Beaches, Boats, and Harry Potter

I got to spend the last 10 days of Oct on a family vacation. It was awesome. We spent 2 days at Universal Studios, FL. The best part of this was Harry Potter World. When you first enter it it's like walking into Hogsmeade...and it really is, they have the shops and everything you can go in. It's super sweet. We even got butterbeer at the Hogshead. (If you're not a HP geek and don't understand these terms, don't worry 'bout it). Then there is the castle, which isn't full size but is still huge. It has a ride in it, but to get to the ride you walk through a lot of the castle and it's awesome. It feels completely legit. We completely geeked out and bought wands and robes and everything. We're cool like that.

The last night at Universal I was forced to attend Halloween Horror Nights. It was Jared's B-Day, and that's what he wanted to do, so I went along. It was awful. Ok, it really wasn't THAT bad - and if you enjoy scary things, you'd probably love it, but I don't plan on going back anytime soon.

After our days at Universal we set sail on the Carnival Dream. It was a 7 day cruise down through the Bahamas and the Caribbean.



Yes, that is a giant waterslide. It was pretty fun, but we only went on it a couple times because it was always crowded with little kids. We did spend a lot of time lounging on those deck chairs though.


One of the nights was a Halloween party/costume contest. Good thing we'd bought costumes at Universal!

Our first stop was Nassau, Bahamas. It would be an awesome place to stay and vacation. We mostly just wandered around the Atlantis resort.


Our second stop was in the Caribbean at St. Thomas. We went snorkeling with sea turtles here. I didn't get any pictures of it though, since my camera is fairly nice, and I didn't want to risk dropping it in the sea. It was my first snorkeling adventure. And I liked it except for all sea water. Gross.

Our third and final stop was St. Martin. We just spent the day on the beach/in the ocean. The weather and water were perfect.


This was successful only after many many failed attempts. But they got it eventually!

Every night on the cruise we had a fancy 3 course meal. Delicious.



In between all of those adventures there was a lot of eating, and a lot of lounging, and some bingo tournaments (we collectively won multiple times, I got $115) , karaoke, and comedians. All in all it was a super good time.