Harry Potter Studio Tour!

If you are not a Harry Potter fan, now is your chance to close this blog and RUN! I'm going to geek out a little...

So if you are following my holiday blogs, this is stop #2. You can read all about stop #1 HERE.

Let me start by saying that I LOVE Harry Potter. I read the first three books before the fourth one was released. My mom and I went to a midnight book party to get the next book (that we had pre-ordered). This was a trend that would continue all the way until the 7th and final book, which was delivered to me on a mountain at the camp I was working at for the summer. I have reread the series a few times, most recently at the beginning of this summer. The movies are great too, especially the parts that bring the books alive. Paul, he is not nearly the enthusiast that I am, and that's okay. He's my hubby so he gets joyfully dragged along for the ride. Okay, onto the tour!

Handprints of the cast!

First, you have to book your tickets quite a way in advance. I think we did ours a month or so before. We had all of our tickets/receipts ready, and arrived just a bit early.

Harry's real cupboard room

You have to wait in a line with your time slot, then you all file into an introduction room, then a movie theatre room (where you see clips from all 8 movies), then the doors open and you walk into the Great Hall. Wow!



From there it is a self-guided tour, and you can watch videos, read blurbs, and see tons of props, sets, play with interactive screens, etc. It is all so very well done and very informative. Even Paul found it interesting!

It took us hours to get through everything in the J lot before we made it to the outdoor sets. There I got to try Butterbeer (YUM!) and we had a quick dinner. We had no idea we would spend so long here and we were so hungry!

After the outdoor lot, we made our way into studio K with animatronics, creatures, Diagon Alley, concept drawings, a mini model of the castle and finally the gigantic castle! It was really a great day and I would recommend it to anyone who has a love for Harry Potter. Okay, now the pictures! The lighting wasn't the best, but you get the idea.

I went in and Ollivander helped me find a wand... The wand chooses the wizard! (Okay, not really, it's just a set...)

The sorting hat! It put me in Gryffindor of course :)

We started at 4:30 and didn't finish until 9! We made a quick stop in the gift store where I was EXTREMELY reserved and only bought a mug and a shirt, and then drove to our airport near Gatwick. The next day we would fly out for our next adventure.... Vancouver!

A Relaxing Week in Wales

I had such good intentions of blogging while on holiday... but then I only brought my iPad and had no way to upload pictures from my camera. So here I am, nearly a month after my holiday in the UK, FINALLY updating.

So Paul and I had quite a long adventure this summer. He saved up his vacation days and I took a break from online teaching. Packing was the first big hurdle - how do you pack for rainy wales, hot Canada, and hot/cold Alaska? My idea in the end was just to pack everything. This led to very heavy bags... oops. So on July 26th we were all packed, hopped on our plane, and away we went. First stop - Bristol!

We spent the first night at our lovely friends' house in Bristol because we arrived so late. The next morning we packed up the car and started the short drive to our rental cottage. We arrived and it was absolutely beautiful!

Our beautiful cottage 

Of course, just after we arrived it proceeded to rain for the next few days. That's okay! We had good food, good friends, and games! The whole point of this holiday is to do as much of nothing as possible. 

Scrabble - my favorite game!

Libby is trying on her big girl shoes

             

                   

Every now and then it stopped raining (or was just lightly drizzling) so we had a few walks - up a nearby hill...

View from a hill nearby

Walking the dog :)

And then, the rain cleared! We spent a day at a Farm Adventure park. It was actually pretty awesome!




With the great weather came a delicious BBQ and more friend time :)


And finally, Rob and I hiked the famous Sugarloaf. Too bad we drove nearly to the top without realizing it! We took the round-about route up and it was still absolutely lovely.

Top of the hike

View of the hike in the distance.


Sheep... what else do you expect in Wales?


So after a week of wonderful relaxation, we heading back to Bristol for a night, then rented a car and drove towards London.... next stop, Harry Potter Studio Tour!!




**Sorry for the crazy everywhere pictures, I still have massive trouble getting them where I want them to go :) **