Universal

   On Thursday of our trip, we spent the day at the beach again.  After two days of crowds and chaos,  a nice, relaxing beach day was much needed!  We went to the same beach as before, and had another wonderful day.
   We left the beach and headed to our next hotel in Hollywood.  I have to add here that L.A. traffic is no joke or exaggeration!  We left the beach around 3:00 to head to the Hollywood area.  I think it was about a 30 mile drive and when we put it into the GPS it said it would take us 1 1/2 hours!  At one point Joey and I were laughing because the GPS said we had 3 miles until our hotel and it would take 30 minutes.  It was totally accurate too.  I could have ran to the hotel faster than sitting in that stop and go traffic.  I love L.A. but I truly don't understand how people deal with that traffic day after day.
   We checked into our hotel finally and grabbed a quick dinner at In and Out.  We all went to bed early because we discovered Universal opened at 7:00 a.m. and we wanted to be there right when it opened to beat the crowds again.   (Side note: That night Joey had me switch out batteries in the camera with one that was in the camera bag.  Only a few hours into our day the next day, the camera died.  I  was so bummed!  I didn't get to take nearly as many pictures as I wanted to.  We did get some shots and used our camera phones a lot,)
    While we headed to Universal first thing, Joey left even earlier to fulfill a dream of his.  He has listened to this radio show, Covino and Rich, faithfully for 13 years or more.  He has always wanted to meet them and go to a taping of their show.  They recently moved to L.A. and they happened to record near where we were staying.  He got up bright and early and took an Uber to meet them and watch their show.  He said it was an incredible experience and he talked about it for days.  I am glad that he got to have that experience.

The mircophones

Joey with Covino and Rich

    We all kind of went our separate ways that morning.  My parents decided to do the special VIP tour at Universal.  They got to take a special studio tour and they got to walk right on every ride at the park.  They also got passes that took two people to the front of the line for the rest of the day . Their tour lasted most of the day, so it was Bryan, Katy, and I with all the kids for the morning.  My parents said the tour was amazing and they were very glad they did it.

In front of the Universal ball

  

    We got to Universal right as the opened at 7:00 a.m.  It was literally a ghost town.  I have never seen a Disney opening that empty.  It was incredible!  I knew we had to head straight for the Harry Potter area because I knew it would become very crowded as they day went on.  I also wanted us to ride the Harry Potter rides before the lines were outrageous.
   Ashlyn has been obsessed with Harry Potter for many years.  She started watching the movies and fell in love.  I had never seen any of the movies or read any of the books because they just didn't appeal to me.  Ashlyn talked me into reading the books with her.  After we read each book, we would watch the movie.  I can now say I am totally a Harry Potter fan and think its a pretty neat series of books.  Ashlyn's dream has been to go to Harry Potter world for a long time.  She was beside herself when I told her we were going.
   When we walked into Daigon Alley it was like walking right into the movie or the book.  Universal did an absolute incredible job recreating everything.  It was such a magical experience.  The big ride there is Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey.  You have to be 48 inches tall to ride, so Ashlyn was the only kid who could ride.  Ashlyn, Katy and I walked right onto the ride.  Walking to board the ride takes you all through Hogwarts castle and there are so many elements from the movies and books it was such a special experience.  I truly felt like I was in Hogwarts.  The ride itself was phenomenal.  It was unlike any ride I have ever ridden and by far the best ride I have ever gone on.  It involves a lot of movement and motion, so it is not for the faint of heart.  Luckily, Ashlyn and I are not bothered by such things and we rode twice in a rode that morning.  I think we rode that ride a total of 6-7 times that day.

Ashlyn meeting the conductor of Hogwarts Express

In front of Hogwarts

Amazing attention to detail

A Harry Potter show

    After our Harry Potter rides, we were all ready for some breakfast.  We of course had to eat at the Harry Potter restaurant that was really tasty. The food was English and the inside of the restaurant was really neat.
    After we ate and rode the awesome studio tour, the kids were dying to get wands.  I had promised them that one of their souvenirs could be a wand.  They have a Olivanders just like in the books.  We had to wait in line for several minutes which was a little weird to stand in line for a store, but it was well worth the wait.  They only let in a certain amount of people at a time.  Once we were let in, we went into a small room with lots of boxes of wands.  Before long, they opened a secret passage way and we went into another room.  "Olivander" picked a girl from the audience and he did a wand choosing ceremony with her.  It was entertaining.  We then walked into the store that was super small and super full of people.  It was hard to even see the wands they had, but it looked like they had a wand for just about every character.  The kids had a blast and each left with a special wand in a special Olivander's bag.  It was such a neat experience.

The first room

Why does Ashlyn look so old in this picture?

So fun

    After Olivander's, it was actually time to eat again.  Joey had met up with us and we suggested the Harry Potter restaurant again because the food was so good at breakfast.  We had an excellent lunch and enjoyed the ambiance of the restaurant again.

They even had a place to park your brooms

The kids table.  I have no clue why Dawson has a napkin on his head.  

Of course, we had to upgrade to the interactive wands.  They had all sorts of different windows where you could use your wand to make something happen.  

The cutest and sweetest girls in the world

What a great big sister Ashlyn is

   After lunch, we headed down to the lower part of the park.  You have to take about 5 different sets of escalators to get down there.  It was worth the trek though because there were some neat rides down there.  The biggest ride down there is the Transformers 3d ride.  After Harry Potter, it was the second coolest ride I have ever been on.  Universal really knows how to do some cool rides.  We found some Transformers to meet outside of the ride.  The kids wanted to wait in line to meet them.  Dawson is a huge Transformers fan, so he was so excited.  Optimus Prime was hilarious and did a great job entertaining the audience.

Watching Transformers

Waiting his turn

Transformers are huge!

Dawson got to meet Megatron who is his favorite.  

Joey trying out a wand

Our silly group

    We spent the rest of the day riding lots of rides and exploring the park.  We rode a lot of rides that day.  We also went to the special effects show that the kids loved.  We stayed all day long.  We got there at 7:00 A.M. and didn't leave until 9:30 P.M.!!!  Our cars were literally the last ones in the valet lot.  I don't think we could have packed anymore fun into our day.  We were all very tired that night.  We had to be up bright and early to head back to Colorado.  We went the other way and drove through Las Vegas and Utah.  We stopped for the night in Grand Junction and we were home by 1:00 P.M. the next day.  We came home with lots and lots of good memories as well as laundry!  What an incredible trip we had.

California kids