May Madness: Universal Studios

Universal Studios was so much fun! We had planned to just go on Monday for one day, but when I bought the tickets and realized that extending to a two-day pass was so cheap I bought them. I tried to see if we could extend our hotel stay, but they were booked, so the kids and I went to Universal on Saturday while Michael went to Expo West. We had slept in because we were so exhausted from our trip the night before, so we didn’t get there until about noon. The first place we went was to “Harry Potter Land” and rode the Flight of the Hippogriff. We explored Hogsmeade for a bit and then went to the Jurrasic Park ride. I really didn’t want to go on a water ride, but the kids convinced me and I realized that if I sat in the middle I wouldn’t get that wet. That was the biggest drop on any water ride I’ve ever been on! Super high and scary! After that we went to the Upper Lot to get a bite to eat at Mel’s Diner. Jonathan was excited to go on the Minions ride. Most of the rides were simulations. They were so cool, though. After Minions we went on Shrek 4D and then back to Hogsmeade to ride Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey. It was awesome to feel like you were in a Quidditch game! After that we did the “wand buying experience” and Daniel bought a wand from the wand shop. It took him a little while to choose and the shop was tiny, but he finally decided on the Elder wand that was Dumbledore’s. After that we bought some Butterbeer for the kids to try. I knew I didn’t like it because I had tried it before, but Nathaniel and Andrew seemed to really like it. After that we went to the Universal City Walk and grabbed a quick bite to eat at Taco Bell. On the way back, we couldn’t resist getting off the interstate to drive past the Dolby Theater and part of the Walk of Fame.

On Sunday, we met my Uncle Jim for lunch at Coco’s. We had a nice visit. Luckily, he had planned to come to the area that day anyway and I’m glad it worked out.

On Monday, we got ready as early as we could and went back to Universal Studios. It took forever to get in for some reason. Our first goal was to ride the Studio Tour. It was awesome! The kids loved the part where we drove past the Psycho set and “Norman” walked toward our tram with a knife in his hand. He got so close to Andrew. The King Kong part was especially cool. They drove us into a big hangar, basically, and the movie was projected all around us. I think the Studio Tour was my favorite part of the whole thing. After that we went to Transformers, Mummy, and then had a late lunch at Panda Express. Everyone but Jonathan and I went on the Jurassic Park ride, and I took Jonathan to get food for him and Daniel--neither of them like Panda Express. After that Emily went to be with her friend from school who was also there that day, and Michael took the boys on the Simpsons ride and then Minions while I took a break. Then Michael and Nathaniel went to The Walking Dead walk-through while I took the boys to meet Donkey. They even convinced me to go through The Walking Dead at the very end. It freaked me out, but really I was laughing the whole time because I was expecting much worse.