We did make it to see Shamu last night, and he was all geared up in this pirate duds. This is a pretty bad picture – Shamu kept jumping up and down, and I’m not much of a photographer, so I couldn’t compensate.
Today was a different sort of day again – Levi wasn’t feeling so well. It was different from whatever hit me – he felt pretty good most of the day, but just couldn’t keep anything down. Paul stayed home with him and gave him lots of love and baths and let him play Angry Birds. We decided that it wasn’t necessary for all of us to stay, though, and Paul had no interest at all in something I very much wanted to do, so Elias got a whole day alone with his mama. He had a fantastic day hanging on to my finger and chugging along after me. Just about every time I looked down, I saw this:
The two of us went to Universal Islands of Adventure, and he continued his shameless flirting tour by utterly charming the parking attendant before we even got into the park. We passed through Seuss Landing
and arrived at my desired destination – Harry Potterville. It did not disappoint (as someone told me it would not). The Hogwarts Express is sitting right there as you walk in, and you can visit all of the shops from the novels, as well as tour Hogwarts castle. I didn’t do any of the rides (Elias is far too little for any of them), but I did do the walking castle tour. The talking portraits are everything I could have hoped for, and the Fat Lady guarding the Gryffindor common room is a hoot. I grabbed a frozen butterbeer on the way out, and Elias shared it with me. (Non-Potterites, calm down. Butterbeer is non-alcoholic. Think root beer.)
We had a great day together, and I think his very favorite thing might have been the moving sidewalks between the parking and the park entrance at Universal. There were several going each way, and he laughed like a loon every time he stepped onto one.
The Splash Bash party at the village (normally held poolside) was moved indoors because temps are in the 50s tonight, so we toddled on over to the Safari Theater, and right inside the door we found the boys’ new girlfriends. :)
We even tried to Facetime with Gigi and Auntie Lou right then, but the boys couldn’t tear themselves away. Men are fickle.
So glad the day wasn’t a total loss even though Levi isn’t feeling well. I hope he’s doing better for the return trip. Did you get to see everything on your list? Oh and gosh, that view of Elias all day. . . what a great happy smile!!! *swoon*