Happiest: Day 1

One morning, I was driving into work, when I got a voice message through my nifty walkie-talkie app from my friend, Linds. It was very simple: Would I want to go to Disney World with her, Julia, and another girl?

The response to the recording went something like: 
"Yes... Oh my gosh, Yes. YES YES YES! Yes. I will go. I want to go. I'll make it work."

And so it began. The purchasing of tickets, the evening of planning: all led to the monumental day when four of us packed off to Orlando for a week of play.

Conference weekend was hectic enough (I worked through the three sessions on Saturday and the morning session on Sunday) and then spent the afternoon session packing my suitcase and waiting for my ride.

Once at the airport and checked in, we enjoyed one last Cafe Rio trip and then board our plane. Arriving around midnight, we waited patiently for our shuttle to the hotel. We arrived, checked in, and made it to our room, exhausted. However, we had to figure out when we would catch the shuttle to Universal Studios in the morning before we crashed in our beds.

The alarm started too soon, but we were ready. We headed for Universal Studios Islands of Adventure. Three of us are Harry Potter fans, so we knew that if we were going to be in Orlando, we were going to go to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter.

Stepping out of the hotel room quickly reminded me that Florida is not California. The humidity is slightly stifling. 

We took a shuttle bus to Universal Studios and then proceeded to the Islands of Adventure, stopping to take some awesome pictures. 

We made a bee-line for our real purpose. Upon arrival at Harry Potter World, I had to take it all in. The sights. The sounds. The authenticity. 

And then it was time to play. We started going through all of the rides. Even being single riders on Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey so we could decide whether we should actually stand in line for an hour. (We were good with one ride).

We had butterbeer. Frozen butterbeer. I still dream about the butterbeer. In fact, we all do. We got three butterbeer during the day and I asked one of the workers from a muggle to a wizard if the recipe could be shared and reproduced. The answer was no, but Pinterest has provided some contenders to attempt. 

Note: you can tell that these are three different butterbeers because of the sun... And the foam is the most amazing part.

We went on plenty of other rides, including a couple of water rides. The outside temperature was in the 90s, so a cool water ride was welcomed except the humidity made it difficult to dry off. 

That evening we caught the only shuttle back to our hotel. A bus. And we had to stand the entire 20 minute ride back to the hotel. But it was worth it. We then discussed the plans for heading to Disney World.