6am....yawn...why does it always come so early??

Back to the gates of Islands of Adventures at 8am....headed down the familiar road past Dr. Seuss land, beyond the sleeping fountain until we see a gleaming red train in the distance!!!

(funny side note...we are both wearing Pearl Jam shirts)

I took MORE pictures of Hogsmeade...then we went back to the Dragon challenge rollercoaster! The cool thing about this park, is that even while you are waiting in line (if there are lines, that is) there are neat things to see...like this

 Oh hey...I wonder if Hagrid is home?

Hagrid???? Well, I guess he wasn't home. But Fang was..we could hear him barking inside the hut!

Looks like Josh was driving again

You can't really see..or maybe you can...but inside it was decorated like  Triwizard Tournament tent!

Once again, there wasn't a line. In fact, we road the first time all by ourselves!!! We hopped off the blue coaster (Hungarian horntail), and then hopped right on the red one! (Chinese Fireball)

Oh, we also rode the Flight of the Hippogriff rollercoaster...you know who you see while waiting in line?

Hi Friend!!! (and yes, he moves)

Josh putting on a brave face

View of Hogsmeade from the top of the rollercoaster!

By now, I was feeling pretty good and thought I could handle the Hogwarts ride again. I thought wrong. I barely made it through the floo powder before I got dizzy. Oh well...the castle is still really cool. I liked to take my time through the castle and couldn't understand why everyone was running down to the end just to get on the ride. I thought the castle was much cooler (and not just because the ride made me sick). The portraits all talked to each other...Dumbledore talked to us...Harry, Ron and Hermione talked to us (Ron even made it snow in the DADA classroom..for reals!) Then there were little things, you could hear teachers talking behind closed doors (about Hagrid and his Dragon) and the attention to detail was incredible!!!

Speaking of attention to detail...Moaning Myrtle was even haunting the public bathroom!!!

After a leisurely breakfast at the Three Broomsticks (during which I filled Josh in on a lot of Harry Potter lore), we headed out of the park and went back to Universal Studios to hit the rides that we missed. (we grabbed a bottle of pumpkin juice on the way out!)

By this point, I was still feeling the effect of the Harry Potter super nauseating ride. We rode the Mummy again, which was fine. Then we went to the Twister experience...which was more of a show than a ride, and despite me being all "I'm from Kansas...this ain't scary"...I still screamed. Then we found the entrance to the rollercoaster "rip ride rockit" and hopped right on! From there we went to the Men In Black ride, bypassing all the lines again(yay, express pass!!!) and shooting up some aliens. Then we walked back through Springfield and went to the Despicable Me ride. This ride was 3D and very funny...it made Josh laugh...it almost made me barf. 

I was starting to feel the cumulative effects of the 3D rides. We went back to our hotel for a much needed nap. I woke up at about 4 and planned to go back to the park, but a sudden thunderstorm changed our plans! We got caught in a downpour and ran back to the hotel. We had a nice dinner in the hotel restaurant and then went back to the room for more movies and sleep!