Let the FUN begin!

The Loaded RV picked Danny and I up in Milwaukee, we ate some dinner before we left, and then on the road Florida bound we went. The ride down there was uneventful but long....it's 27 hrs of driving time. So when we made it Universal Studios in the early afternoon on Saturday. I was ready to get out of the RV. The weather was amazing and the crowds in the park were even better. It was definitely NOT in season for the theme park as the parking lots were empty and the lines to the rides were short..if any. In areas it was like a ghost park :)

We went straight to The Wizarding World of Harry Potter once we got there. It looks AMAZING...just like in the movies. We toured the castle, rode the castle ride (graphic), bought some souvenirs, and drank some Butterbeer (YUMMY!). You can tell that The Wizarding World of Harry Potter is the drive right now to Universal Island. We saw more people in there then what we saw in the rest of the theme park :) But still the longest line for the castle ride was only about 40 minutes....and I don't think it really even took that long. We had a wonderful time!!

The singing frogs :) What a beautiful performance ~ lovely voices
As we were getting on the simulated ride they had the candles floating up in the ceiling :)
Dumbledore and other characters would show up through the castle. It looked like they were really there talking to us. ~ Tid Bit of information....the box in Dumbledore's office with the wand was the actual wand from the Movie ~
The pictures were actually "alive" and once you walked in they would talk to you. So COOL!
We headed to The Blue Man Group show after the park. Which we ALMOST didn't make it as I had the wrong time....and thankfully we saw the board right before it was to start so we busted butt and made it. OOPS! All I have to say about the show is ~ WOW!! We've already looked up when they are going to be performing in our area and YES we are going again :)

Avrianna was SO excited to see he left a blue hand print on her sweatshirt. This is now her favorite sweatshirt :)

My mini Blue "Men" ~ With a piece of the paper....oh the paper ~ LOL

Avrianna said Blue Man was the best part of our vacation.....even over Harry Potter (now that is something!)

After the show we were STARVING! Our plan for this day was to go to Emeril's, but with my mishap with timing we weren't able to go (homecoming was this evening and they were packed, busy) So went to an even better place, that fit us better Bubba Gump Shrimp! Woot Woot! My favorite movie is Forest Gump and to be able to go here was a treat for me. LOVED IT!! Food was great, drinks were better and of course I had passed the Forest Gump trivia that the waitress questioned us on. I've watched it 1000's of times. I definitely NEEDED to get some Bubba Gump souvenirs. Both kids got a T-shirt (Danny wore his to CHOW the other day and it got alot of attention .... Stupid Is AS Stupid Does) and then I got this license plate which I just HAD to HAVE!!

The next day we went to the Original Universal Studios Theme Park ~ Another great day for weather and lines....

Here are some fun pics through our park experience:

The Jaws Boat Ride

She really liked the Men in Black ride ~

"Mom who's Betty Boop?"

"Mom who's Lucy" ~ ok, seriously Am I that old? History lesson at Universal ~ LOL

Chillin out watch The Blue's Brothers perform.

Shrek in 4D ~ so cool!
Beetlejuice's Rock Concert ~ Dan didn't think he was going to have a good time, but to his amazement the music and show was good

YIKES!

Hold ON!!

Dorthy II from Twister :) ~ at the Twister simulated ride
It amazes me to think that in season this place is zig zagged with people. I don't do well with that, lol.Of course now that we've seen all this at Universal we have to watch the movies now. Avrianna never saw Twister so now she's seen that one. And she only saw one MIB movie so that's sitting on the end table to be watched soon. I am on a mission to find Beetlejuice so she can watch that one too :)

We tried to get on the ET ride on 2 different occasions for it to break down, thankfully not while we were on it. I chalked that up to someone telling me NOT to ride ET.....maybe next time.

From Universal we packed up in the RV and headed towards Kissimmee to Medieval Times for dinner and a show. How fun!

Our picture with the King

We ate our meal with NO utensils.....Everyone got the same thing Soup, garlic bread, potato, 1/2 chicken, ribs, and an apple turnover.....Oh the food was delicious.

We were cheering for the red knight :)

Avrianna was excited that she got the First Carnation thrown out into the crowd

Monday October 24th was Avrianan's 9th Birthday. She spent it poolside enjoying the wonderful weather.
She is very proud of her picture blanket I had made for herAnd we enjoyed GREAT Food ~ Our HAVE to STOP at restuarant when we are in FL now. Plus Aleana HAD to come to Pinchers before her flight the next day back to WI :)

The the seafood.......AMAZING!! What else is there to eat at a crab shack but CRAB!!

Sorry Gail, but it was FANTASTIC!! Maybe next time?

Avrianna isn't a seafood fan so we took he the next day to her FAVORITE.....for a Mac N Cheese pizza :)

This trip we made it to the Beach. We met up with one of our "special" families that actually live here in WI, but was on vacation down there at the same time. Here are some of our beach pics.

Amazing....right?!

My beach Babes

We were busy this trip that is for sure. Not only with our activities but with all the packing, unpacking, cleaning.......repeat.....repeat......and repeat. Dan and I decided it was just too much work to keep the condo. So while we where down there we managed to clean out the condo and put it up for sale. It is an end of an era for us :( We will definitely miss the place and the space, BUT it will be nice to be able to use the RV more. We'll be coming back to the same area because we just LOVE it there, but now we'll just be in the RV.

Hope you enjoyed seeing our vacation. It's always nice to get out and go some where warm, but it's even better coming home.