Fun in Florida part 1

After having beautiful weather in Arizona, we were looking forward to the same in Orlando.  But, were we ever surprised!  It was kind of rainy when we arrived.  A shuttle took us to our hotel near Universal, The  Four Points by Sheraton.  It was a lovely hotel and we were on the 9th floor - 901 was our room number.  We had a terrific breakfast buffet each morning that was included.

Monday morning we took the shuttle bus to Universal Orlando.  Janine was our driver for most of the days.  In our rides to the parks, we met several very nice families.  This family was from Brazil:

We were looking forward the most to going to The Wizarding World of Harry Potter.  It was quite the place.
http://www.universalorlando.com/harrypotter/   You can go to this link and see more of it.

They did an awesome job of creating Hogsmead and Hogwarts.

 

 We walked all around the village.  It was so cold!!  Record cold temperatures for Florida.  It was in the 20s!  We went into the Three Broomsticks to have some Butterbeer and hot chocolate and to warm up a little. 

 The view of Hogwarts was so neat!

You really feel like you enter the world of Harry Potter as you walk through the village and then enter Hogwarts.  We walked through the classrooms, past Dumbledores office, through the photo gallery where the pictures were talking and on past the Sorting Hat.  Then we were on the ride where we flew after Harry in quite an adventure!

 After walking around and being so cold, we went into one of the stores and I bought a Gryffindor scarf.  It really helped to feel a little warmer.  

While I looked around at things and waited, Paul went on a couple of rides (I think he went on all the roller coasters that were at the parks - but I'm not interested).  One was Flight of the Hippogriff.  

He also went on the Dragon Challenge.  While he was gone, I looked and purchased a Harry Potter Wand.

We weren't disappointed in Harry Potter World.  It was so interesting to see everything in real life.

Next we were off to Jurassic Park.

We saw dinosaurs that seemed pretty real.

We went on to the Lost Continent where we saw the Mystic Fountain and toured the remains of Poseidon's ancient temple.  

While in the lost continent, we went to Mythos restaurant for lunch and to warm up.  It was a beautiful place and was listed at the top dining place in all the parks in America.  

After lunch, Paul went on the Dragon Challenge roller coaster.

  It doesn't look fun to me.  

While in line he was able to see the car from Harry Potter.

We continued on to Seuss Landing.  It was very clever and fun to see.  

Their makeup looked so real!!

 Quite a carousel!  

December 2010

While the Temple was closed for two weeks, we had great plans to go south and enjoy warmer weather.  We drove down to Mesa Arizona where we stayed with Shirlene's mother.  She lives just across the street from the Mesa Temple where they have beautiful Christmas lights and decorations on the grounds and a musical program each night.  We enjoyed walking over there. 

 Beautiful tree in the Visitors Center with pictures of the history of when the Temple was built. 

 Debbie West Coons performed one of the evenings. 

While I was growing up, a favorite place for our family to go eat was Mattas.  They have great mexican food.  They closed their place on Main Street and recently opened a new restaurant.  We took mother and ate lunch there then walked through the new Bass Pro Shop near it.

We enjoyed the nice 70 - 80 degree temperatures, watching game shows, playing Phase 10, visiting etc.  Paul took a side trip to Thatcher and saw his sister, Mary and cousin John Wayne Lines.  He also was able to go to the Gila Valley Temple.
Nanette does so much for mother that it was nice to be able to fix dinner a couple of times and have her come over to eat with us.  We also drove out to the citrus groves with mother and got her annual gifts of citrus and we were able to deliver them to Karen and Cheri after we got home.  

While at mothers we had a visit from Santa!  He drove up in his "sleigh." 

Ben Allen had been to a ward party and was Santa, so he came over so we could see him.

After being in Mesa for about a week, we were off to Florida for another week.  Florida will continue in the next post.