Dragonflies and Zombie Beavers (29th and 30th July)

Hello, again, 

Wednesday 29th: 

Wednesday was a crazy day. It was an eat doughnuts for breakfast and rip the shower curtain off the wall kind of day. Yes. Both those things happened... We had leftover doughnuts for breakfast and then I wrote some of my blog. Meg and I took the dogs for a walk round the block and found ourselves a dead dragonfly. This is a weird day to write... It was really cool though. It was huge and blue. We left it by a tree and retrieved it on our way back to the house. 

We showed everyone and then put it outside to it's final resting place. Meg was very reluctant to say goodbye (she's a bit of a biology nerd!).

And to the shower rail issue! It somehow came unstuck while Lizzie was showering, thank God she doesn't have a shower rail dent in her head! It's fine though, Dad managed to sucker it back up so we can shower with a curtain and rail still. 

We also went to the pool. We spent a lot of time taking photos of each other jumping in. I've been using my underwater Kitvision camera and it's sometimes quite difficult to actually take the photo as the button is in the underwater case; it usually takes multiple jumps to get a successful photo.

In the evening I wrote some more of my blog and watched some of the 'Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants' as Liv put it on in our room. It's a summer tradition for Liv and I, we watch it in our room in bed together every summer here. 

Wednesday was definitely a 'chill day'. 

Thursday 30th was spent at Universal again. Dad dropped us off and made arrangements for when he would pick us up. 

First of all we went to Hogsmeade to do the Harry Potter rides. The 'Forbidden Journey' simulator ride in the castle was already at a 20 minute wait half an hour before the park opened!! They let some guests staying at the Universal hotels into the park early. When we got to the ride the wait was at 60 minutes, but we went Single Riders and got straight on, it was great. I think the wait time is always crazy because the ride is inside the castle and people think they're going to be going all round the castle, but that's not really the case. It's a really good ride though and it is still cool inside, you see the Sorting Hat talking for example.

We then went on Dragon Challenge. There are two roller coasters, a red and blue one. Dad, Liv and I usually do them a few times because the wait times are usually really low because the queue moves quickly with two roller coasters. The four of us did the blue one and then Liv and Lizzie did the red one too whilst Meg and I shared a frozen butterbeer. They're delicious (I probably said the exact same thing about the last one I had!). 

Lizzie and Meg did the Jurassic Park River Adventure, it's a water ride so they got ponchoed up and did that while Liv and I waited for them. We all did the Hulk ride next. We went as Single Riders but I somehow got lucky and they put me in the front row! Usually you only go in the front row if you've queued normally and even then it's another separate line, you have to be committed to queuing if you want to go front row. 

We did a few more rides and then made our way to Universal Studios (from Islands of Adventure). We went on The Mummy and this time Liv was lucky enough to be put in the front row. We then went to a 50's style diner for lunch and I shared some onion rings and fries with Liv. I'm definitely going to try and go back to that diner for lunch, it was cute and the onion rings were very tasty. 

The next ride we did was 'M.I.B' (Men In Black). This is the ride where you're given a laser gun and have to shoot the aliens for points. Last time we did it we went as Single Riders but we wanted to go together this time, the wait wasn't too bad. I still can't believe Liv managed to get the bonus 100,000 points by pressing the red button first! She always beat me, I don't know how she always gets such a high score!

We walked to Diagon Alley and had a butterbeer ice cream from 'Florean Fortescue's Ice-Cream Parlour'.

Lizzie's Butterbeer Ice-Cream

After our ice creams we went to the 3:00pm show of Beetlejuice's Graveyard Mash. It was the worst show I've ever seen. It was embarrassing when people started walking out in the middle of the show. It was 8-10 people all singing and dancing at the same time, but mainly doing different things, it was very busy. It definitely wasn't the best use of a half hour, but ah well!

Lizzie then went on 'Disaster' whilst Meg, Liv and I enjoyed people watching- one of the best past times in my opinion. 

We took the Hogwarts Express back across to Islands of Adventure.

The Hogwarts Express

On our way back to the meeting point to be picked up we stopped off at Ripsaw Falls, not to ride ourselves, but to soak other people. There's a bridge that you can stand on to watch the people that come down on the ride, they go underneath the bridge and when they come out the other side, you can use water jets to soak the poor, unsuspecting riders. I think I spent about $3 or $4 in quarters just shooting people.

At one point when we were feeling particularly mean, the four of us loaded up blasters 1-4 and as the people came round we each blasted them as they went past our corresponding jet. It was hilarious! They were absolutely drenched. 

On the way back to the car to be picked up, we managed to get absolutely soaked. I guess you could call that karma... Within minutes the craziest downpour had begun, my socks and shoes were completely soaked. I hate wet shoes.

We went to Wendy's on the way home and in the evening we watched 'Zombeavers'. It's as weird as it seems. There are zombified beavers that go around attacking people. I had to watch it with a cushion in my hands, I'm not good with 'scary' movies...

And that brings me to the end of Thursday 30th July.

The Big Wide World has taught me: $4 dollars spent soaking other humans on water rides is not $4 wasted. It's $4 well spent :D.

Hope you enjoyed the last day of July,

L
xxx