Tuesday, December 14, 2021

Private Event at Universal

Last Tuesday was another crazy, long day.  When we got up, it was foggy.  
Cheerleaders everywhere.  
The girls got dressed up in pink and met in the lobby for an official practice. 

They went over to the Convention Center for a few hours so we had some time to ourselves.  
So what did we do?  We went to Disney!  Actually, Disney Springs to do some shopping.  
Yoda everywhere!
We were excited to be there.  

Shopping time. 
This store is nuts.  So huge.  
Disney was established in 1971, just like me!
Legos

I literally ran to the other side of Disney Springs to buy my beloved apples.  I got 3.  
We got back to the hotel just as the girls returned.  Apparently Ariel liked her baby Yoda backpack.  

I grabbed a churro for breakfast.  
One of my apples!
We got her a phone case too.  
Then we all headed back to the parks.  The plan was to stick to Islands of Adventure.  
Marvel Land.  
So cool!
We actually just had lunch there then walked to the back of the park.  
We passed a couple of crazy water rides.  
Such a cool pic!
We ran into friends from home that moved to Florida this year.  Those of you with good memories might remember Kelly.  She was my co-homeroom mom when Aden was in first grade 7 years ago!  Usually people tell me when they move to Florida it quickly becomes just another place to live once you get into the daily grind.  But not Kelly, she still feels like she's on vacation after 6 months.   
Jurassic Park.  

We tried to get on the Hagrid ride at Harry Potter.  It's the hardest ride to get on, averaging over an hour wait at any time.  

It also breaks down a lot.  You can see the car stuck here.  We gave up.
Back into Dr. Seuss Land.  
We had sundaes on a stick.  
We met up with Dori and family and headed to Spiderman.  That was fun.  
It was a beautiful day.  
We headed home to rest a little.  
Only a little.  After about 45 minutes, we headed back to Universal.  

Nice night.  
We had dinner with Giulz and family at an Italian restaurant in City Walk.  

We sat right next to the coaches.
Coach Lynde all smiles the day before the big competition.  
We gathered everyone for a group shot.


We tried a bunch of shots.  This was the winner.  
The coaches.  
The parents!
So this was a bit unreal.  Pop Warner rented out both parks from 8pm till midnight.  They were free for all the cheerleaders and football players and their families.  And not just the rides, all the concessions!  You could eat as many churros or turkey legs as you wanted!
It was pretty to see the parks at night.  
We hung with a big group of cheerleaders.  We hit those concession stands often!
Mmmm.  Churro.  
We went to Diagon Alley at Harry Potter.  The whole place is hidden.  We missed it the day before!

So amazing!  Just like the books and movies.  The dragon breathed fire and scared Ariel!



We did the Gringots Bank ride.  

That was fun.  
The train in between the parks was crowded so everyone decided to walk to Harry Potter in the other park.  It was a very long walk!
We finally made it on Hagrid's Ride.  Look at the time.  It was 10:40 pm!  We waited in line with Coach Lynde, which was nice.  We got to bond with her.  She told Ariel to remain sweet.  She wasn't thrilled with the behaviour of the some of the other cheerleaders.  
The ride was pretty intense.  Ariel and Amy loved it.  It made me a bit sick.  I got a butterbeer and sat on a bench till things stopped spinning.  
The walk to the bus was ridiculous.  I bet it was over 2 miles.  We didn't get back to the hotel until after midnight.  We were completely exhausted and went right to sleep. 
So I went back and checked.  On Monday, I walked just under 17000 steps.  
On Tuesday, 25,600 steps!  That's nuts!
Monday I walked the equivalent of 7.7 miles.  
Tuesday was 11.8 miles!

 

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