Welcome to Florida!

We went to swim with the manatees very early in the morning on Wednesday March 9th. It was a very dark morning. Everyone was very, very tired and even the muffins and the oranges were not quite enough energy for four sleepy people. But, it was totally worth it, and after we got in the water we were not even that tired any more. Not me at least. Anyway, swimming with the manatees was awesome. The first manatee came up to me a lot because it liked me so much, (and we were only supposed to touch them, with one hand, if they do come up to us) and so I let it do what it wanted and floated by it. Really. The title was swimming with the manatees but it is really floating with the manatees. We float beside them, letting them make all the choices and watch as the beautiful creatures swim by. 

After swimming with the manatees, we drove over to a surprise place. Universal Studios. I had know idea that this place even existed! It has rides and places, from the movies of Universal and that included Harry Potter. Now I don’t really know how much YOU like Harry Potter, but me and Lucy...LOVE IT! In one park, there is Diagon Alley, with everything that you could possibly dream of. There was even a fake kings cross station that had a train to another park with Hogsmeade and Hogwarts. We had butterbeer, chocolate frogs, and we even bought wands! At the tip of the wands we got, there is a little sensor. There are little spots all over the place with a camera, so that when you do a certain movement with your wand, something happens! Like, for one, you move your wand as if to make a small hill. And then water comes spilling out of a fountain. These little spots are all over the place. In Gringotts, the wizard in bank, there is a ride about escaping Gringotts in the last movie, with three d glasses that show you a movie along the way. On the train in the window and door of your compartment there are videos playing. In the window it is showing the fake scenery and whether outside. In the door, it is showing shadows of people as if they were really there. When you arrive at Hogsmeade and Hogwarts there are two more rides. One outside ride, called The Flight Of The Hipogriph is a really nice short ride, and another inside is a Hogwarts ride where, while riding, you watch a movie about playing Quidditch. 

We also went on a couple other rides, one of my favourite being The Rocket.

While we were there, at the end of the day, there was an awesome Mardi Gras parade, where the people on the floats toss out bead necklaces. Lucy, Mamma’s cousin’s daughter Addison, and I each caught a big neck full of necklaces. In front of each float there were dressed up people in at least a meter tall stilts, dancing! I can’t even walk in tin can stilts. Others were walking around handing out Mardi Gras coins.

-Miriam