the queen travels

Start your engines and head to NASCAR, Feb. 21, 2012

Universal Studios here we come.

Up early today, early enough even to see the sunrise and had to snap a few photos. Then we had to get ready to rock and roll.

Morning view from James and Elaine's place. Gorgeous.

A gorgeous sunrise at James and Elaine's (photo taken by Joe Hunt).

We headed out so we could arrive around 9 a.m., when the park opens. We had also made arrangements to meet with an old friend who used to work at Chugach, Carolyn Cooper, who we call Coop. But you know how the best of plans often go astray? Ours did. There was an accident that delayed us for a couple of hours, so we didn't get to the park until nearly noon.

Coop was driving a big dually, with a gas tank in it, so while we made a visual with her in the parking lot, she had to move her vehicle out to the RV parking area.

Joe met a friend as we headed to the park entrance.

We all went into the park, Elaine, Joe, Verlie, Jeff, Sue and me. It's a long walk, even from handicapped parking as we had Sue's mirror hanger, but they had the moving walkways which were great. We were on three of those before we got to where we walked and then entered the park.

When you first walk toward the entrance gates, there are shops, and music and just a general state of revelry, a party atmosphere, and fun. And we weren't even in the gate yet. It was exciting. One more day of excitement in this vacation of going, going, going, which I thrive on. No stopping and not much rest.

Going in.

Coop finally found us in the line, we got our tickets and we headed to the Islands of Adventure which is the location of Seuss Landing, the Lost Continent, the Wizarding World of Harry Potter, Jurassic Park, Toon Lagoon and Marvel Super Hero Island.

Not a great copy of the map, but you can see the general layout for our day's plan.

The tower entrance to Islands of Adventure.

Let the adventure begin.

We bypassed Seuss which was one of the cutest theme parks and I do love Seuss, but didn't want to stop, and Continent and headed to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter. This was why I was at Universal Studios. The whole Harry Potter thing, the books, the movies, are fascinating to me, and I've enjoyed them more than most other movies.

The Grinch ride.

More Seuss land.

The entrance to Hogwarts.

We walked up to the entrance to the park and just inside was the train that took the budding wizards to Hogwarts Castle. There was even a conductor so you could get the photo. This park is exceptional and so well done, right down to every detail, including the car in the tree. The park was shoulder-to-shoulder people since this is the most popular area of the park. We were told that J. K. Rowling had a hand in all the souvenirs and the park, and would not allow things to be sold that were not child-related, meaning no shot glasses. There were also no golf balls for Harry Potter. Sorry, Tom.

The train that leaves platform 9-1/2.

Elaine, me, Verlie and Sue with the conductor of the Hogwarts train.

The castle.

The car in the tree from the Harry Potter series.

We first decided to hit the rides, and walked quickly to the Dragon's Challenge which is a roller coaster-type of ride. I wanted to be on every roller coaster in the park, and this was a good start. Yahoo. It was a blast, up, down, twist, loop-de-loop. It was a 2-minute ride, and a great way to start our park experience. Everyone went on this one.

The Dragon Challenge coaster.

From there Coop and I went to the Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey ride. This was a 75-minute wait,but so worth it. As you walk along waiting to get to the ride, you go through the castle and are getting a tour of it, with Professor Dumbledorf, Hagrid, and Harry and his friends talking to you, the talking and moving pictures, the sorting hat to determine the houses the young wizards would be living in, such as Gryfindor and Slytherin. I didn't see any moving staircases, though. It was so much fun that you don't pay too much attention to the time spent in line.

The ride is supposed to be like a broom ride, but it's more like being on a hang glider. You're flying behind Potter on his broom, up and over the castle, through things, around and in and out of trees, there are the death ghosts (can't remember what they're called), a dragon that blows steam on you and you're being chased. It's an awesome experience and why I wanted to come to this theme park. While it's not a roller coaster, it's a superb ride, and so much fun to be in the experience and not merely looking on. A lot of thought, planning and engineering went into the Harry Potter world and you can tell no expense was spared. Some of the other rides were fun, but you could tell that the money spent was not comparable at all. But no matter, we had a ball.

Butter beer, the drink of Hogwarts. It's a butterscotch-flavored drink, with a frothy, creamy topping. Yummy! You can also get it frozen like a slushie.

Jurassic Park.

From there we went to Jurassic Park, and the River Adventure ride. We got wet on this one, but had dinosaurs come out of the water, and they were along the banks. It was fun and we had a good time on this one, too. I was hoping we could do the Pteranodon Flyer which looked like birds flying over this area of the park, but it was for kids and their adults. I wanted to grab a kid so I could go, but didn't find a willing parent. Bad luck.

A dinosaur carving.

We also toured through the Discovery Center and there was a ton of interactive things to do. My favorite piece of this was the dinosaur being born and coming out of the egg. Lots of dinosaurs here, though, and a great place to bring the kids.

Dinosaur baby being born in the Discovery Center.

One of the dinosaurs in the Discovery Center.

Jurassic Park River Adventure. We got wet, some of us more than others.

Another vehicle and dinosaur in the Jurassic Park adventure.

The Pteranodon Flyer ride we couldn't go on because we didn't have a child with us. And it looked so fun.

The next stop was Dudley Do-Right's Ripsaw Falls ride. I wasn't really going to do this one since it was another water ride and it was getting late so we'd probably not get dry before we left the park, but Coop, Elaine and Joe wanted to go, so off we went. This one was great fun, and we got soaked! But that's the whole point of the ride.

Dudley Do-Right Ripsaw Falls log ride.

From there the one Coop wanted to do was the Hulk Coaster. Oh yeah. This is the largest coaster in the park and Coop, Jeff, Elaine and I went on this one. It was only about a 20-minute wait. The big draw to the park is the Harry Potter piece so everything else is not nearly as crowded. This coaster shoots you out of a chamber directly into a twister, down and up, triple-loops with twists that turn you right and left, up and down and up and over. What a rush this one was. Pure … adrenaline. What a great way to finish off a day at the park.