It's Universal Studios in Orlando!
We are there with friends Katie & Dennis and Roger & Georgia.  Harry Potter world here we come!

"Please respect the spell limits"

 Our first stop is Hogsmeade, the original Harry Potter area.  The attention to detail is amazing!  We started off with some Butter Beer (very sweet!) and a roller coaster ride (I wish I hadn't had that Butter Beer) that mixed up my insides something fierce.

Seeing all the iconic buildings and even the Hogwart's Express was a blast! I'm not sure why this photo is so washed out, something funny happened with my iPhone.

Storefront cat made from a tape measure.

The most amazing detail inside each shop.  The lamps shown at the lower part of the photo is the first story ceiling.  The ladder leads up to the second floor "balcony" where each and every shelf was dressed!  It was wonderful prop work!

 On to Hogwarts, the castle.  The lines were not too bad, and the eye candy was worth the wait. The only drawback was how dim all the lighting was, it made for a wonderful experience rather than photos.  We passed through Dumbledore's office and even had his hologram talk to us from behind his desk.  The Portrait Gallery was another delight - many of the portraits talked to the crowds as they filed through.  What fun!

For those not wanting to ride, you can walk through the castle and see all the cool exhibits then exit right before the ride begins.  Roger, Dennis and I did the ride, but we all had to think hard about not barfing.  I think the coaster ride did us in, I don't think it would've been that bad if that was our first ride.  The soaring with Harry through the Quidditch field was really great, but too much time spent in the dark castle being spit on by spiders and fire spat by dragons.

We took the Hogwart's Express train to the other park to see Diagon Alley.  Again, nice attention to detail and we had our own cabin, just like Ron, Harry, and Hermione.

I don't know how far we actually traveled, but the windows were screens that showed the country side, Hagrid's house, and various recognizable landscapes.  We even had the silhouettes & voices at the door of our car with Hermione telling the others that this cabin was taken.  Very clever indeed!

When we arrived in "London" a selfie was in order!

As you can see, the ride can handle lots of people, hence the railings for crowd management.  But I saw the piles of period suitcases against the walls!  Very nice!

Diagon Alley!

The dragon on top breathes fire about every 10 minutes.  What fun!

Lots of photo ops!
Here are Dennis & Katie careening down the alley!

More great streets with businesses.  All the storefronts were dressed and most of them were real shops.

The big ride - zooming through Gringott's Bank.  We walked through the line and enjoyed everything about the bank, even though I had to plead my case to the animatronic clerks!

It looks so real and so much like I remember the movie!  Very fun indeed.  We walked through the line and discovered other gems then exited before the ride began.  I really didn't need to toss my Butter Beer AND lunch.

Another gem while waiting in line, one of the Weasley twins interacting with Gringotts.  Holograms were very effective!  The furniture and props are great!

iPhone photos just don't do justice to the details of the offices props.  The newspapers have moving photos and don't look as obvious as the photo makes them look.  The books looked real to me, but all the titles were smudged or sanded off.  I would've loved to be on the prop crew for this one!

And yes we were suckers for the group shot!  They learned this trick from the cruise lines.

One last shot from Diagon Alley - the Owl Roost.  And yes, some prop person had the job of creating the white owl poop dripping down from each opening!  Tee hee!

And yes, there is more to Universal than the world of Harry Potter.  The back lot is still fun to see, here is Frank in front of the Pharmacy.













Katie & Dennis in front of the Beverly Wilshire Hotel.

Fun Simpson's Springfield area.  Love the car!

We also saw a Lucy exhibit, this model of the set was fun to see.  They also had her history and plenty of photos and clips from her tv shows.

And finally good night!  What a blast we had there.  We didn't see it all, but sure had fun trying.  The view of the sunset is front the parking garage.  Beautiful ending to a beautiful day!

Today we attempted to play golf.  It was a lovely 9-hole Par 3 course.  It was pretty hard - lots of water, sand and drop offs. We both lost 4 balls (EACH grrrr) and played awful.  But - it was as lovely 74 degrees, and we consoled ourselves with lamenting how long it's been since we last played.  And yes, my form looks good, too bad I couldn't hit a green to save my life!  Did I mention it was only a par 3 course? OH brother.

After golf, we had to come home and nap :)  I love being on vacation.  I rode my bike up to the fish market and got some fresh-from-the-gulf hog fish and a bottle of wine for dinner.  Both delicious!

I love being able to ride my bike so many places.  I hate hate hate the traffic here - every old person on the planet seems to be driving around this area.  I'd rather ride my bike just about anywhere than get in the car and drive.  I'm sure when back in actual winter, I will feel quite housebound!

The layout of the blog often drives me crazy, so it's easier to start a new post!
We finished our day at the beach with a late lunch at one of our favorites - The Barking Shark, or as we always call it (thank you Pam Elliott) The Barfing Shark.  Although it is across the street from the beach, it has a second floor deck where you can watch the people down below as well as look out over the gulf.  I'm enjoying a tasty plate of raw oysters!

Sunday the 18th we met up with Pam and drove up to Punta Gorda.  We visited the Peace River Wildlife Center - a small but amazing center filled with birds.  They take in injured wildlife, fix them if they can, and return them to the wild if possible.  They have quite a lot of birds that are not able to return to the wild safely, and they are their permanent residents.  They have two bald eagles, each has lost a wing.  One of the eagles tried to fly and did a fabulous summersault landing perfectly on his feet!  Just amusing the visitors I suppose.

 This is the Pelican area, the only area that is not closed in at the top.  Right now there are many pelicans that don't actually live there - but they know when feeding time is!  At night, you can see a large cage in the back left of the photo - they put all the residents in protective custody at night.  Since the residents cannot fly or defend themselves, this protects them from their predators.

Ok, I have no idea who these people are, but it does show the end of the Fisherman's Village and the restaurant at the end.  The tables are all around the edge of the restaurant and what a beautiful view of the Gulf!

The next photo is inside the Fisherman's Village - lots of fun shops with local artists represented.

Being here a month, we've become curmudgeons when it comes to crowds!  But over the MLK holiday we did bike over to the beach.  The first photo is from the bridge to the island, one of my favorite view of Ft Myers.  We walked along the beach, but was it crowded!

 We saw two beautiful great danes, a breed of dog we've never seen down here!  We see a LOT of teeny tiny dogs, and lots of poodle varieties.  The owners tell me the poodles are so popular because they don't shed!

Dinner at Pam & Jane's house. Pam & I have been friends since my freshman year in college!  And yes, we're still friends!  Jane found a great beer to try for you Game of Thrones fans - and yes it's tasty!

Today we decided to ride our bikes through the Ding Darling Wildlife Refuge.  They have a 4-mile ride where you can observe all sorts of wildlife and take photos. 

We've been through here 4 or 5 times over the years, but this is the first time I've seen an alligator! He's a big one too.  Of course, we were all crowed around staring and photographing him until someone's car alarm went off.  Frank & I didn't wait around to see if that disturbed the big fellow, we hoped on our bikes and pedaled hard!

Doesn't this look nice?

This was right before the latest Frank & Debbi adventure.  Frank had a blowout on his tire!  We were at the 3.5 mile marker out of 4 miles in the reserve.  We walked to the end of the reserve, then decided that I should ride to get the van and come back for Frank.  Well, something funny happened, and I rode and rode and could not find the entrance.  I checked the GPS on my phone but could not tell which direction I was going.  Yes, I tried riding and looking to see if I could go fast enough to show up on the GPS.  Frank finally called and asked if I was to the car yet?  No, I'm not sure where the hell I am!  Well, he says, I'm 3.5 miles from the car!  Another guy he talked to says its 4 miles BACK to the parking lot after you ride the 4 miles through the reserve.  Oh brother.  I managed to ask a woman on her bike which way I was riding and she replied - "you're nearly to Captiva!"  Translation - WRONG way.  I finally wised up, put the location into the phone, and had it direct me.  I finally found the car, picked up Frank, and all was well.  I'm pretty sure I rode at least 10 miles today!!  We decided we needed some refreshment, so we soothed those aching muscles at the Island Cow with Key Lime Pie.  Once arrived home, I had to sit on my little deck and partake in Happy Hour!