he was, or what his character meant, and I think that was pretty neat. I chatted and laughed with him so long my sister took video and we posed for a picture- after course, he said I must be a really bad witch since it looked like I had been in a fight with a werewolf and lived to tell it (I had distressed jeans on yall). We had heard him tell someone else the way to get to Diagon Alley, but we got a little turned around somewhere in London, and my brother in law very smartly said that we should ask someone in a Harry Potter cape. This was a good call, because she was able to direct us right to it.

This is where all the magic really started. There was a wand shop where you could get all sorts of wands, some interactive. There was a really interesting pet store, and some AWESOME food, (think fish and chips and a turkey leg the size of my huge head). I also tried butter beer, which I am told is a cream soda base with some other things in it, it was sweet and foamy and there is no alcohol. We rode a really cool train from one “world” to another, and made some friends there too! We went on some pretty spectacular rides, one of which included waiting in a line that wound you around through Hogwarts.  Although I was NOT a fan of the animatronic dwarfs, I did really like the snow affect, and some of the “haunted” areas. It was cool experiencing all of this with my family, that I do not get to see nearly enough. We walked and walked and walked and saw all kinds of fun things along the way. We also made a pit stop in the Jurassic Park area, and there was a really cool water ride that there was no line to. So we all rode it, and although we got slightly wet, it wasn’t anything terrible. My sister and I have a history together of roller coaster shenanigans, and decided to ride it again. Well apparently the amount of “splash” varies from one time riding it to the next. We got soaked, she tried to climb into my lap to get away from the water, and we screamed like fools. We did still manage to pose for the camera that took a picture of all the riders at the most intense part of the ride. At this point we needed to get on our way out, and head back to Jacksonville with some pretty tired feet! Although my sister and I chatted and CRACKED UP laughing with each other on the drive home, we were exhausted when we finally arrived back to my apartment, and hardly even said good night to each other before passing out.

The next day we woke up and didn’t really have any plans set in stone, which is good because we were tired! We had some breakfast, and just hung out. We played charades, which was hilariously fun, and we watched the first Harry Potter movie. My nephew opened more gifts, and we then later went to dinner at a nearby sushi place where I introduced my sister to a phenomenon known as sake bombs. If you don’t know you better ask somebody! Then it was back home for more Harry Potter and birthday cake.

When I woke up on that Sunday, even though I knew they had to leave, I was sad. Not to say that it isn’t normal for me to be sad when family leaves, but for some reason this one hit me really hard. I feel like I handle goodbyes pretty well, but then every now and again I have to say it to people that I actually love. That is a different thing all together. When you live away from all of your family, and go months, sometimes years without seeing them, it really does affect you as a person. I had not laughed that hard in a long time, and it was so good to see them. Check back soon for the the rest of the goings on from the last three weeks, and I promise I won’t be so much of a stranger!