A Universal Truth

 


At last -- the final recap of our West Coast Swing!  For our last full day of the road trip, we descended upon Universal Studios Hollywood with gusto.  The day was long, hot, and -- not gonna lie -- kind of draining, but -- at the end of the day -- we left the park with happy campers.  Hot, tired, and hungry campers, but happy nonetheless.  As is the case with all amusement/theme parks, we paid more than the actual worth of the food we consumed and the souvenirs we bought, but it's all about making memories,  right??  Hahaha.  With that being said, here are the memories we'd like to keep from the day...


  • Harry Potter world
Our first stop right out of the gate was Hogsmeade.  Hahaha.  Alex became relatively obsessed with all things Harry Potter earlier this year, and visiting the famous wizarding world was one of the biggest draws of the road trip for him.  That being said, ALL of the kids (myself included) were looking forward to experiencing the magic, and I think for the most part it was fairly magical!  Hahaha.  







I was surprised to hear everyone's reactions to Butterbeer -- it was a unanimous thumbs down from the kids.  Meanwhile, I thought it was a delicious, frosty treat on a hot summer day.  Go figure!


Isaac still rocking that smile.  LOL.


  • Amusement park rides
I'm not one for rides of any kind, but between Scott and the older kids, everyone had a buddy (or buddies) for whatever thrill they wanted to seek.  Hahaha.  Isaac braved his very first roller coaster {The Flight of the Hippogriff} while we were still in Harry Potter world, and he was lucky enough to have Grace accompany him to the kiddie land rides after everyone dispersed.  

(post roller coaster ride)













  • Studio tour
While Grace was with Isaac, and Sophie, Jane, and Alex were doing their own thing, Scott and I plus Ethan went on the Studio Tour "with" Jimmy Fallon.  lol.  Hahaha.  It was actually a lot of fun to see the different sets/lots, and it didn't hurt that the hour or so ride gave us a chance to be off of our feet and out of the direct sun during the middle of the day.




  • Merch
And now we get to the true racket portion of the trip -- the souvenirs.  Other than 1 souvenir apiece paid for by mom and dad, the kids were on their own for anything they wanted to buy.  Wizard wands were the "1 souvenir" each kid wanted to get, so 6 wizard wands were the order of the day!  {Unfortunately, before the day was even over, Isaac had already lost his.  Womp womp.  While we were sitting on a bench in the shade eating some popcorn, he must have set it down and someone must have taken it.}  


Decisions, decisions.



Jane and Sophie both treated themselves to oversized unicorn slippers before we left for the day.

I wish this post had a little more pizazz, but we're at the end of the road and I'm tired, so that's a wrap on this summer's epic road trip!  Now we can get back to our regularly scheduled programming and begin to cover our August birthdays and back-to-school.  Yippee!!!  Hahaha.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

#WestCoastSwing2021

Image
  Get ready for an onslaught of posts about this summer's epic road trip!  To kick things off, and hopefully build anticipation for the recaps, I thought I'd start with my top 10 favorite moments from the trip plus my top 10 best tips and tricks for road tripping with kids. In no particular order, my favorite memories were... 1.)  Watching the kids frolic on Cannon Beach our first night there while waiting for dinner. Tip 1: Eat first thing whenever you make a stop.  Hanger puts a damper on any fun.  Trust me.  Hahaha. 2.)  Listening to the beautiful strains of the   Pride and Prejudice   soundtrack while driving through the "Avenue of Giants" in the Redwoods. Tip 2: Download/movies/shows/whatever onto devices that kids can watch during long stretches of driving.  For us grown-ups, Scott downloaded a bunch of true crime podcasts to entertain him while driving, and I listened to several audiobooks.   3.)  Listening to all t...
Read more

Boston to NYC

Image
  Possibly the most entertaining part of the entire DRIVING portion of the road trip happened en route from Boston to New York.  In what could have potentially been a horribly miserable situation -- there was tons of traffic thanks to construction {?} about an hour outside of the city, which slowed us down and made irritable kids more irritable -- but thanks to a BMW convertible full of ridiculous teenage boys, we passed the time in the blink of an eye!  Hahaha.  This little bimmer was weaving in and out of the traffic with panache while the boys in the backseat were trying to interact with/get the attention of every car and truck they passed along the way, using a phone the whole time to -- Video? Live stream? Selfie? SnapChat? (we don't really know) -- the entire thing.  For about 20 minutes, our cars went back and forth between passing each other, and each time we did, the kids would dab or dance like maniacs to humor them.  And in the process humor ours...
Read more

A Crayola Experience

Image
  One of the stops that Jane and I were most looking forward to on the trip was the Crayola Experience in Easton, Pennsylvania!  What can I say?  We both love all the colors of the rainbow.  Hahaha.  In all honesty, though, I really did love it!  If we lived in Easton (or any of the other locations for the Crayola Experience), I would TOTALLY be buying an annual pass each year.  World's Largest Crayon DOB : October 11, 2003 Color : Blue Weight : 1,500 pounds Length : 15 feet Diameter : 16 inces # of Crayola Crayons used: 123,000 blue Crayola crayons were gathered from children around the country, who contributed their "leftolas" in an effort to help break the current world record! Coloring Capacity: You could color a straight line for nearly 10 miles or cover an area the size of a football field! With four floors of fun, it was essentially a Crayola themed children's museum -- and it was awesome.  The kids were able to mold a crayon into a "diamon...
Read more