WEEKEND IN FLORIDA

Me, The Man of the House, #1 and  #3 took a little trip.

We went to Orlando on Friday and touched back down in Raleigh last night... well, some of us did

#1 was able to get away from school, but had to fly back by herself on Sunday evening.

#3 and I came back last night.

We left you know who there to attend a conference and work.

We tried to count up how many times we have been to Disney World. Somehow we came up with the number eight (with kids). We usually go every couple of years because of a meeting or conference that Art has. 

This time was no different. 

We did go a few days earlier than we needed to because the girls wanted to go to 

Harry Potter World at Universal Studios.

We have been to Universal Studios before, but have never stayed there. 

I fell in love with the Portofino resort. It was beautiful!

If you squinted and held your mouth just right, you could ALMOST pretend that you were really in Portofino, Italy.

(iphone)

(camera)

Do you see much difference in the quality of the two pictures?

There was a cute little bakery where we got coffee and pastries in the morning.

( I want a room in my house that looks and smells just like this.)

We had dinner on a balcony overlooking the square. There were italian singers and musicians that would come out on the balconies behind us and sing and play during the night. 

Wonderful!

#1 and #3 were so giddy about going to The Wizarding World of Harry Potter.

I forgot just how important HP was to them and that #1 especially grew up waiting for each of the books to come out and then would stay up all night reading them, even the one with over 700 pages.

The bad thing about Harry Potter World is this:

once you are in Universal Studio's Islands of Adventures  

you have to make your way all the way back to HPW and then once you are there,

 you wait in a line to get a ticket stating the time you can actually enter the HPW.

We had a three hour wait.

That was not a  big deal to us because we were hungry and literally had gone straight to the Harry Potter area when we got there, so that gave us some time to wander around and actually sit down 

to a decent lunch.

(FYI: I had fish tacos.)

the main entrance

on our way to Hogwarts 

there is an awesome 3D ride inside 

 Hogsmeade

the Butterbeer stand

Barrett with her Butterbeer and look what her dad is doing... as usual!

So after this adventurous day we relocated to Disney property

and to the fabulous 

Waldorf Astoria.

our view...

silk robes and slippers for everyone

in the lobby

(taken with my iphone)

I am so sad that it is not as wonderful in the pictures!

The colors (peacock blue, green, silver, cream and taupe) were beautiful.

Unfortunately I do not think it shows up here.

We are pros at catching the buses, monorails and boats and buzzing through the four different parks, going straight to what we want to do

or getting fastpasses and then slowing down to enjoy it all. 

It was so nice to see flowers of every color this time of year.

I took so many pictures of the flowerpots and hanging baskets so that I can copy them in a few months. 

After doing that on Saturday, we enjoyed a day by the pool on Sunday.

Now that we are home, I have been freezing the entire day. 

I am so ready for warm weather!