Time for some vacation photos! I went to Charleston to visit family for Christmas, then went to Universal Studios. That was... something. It was unseasonably hot and miserably crowded. Do not go the week after Christmas if you value your sanity. When we actually got on the rides, though, they were AWESOME.
First up: My knitting project for the trip. Since the Black Widow socks are on temporary hold while I work out the chart and colorwork thing, I picked a new, simpler project for the trip:
this lovely Polaris shawl by Susanna IC. I'm using Blue Heron yarn and no beads.
Casting on while riding the Light Rail to the airport:
Progress achieved by the Dallas/Fort Worth layover:
My grandmother in Charleston, looking slightly confused as to why I'm handing her a bunch of sparkly purple spaghetti:
Progress a week later, at the Charleston airport for the return trip:
And progress from today- I have six more rows of the Polaris lace to finish, then a bunch of short rows, then eight rows of lace for the upper edge:
And now for some highlights from Universal Studios:
Our first stop was Diagon Alley. And I do mean our first stop in the park- we meant to be there at 7am when it opened, but I was dumb the night before and wrapped my foot too tightly in a way that wound up being extremely painful and necessitated an immediate hunt for an ankle brace (a couple of years back I strained my peroneal tendon and didn't realize it. It's never healed quite right.)
The Leaky Cauldron! Super yummy food!
Weasley's Wizarding Wheezes:
The dragon atop Gringotts. It breathes fire on occasion, though I never got a pic :(
My aunt inside the Gringott's lobby. The thing with all of the Universal Studios attractions is that literally EVERYTHING has an enormous queue area- and by enormous I mean that if you straightened them out, the queues for some of the major attractions (like Gringotts) are probably the better part of half a mile. There's a huge area outside the ride building that may or may not be in the shade, and then there's a huge winding area inside the ride building with air conditioning (thank the gods) and cool things like videos introducing you to the rides or animatronics and scenery that do the same thing. Some of the lines could be up to THREE HOURS LONG while we were there, meaning you could be standing outside (you may or may not be in the shade. In Orlando.) for about two hours before standing for another hour inside before you ever get on the ride. This proved to be the biggest issue of our trip- standing in line for hours on end. I brought books and puzzles most days, which helped, but standing in line for that long proved to be extremely painful.
But anyway- Gringotts! When you get to the lobby, you are greeted by a bunch of really awesome goblins!
Pictured below: My aunt. Not a goblin.
This guy sits at the back of the lobby and helps introduce the ride. He was really hard to hear over everyone talking though...
One of the 'shops' in Diagon Alley (there's only a handful of actual shops, but it looks like there's a lot more than there are because the outside has dummy windows and displays) was a yarn store! And in the window there was a set of self-knitting needles that actually work along by themselves!
Awesome mermaid fountain/statue:
We got to see Celestina Warbuck perform! She was totally awesome and had a backup team called the Sirens. Very glamorous, and the music was a lot of fun!
Some stuff from the Mummy's Revenge ride queue. This ride was fun because rather than being based on the movie, the story was based around the idea of crazy mummy curse stuff happening while the movie is being filmed, so it's all set up like soundstages and there's props everywhere.
The sarcophagus:
Wardrobe department:
A chest with cool hieroglyphs:
Near the loading area is this HUGE statue of Anubis hanging above the lower levels- you start below this thing, then take the stairs up until you're level with him. Holy crap, he was amazing.
Mom and David at the Men in Black ride. We loved this so much we rode it like four times (due to the magic that is the single rider line. Life Hack for Universal Studios: If you don't have a small child to keep a leash on, USE THE SINGLE RIDER LINES. We were on some rides where the main line could be 45 minutes or more and the single rider line was about five minutes.
My personal highlight- JURASSIC PARK!!
The entrance to the Jurassic Park area is right next to Hogwarts- at certain points in the line for Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey, you hear the Harry Potter music playing on one side of you and the Jurassic Park music playing on the other. Kinda trippy. I hope they do some updates to the JP area now that the new movies are coming out- it's showing it's age a tad. But I still loved it. <3
Hogwarts! (inside and out):
The queue takes you from the greenhouses outside, up through the dungeons, then up through the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom, Dumbledore's office, and the Gryffindor common room. It's really really cool, just very dark.
Out in Hogsmeade, the tailor's has Hermione's Yule Ball dress and a CAT MADE OF A MEASURING TAPE!!
BUCKBEAK!! I picked up a plushie one. <3
Awesome sign at the entrance to Hogsmeade:
The Hogwarts Express and station:
And on the other side: Platform 9 3/4
Bumblebee from Transformers doing photos with guests. Sis went and got a photo with him because he's her favorite:
Hogwarts castle at sunset, from the bridge to Jurassic Park:
At this point I kinda stopped taking pics, except for one very special area:
The Discovery Center is based off the original Visitor's Center. I may have gotten teary-eyed. May have. There are no witnesses. (I totally did. My sister saw me.)
Inside are the skeletons from the main lobby:
Inside, you can check out the incubators:
And we got there just in time to witness something very special:
The hatching of a baby velociraptor! ("You breed raptors??")
Some nifty dinosaur displays:
Upstairs, you get an up-close and personal view of the T-rex skeleton:
And then we went to the Three Broomsticks for dinner. Sis and I had fun with a turkey leg:
No one ever told me these things taste like bacon- but wow, are they salty.
Overall... aside from the heat and the crowds and the pain from walking and standing in lines for hours, Universal Studios was pretty cool. Next time, I will go in mid-January after kids are back in school...
