A couple weeks ago we took off Thursday and Friday and flew to Florida with our friends Mike and Kasey. We've known them for 3+ years and among the many things we've learned about them one is that Kasey loves Harry Potter. We decided months ago to go to Orlando for a long weekend and spend a day or two at Harry Potter world in the Spring. Once we found out I was pregnant we had to move our time line up a little bit because you aren't supposed to fly after 24 weeks with twins. Last weekend was technically 25 weeks but the doc said he'd allow it. We booked our plane tickets a couple months ago and hoped there would be no pregnancy related issues that would keep us from going.
Thankfully, I've been feeling really good so I didn't have any reservations going into the weekend. In December we went to Dollywood with my family. This was a test run of endurance to see if I was going to be able to walk around all day at Universal. We walked about 3 miles at Dollywood and I wasn't hurting major the next day, nor did the walking induce any round ligament pain or other pains. I knew we'd walk more than 3 miles at Universal but this was a good test.
After talking to a co-worker and one of Alex's friends who have both recently been to Harry Potter World it was apparent that we wouldn't need more than 1 day to see both parks, especially being pregnant and not being able to ride any of the rides. We got one day 'hopper' passes that would allow us to see both Harry Potter parks (because of course they are considered separate parks to make tourists have to pay more money to see both!) in one day. There is a train that runs between the two parks that my doctor said I absolutely must ride because it's really cool. Doctor's orders.
We had an amazing day at the parks on Friday. We borrowed a friend's wand so we could do the interactions and Mike and Kasey bought one to have as a souvenir. We learned we are not very good at spells and are in fact not cut out to be wizards. One of the only wand tricks I successfully got to work made a bird blow up - but don't worry, he didn't die, he just came back smaller. We rode the train three times partly because we had time to kill before the light show on the castle in Hogsmeade and partly to give ourselves a little break. We saw all the things, tried all the food/drinks (including butter beer ice cream and butter beer in hot, regular and frozen varieties), marveled at all the details straight out of the books/movies and walked over 6.3 miles - like the title of this blog says - I did a 10k at Universal while pregnant. Never mind it took me 10 hours to complete.
I posted a bunch of pictures on facebook. If you are a fan of the wizarding world of Harry Potter you should definitely check them out. It was worth going, even though I couldn't ride the rides. They are expanding the Hogsmeade side so we'll have to go back once that is done and I can ride the rides to get the full experience.
A few other highlights of the trip:
1. We bought bagels at Whole Foods for breakfast Thursday night. Friday morning at about 7 am I popped a bagel in the toaster. About 5 seconds after I pushed the lever down smoke started coming out of the toaster. Next there were flames and I was screaming for Alex and trying to get the fire out. Blowing on it seemed like the most logical choice (not pulling the cord from the wall). Somehow that actually mostly worked and when Alex got in the room he unplugged the toaster and got the charred bagel out of it. I called the front desk to tell them what had happened and ask for a new toaster. There was no damage, just my elevated heart rate. Jeffrey at the front desk was extremely apologetic and said he would load $25 on to our account to be used at the market place for anything we wanted! Only I could almost catch the place on fire and get paid for it. That $25 paid for milk and oreos for a late night snack and breakfast for our early bird Sunday flight back to Cincinnati! Also I filled out an email survey on our stay when we got home and got this really pleasant response back. Top notch customer service if you ask me.
2. Breakfast at Hash House a Go Go. This place was recommended in the Hilton guest guide and we had a 20% off coupon so we figured why not try it? The server was kind enough to tell us the portions were massive so we only ordered 2 entrees for the 4 of us. Mike and Kasey's pancake was literally the size of a pizza and Alex and my entree was so massive I could not comprehend what I was eating - mashed potatoes, biscuit, fried chicken, eggs, veggies, bacon, cheese, chipotle cream sauce. I'm still confused by the flavor profile on the plate. Also they had a guy taking pictures and printing them in live time for tips. I never knew I needed a key chain of myself at a breakfast joint until now.
3. The first stranger touched my belly at a souvenir shop at Universal. I was looking at little baby onesies. Two women were passing through the shop and saw me and the onesies. One of them said, "Are you having a boy?" I said, "no, two girls." She said, "two!? Oh my!" and patted my stomach. It wasn't nearly as awkward as I thought it would be. She was nice. They both were. And they seemed genuinely excited for me. It was nice to bring someone else a little delight for the day. We also saw this shirt and mug from Shrek. Funny stuff.
Thankfully, I've been feeling really good so I didn't have any reservations going into the weekend. In December we went to Dollywood with my family. This was a test run of endurance to see if I was going to be able to walk around all day at Universal. We walked about 3 miles at Dollywood and I wasn't hurting major the next day, nor did the walking induce any round ligament pain or other pains. I knew we'd walk more than 3 miles at Universal but this was a good test.
After talking to a co-worker and one of Alex's friends who have both recently been to Harry Potter World it was apparent that we wouldn't need more than 1 day to see both parks, especially being pregnant and not being able to ride any of the rides. We got one day 'hopper' passes that would allow us to see both Harry Potter parks (because of course they are considered separate parks to make tourists have to pay more money to see both!) in one day. There is a train that runs between the two parks that my doctor said I absolutely must ride because it's really cool. Doctor's orders.
We had an amazing day at the parks on Friday. We borrowed a friend's wand so we could do the interactions and Mike and Kasey bought one to have as a souvenir. We learned we are not very good at spells and are in fact not cut out to be wizards. One of the only wand tricks I successfully got to work made a bird blow up - but don't worry, he didn't die, he just came back smaller. We rode the train three times partly because we had time to kill before the light show on the castle in Hogsmeade and partly to give ourselves a little break. We saw all the things, tried all the food/drinks (including butter beer ice cream and butter beer in hot, regular and frozen varieties), marveled at all the details straight out of the books/movies and walked over 6.3 miles - like the title of this blog says - I did a 10k at Universal while pregnant. Never mind it took me 10 hours to complete.
I posted a bunch of pictures on facebook. If you are a fan of the wizarding world of Harry Potter you should definitely check them out. It was worth going, even though I couldn't ride the rides. They are expanding the Hogsmeade side so we'll have to go back once that is done and I can ride the rides to get the full experience.
A few other highlights of the trip:
1. We bought bagels at Whole Foods for breakfast Thursday night. Friday morning at about 7 am I popped a bagel in the toaster. About 5 seconds after I pushed the lever down smoke started coming out of the toaster. Next there were flames and I was screaming for Alex and trying to get the fire out. Blowing on it seemed like the most logical choice (not pulling the cord from the wall). Somehow that actually mostly worked and when Alex got in the room he unplugged the toaster and got the charred bagel out of it. I called the front desk to tell them what had happened and ask for a new toaster. There was no damage, just my elevated heart rate. Jeffrey at the front desk was extremely apologetic and said he would load $25 on to our account to be used at the market place for anything we wanted! Only I could almost catch the place on fire and get paid for it. That $25 paid for milk and oreos for a late night snack and breakfast for our early bird Sunday flight back to Cincinnati! Also I filled out an email survey on our stay when we got home and got this really pleasant response back. Top notch customer service if you ask me.
2. Breakfast at Hash House a Go Go. This place was recommended in the Hilton guest guide and we had a 20% off coupon so we figured why not try it? The server was kind enough to tell us the portions were massive so we only ordered 2 entrees for the 4 of us. Mike and Kasey's pancake was literally the size of a pizza and Alex and my entree was so massive I could not comprehend what I was eating - mashed potatoes, biscuit, fried chicken, eggs, veggies, bacon, cheese, chipotle cream sauce. I'm still confused by the flavor profile on the plate. Also they had a guy taking pictures and printing them in live time for tips. I never knew I needed a key chain of myself at a breakfast joint until now.
3. The first stranger touched my belly at a souvenir shop at Universal. I was looking at little baby onesies. Two women were passing through the shop and saw me and the onesies. One of them said, "Are you having a boy?" I said, "no, two girls." She said, "two!? Oh my!" and patted my stomach. It wasn't nearly as awkward as I thought it would be. She was nice. They both were. And they seemed genuinely excited for me. It was nice to bring someone else a little delight for the day. We also saw this shirt and mug from Shrek. Funny stuff.
4. We went to Disney Springs Saturday for dinner and to walk around the shops a bit. We went into an art gallery as our last stop of the night. I was enamored by these prints of animal paintings by a local artist. I wanted to buy them all and then I saw this one - Two big elephants with two baby elephants and I felt tears prick at my eyes. This was our family. Turns out the artist was there writing personal dedications on the back of any print purchased. I told him I was carrying twin girls and that elephants got me through some tough times. On the back of the print he dedicated it to all four of us and wrote "With all of our elephant dreams we hold so dear, wishing you happiness together year after year!" It's hanging on my memory wall in the family room now.
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