Harry Potter – Book Journey

Good morning! Happy Halloween!

We landed in Orlando yesterday afternoon, had lunch at a wonderful spot, went to Walmart for some supplies for the hotel and found our hotel. Our plan was to book the same hotel we did the first year we came, two years ago. It was a great room with a kitchen, a living room with couch and a chair and table, and a separate bedroom. It was great if one of us was tired and one was not so we did not disturb each other. I thought that was what I had booked again… but alas …. no.

The hotel we are at is fine… but has a SUPER clean smell. An overly clean smell… to the point that it gives me a headache. And it is just a standard room, also fine as we are hardly ever there, but not what we had hoped for.

We drove around looking for our original hotel. We walked the area we did that year to go to the restaurant Fridays, and he other little shops we had walked that year… we still could not find our hotel. Later at our current hotel I started Googling all hotels on that road and looking at pics… I think I finally found it but it has a new name and look. We may go check it out today for future bookings.

BUT FIRST….

Today we will be at Universal Studios. More importantly….

Harry Potter World.

I am so excited! We will be there by 9 am when it opens and I hope to go on the train first. Yes yes… I will totally have my geek on. 🙂 I am so looking forward to this!

Later tonight, we want to go to the movie Nightcrawler. It looks good!

SO that will be our second day in Florida! Remember the kick off to the Harry Potter Reread/Readathon starts tomorrow. Still time to join in! I started reading book one on the plane. Still, it amazes me how much is said in each book that leads to things to come.

Ba ha ha! Yes you have to put up with two more days of this photo… 🙂 Then… I will go back to the regularly scheduled photo for this meme… but maybe not – as I will be in Florida then! WOO HOO!!!

I actually leave later today for my son’s house in St Paul. He now lives close to the airport so I will stay there tonight and we will taxi to the plane in the morning. By noon… we should be in Orlando.

Pause for sunshine….

So… what am I taking in my carry on? This is always a big deal as my carry on is usually strictly for the purpose of books to read on the plane, the safety of my laptop, and perhaps a snack. I am prepped with:

Ok… so what do we have here? Far left is Kinderella and on that is The Banks Of Certain Rivers. Then we have my beautiful 20th Anniversary edition of the Sorcerer’s Stone for kick off to the Harry Potter Re-read/Readathon, This Dark Road To Mercy by Wiley Cash (book club bonus read for Harper Collins), Meritropolis by Joel Ohman (because dang it looks good and if I don’t get to it my son might), and The After House by Michael Phillip Cash (because it looks like the right read for the season and no relation to Wiley Cash that I know of 😉 )

As usual… I over book my carry on… but at least I have variety which will keep me soothed for the ride there and back.

Today I am working on wrapping up some bee appointments, cooking meals for Al, sending in new passport info (that is another story…), folding laundry, dropping off supplies for phase two of my Florida time, pre-paying upcoming bills… odds and ends trying to tie everything up to be gone.

Lots of posts prepped for here so stay tune! I do not plan on going “dark” while I am away.

A quick shameless plug for the Harry Potter Reread/Readathon starting on Nov. 1. Check out the post… you have lots of time to read, fun House memes to put on your blog (but you do not need a blog to participate!), prizes and surprises, and we are going to have a lot of fun! 21 signed up so far!