Dec 2 Dec 3 Dec 4 Dec 5 Dec 6 Dec 7	Monday, December 6 We have a full day planned for today, so we were up early. After breakfast, we headed to Kelly’s. I should have taken along one more layer of warmth, however. It was a cold, cold day. I don’t think it went over 59 all day long... Most of the day was spent at Universal’s Islands of Adventure in the Wizarding World of Harry Potter, a new section of the park. It was a very fun day. The photo to the left shows the entrance to Hogsmeade and the whole Harry Potter section. The photo on the right shows the Hogwart's Express, the special train that takes young wizards from London to Hogwart's Castle for schooling. I was only disappointed in one thing. They build all the shops and streets in this area British style, so they were tiny and very, very overcrowded. It’s still a new enough area that most of the people coming to the park today were crammed into this area... The three photos above are from the shop area of Hogsmeade (which also had features from Diagon Alley, but that's beside the point). The photo on the left shows a chess set in the window of the game and novelty shop. The center photo is the street display for the cauldron shop. The photo on the right shows some of the display candy jars in the candy shop. Yes, they did sell all flavors of jelly beans and chocolate frogs... The three photos above were also taken in the Hogsmeade area. The photo on the left shows some of the rooftops and crazy chimneys that make up this area. The center photo shows a "frozen" water pump and trough - it was almost cold enough today that this could have been made of water instead of plastics and looked the same! The photo on the right shows a wizard snowman with his snow owl. In the background of the center photo is the entrance to the restrooms for Hogsmeade. One has to stop in the restrooms here, even if it isn’t urgent. There’s a sound track of Moaning Myrtle running in the background... We did sample the (nonalcoholic) butter beer - the official, unpublished formula and all agreed that the person who came up with the alcoholic version we had tried the other night had nailed the taste! We wandered Hogsmeade for a while, which is the shop area, getting into most of the stores. Then watched the Frog Chorus perform (photo to the left). On to Hogwart’s Castle (photos to the left and right), where the queue lines wound through the castle and were very interesting. Kelly insisted that I could handle this ride as it wasn’t any more jolting than Spiderman, so I got on it. I should have stayed off.... The ride broke down part way through, which actually helped my insides, giving the butter beer a chance to settle back down before getting scrambled again... So, we headed back to the Three Broomsticks for a bite of lunch. This restaurant used to be Merlin’s Tree, but was completely rebuilt to resemble the inn from the movie. Lunch was very good, but I passed on any more butter beer... The photo on the left above shows Carl looking at the menu for the Three Broomsticks. The center photo shows the many antlers on the fireplace wall inside the Three Broomsticks. The photo on the right shows some of the Christmas decorations found inside the Three Broomsticks. The photo to the left shows the outside of the "Owlery", where the owls come and go to deliver mail. The many little windows are to give them plenty of access to the roosts. In reality, there's a real post office on the main floor of this building where you can send mail postmarked "Hogsmeade"! The photo on the right shows Carl and Kelly relaxing in front of the Owlery. Kelly's finishing up her butterbeer and looks very much the British scholar with her Ravenclaw scarf. It was amazing to see all the souvenirs being worn today. Visitors had full wizarding robes in addition to scarves, jackets, and shirts. We'd see scarves from all four of the Hogwart's Houses. Gryffindor was well represented... After lunch, we walked over to the Dragon Challenge ride. This used to be the Dueling Dragons roller coaster and I already knew not to get on this one. However, I did go through the queue line to see the stuff to see while in line, then took the bailout passage back to the exit, where I met the riders. And I took charge of all the stuff we were carrying while they rode . Our next line was the line to get into Ollivander’s Wand Shop. The photo to the left shows the shop sign for Ollivander's Wand Shop. The line was only about 30 minutes long and the show, once inside, was about 10 minutes long. Ollivander and his assistant helped two young girls get fitted for “their” wands. Then it was into the actual shop where prop wands were for sale. Another minuscule shop... Kelly had her eye on a wand, but she knew that the lines were shorted at a cart out in the main part of the area, so we walked over there. There was another souvenir shop nearby, which is where we picked up our souvenirs for the day. From there, we ambled back to City Walk where we got our tickets for the Harry Potter movie, which we watched on the IMAX screen. Definitely made for fans of the books and movies. If you weren’t up on the details, you’d easily get lost with this plot... Now it was time for dinner. Where else does one eat in City Walk? Why Margaritaville, of course! We had a very good dinner there. Kelly knew one of the stiltwalkers, so she came over to visit for a while. We finally made our way back to Kelly’s where we had some tea to warm up. And Carl put his skis back together. He had sent them to Orlando for a custom paint job by one of Kelly’s friends. Laura did a fantastic job! We were all impressed. We’ll take them back on the plane with us. He had brought along one of his ski bags just to transport them with. Finally left a little after midnight. All in all a very nice visit. Next...