“I am what I am, an’ I’m not ashamed. ‘Never be ashamed,’ my ol’ dad used ter say, ‘there’s some who’ll hold it against you, but they’re not worth botherin’ with.’” - Rubeus Hagrid

I’m not ashamed to admit that I love Harry Potter. My kids love Harry Potter. Now that we’ve been to The Wizarding World of Harry Potter, I can’t wait to go back someday, probably without kids, just so I can have another glass of Pumpkin juice and stop and admire each and every perfect detail.

There is a long story behind our deciding to go to a theme park in a hard hit state in the middle of a world wide pandemic. The short of it is we decided to do it for a whole bunch of excellent and well thought out reasons and it was. the. best. ever.

I will now proceed to explode your screen with pictures. Here are some brief explanations but otherwise I won’t comment. First, because of the pandemic we were able to schedule a private wand choosing ceremony for Naomi (it was her 11th birthday the day we went). Usually you are with a big group and you have to pray and cross your fingers and toes that you (or your birthday kid) will get chosen. Score. She has been saving her money and she bought the wand that chose her. It was an interactive wand which let her do magic spells all over the parks. It was the coolest thing that really added to the experience. Second, the ice cream we had was amazing. I had clotted cream and Neil had salted caramel blondie. We shared and both lived up to all the expectations. The other food at the two resturants we had was also quite tasty. Third, Tatanka was a rock star and we got so many compliments on her and her patch. Team Members especially loved her service dog patch. We did learn that storm drains and man hole covers are a serious no-go for her, however. Good to know. Fourth, we checked every box on everyone’s shopping lists. Garyn procured some excellent Gryffindor socks and a bona fide cauldron cake. Layna got an authentic feather quill pen. Corra added two plushies to her copious stuffed animal collection and Naomi got her wand and more Ravenclaw stuff. Finally, Butterbeer is delicious (the thick cream stuff on top is the stuff of dreams), but pumpkin juice edged it out as most top yummy beverage on the planet.
Everything went according to plan, and exceeded all my expectations. Pure Magic.