T Stands for Harry Potter

 Hi everyone. It's good to be back for T  day over at  Bleubeard's and Elizabeth's blog  after missing it last week.  I wasn't around last Monday night/Tuesday because my friend Deb and I decided we wanted a short little winter break. We're both Harry Potter fans,  and since Harry Potter World was on our bucket lists, we decided to go to Universal Studios down in Orlando, Florida for 3 days to check out their 2 Harry Potter areas. We were able to get a direct local flight out  of Portsmouth (New Hampshire) on one of those "budget" airlines, and Costco had a great package deal for park tickets and a hotel room (especially when we shared and  split the cost of the room). 

I know not everyone is into Harry Potter nor might not be an amusement park fan, so I hope you don't get bored with my post if that's you. And if you've seen all this before, then please bear with me also. 😏

It wasn't all that warm, at least the first day, but I missed a snowstorm at home, even though when I came home the snow was still on the ground. My poor hubby had to deal with the snow knowing I was away where it was a bit warmer. 😏

We only went on a few rides in our 3 days in the park, but we did spend a lot of time walking around the 2 areas that were made to look like scenes from Harry Potter's world. One was Diagon Alley, and the other area was  Hogsmeade. For those of you who aren't familiar with the books or movies, Diagon Alley is in an area of London and Hogsmeade is the town near the wizarding school  (Hogwarts) where much of the stories in the 7 books takes place.

The artists who created these areas certainly managed some fantastic details. You really felt like you stepped into a scene from Harry Potter. Diagon Alley was my favorite place in the park, and on day 3 we still discovered some things we'd missed in the 2 earlier days.

Here are a few views from Diagon Alley. That dragon (on the top of Gringott's Bank) was amazing.

It was fun seeing so many Harry Potter fans dressed for their visit too. You can just see a few robed people  in this photo. 

The owls in the owlery here were hooting  and turning their heads too.  

I loved the dragon. Here's a close up. We didn't even notice until day 2 that every 10-15 minutes the dragon spit fire from his mouth. Underneath is a photo from a different angle of the fire.

And here's a few views from the other Harry Potter area of the park called Hogsmeade.

 And here is Hogwart's, the school where Harry, Ron, Hermoine  and others attend.

And here are Deb and I again.

I had a lot of fun taking photos, but in order to not make this post too lengthy, I will share more some other days. However, I do need a drink for T this week.

And what do you drink in Harry Potter's world? A woman we met on the train (The Hogwart's Express) that connects the 2 areas of the park recommended the hot butter beer, butter beer being the drink of choice in the Harry Potter books.

It's a non-alcoholic hot butterscotch flavored drink, similar to hot cocoa. And it was, as this lady called it, foods for the gods.

Now I'm home, and it's still winter.  We're into the second half of winter, and it's good that the days are noticeably longer (hurrah). As fun as it is to go away, it is always good to come home.  That's all for me. Have a great T day and week ahead.