Palm Tree Thanksgiving Part 1

Oh hi! You're still here! I thought maybe you wouldn't want to stick around seeing how I haven't posted in forever but that's just because Megan and I have been on an amazing vacation to Florida. We had so much fun with a week of relaxation free from stress and responsibilities. And we got to have an awesome "palm tree Thanksgiving." To check out some of Megan's pictures from the trip, click here. I'm going to give you a blow-by-blow of our amazing trip. Get ready!

Friday
My mom picked me up from school the Friday of vacation on cloud nine. The cast list for Twelfth Night (UVM's next production) went up minutes before she came to pick me up. I actually got a part! I can't even believe it. Finally after working so hard and auditioning my butt off, I get another role. Most of my friends got roles as well, lead ones. It's going to be so much fun. My mom actually came into the theater to come get me and she got to see the cast list as well. It was a happy moment.

I'm in both of these shows!

Saturday We made it home to Lville the night before and spent the night at home. It felt very good to be home and not having to worry about every little thing at school. Seriously, sometimes it feels like my life is a constant string of worry. But not on vacation! We got to have Thanksgiving with my brother, his wife, and my niece Iris. She is so adorable and she has grown so much! She's only three months old and she's able to roll herself over. The problem is, she can't quite roll herself completely over so she gets pissed off and cries, but it'll come in time. It was nice to spend time with family especially while being able to eat real food. That was a wonder in itself.

Sunday
Finally! The day we had been waiting and planning for for months now. Megan's mom and gram brought us back over to the Btown airport so we could get through security and catch our flight around noonish. Our flight plan would have taken us into JFK airport where we would have had a huge layover and then we would have gotten into to Tampa, FL by eight. Not so much fun seeing how we still had to drive to Orlando. However, we seemed to be having a stroke of luck that day because we were offered a miracle. We were just expecting to check our bags when we walked up to the gate but when the lady asked us if we wanted to switch to a much earlier flight for free, we immediately took it.


This is us...happy.

We got to Tampa incredibly early around four-ish and met up with my grandparents who were waiting at the bottom of the escalator in baggage claim. The drive to Orlando was gorgeous, although I felt a little shell-shocked that we were actually here. It made it even better when my grandmother started blasting the Mamma Mia soundtrack and we belted along with it. I got so excited as we passed signs for Disney World, but I knew the excitement that waited for us. We were going to The Wizarding World of Harry Potter in Universal Studios. Yeah, jealous yet? All of my dreams were about to come true. We were actually going to go to Hogwarts! First though, we got to spend in the night in a really nice hotel with an amazing pool, we also got to relax and have a nice dinner with my grandparents. Way better than if we had flown in at eight.

We kind of took over the hotel...

Monday
So, I basically couldn't sleep very well that night because I was so excited about Harry Potter. I was the first one out of bed and ready to go but we had a great breakfast buffet and then Megan and I were off to get on the shuttle for Universal which was right across the road from our hotel, unfortunately that was six lanes of traffic. So everyone on their way to the park crammed into the tiny bright neon-yellow shuttle like sardines. Everyone was feeling each other up. It was like a theater green room on that bus. Anyway, we made it but not before the bus driver lied to us and told he would be pack for pick up at 5:30. We had to take a cab home later. But let's not focus on the negative besides the fact that the place was PACKED. I think if you took the whole population of New England and dropped them in Orlando, that would probably be an accurate description of how many people there actually were. There was a huge line to actually get into the Harry Potter section of the park but Megan and I went off and had fun in the rest of the park and then we finally made it to Hogwarts.

Close...

...closer...

...closerer...

The ride inside Hogwarts was so spectacular. It was like a terrifying 360 experience. Wicked cool.

We got butterbeer!

Halfway through our time in Harry Potter World, it started down pouring. The multitude crowd of people suddenly spilt as people ran to take shelter. Megan and I just stood there in the raining, soaking it in as lines dissipated and everything became a little more available. There were still lines to get into the shops though, which was rather annoying.

See? We're soaked!

Overall, it was a fantastic day and The Wizarding

To Be Continued...

Peace out!