LA Trip Day 6- Harry Potter & Little Tokyo

Geeezzzz, has it been that long since I touched this blog?  My apologies to anyone who reads this.  I think what happened was that I pre-loaded these photos and intended to write up my blog posts at my mom's but had trouble on her computer.  Oh well, so sorry!  I'll try my best to remember what happened on this trip.

So Day 6 was all about Harry Potter!  This was one of the main reasons we decided to go to LA.  My daughter is a huge Harry Potter fan and we almost took her to Universal Florida when they opened there, but we ended up going to Japan instead.  I'm kind of glad we waited till the LA Universal opened. My sister went to both and said that the LA one is just like the Florida one.  Yay!

Now I have to warn you.. Universal Studios is HOT!  I was melting.  Literally.  But somehow we made it through the park.  We didn't go through the entire Universal Studios, we only went to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter.    We were excited to see Hogwarts castle!!

Here's the two biggest Harry Potter fans I know!

The line for the wand shop was relatively short, so we decided to try that first.  While we waited in line, Paul got us some butter beer!! It was so good.  I'm ono for it now.

We tried one regular and one frozen. I think I actually liked the regular one better, but the frozen one was good cause it was so hot!

So this is what it looks like when you first get inside.  This guy scolded me since my phone went off while we were in there!

This guy does a little show inside the shop.  He selects someone to be chosen by the wand.  Very cool!

Love all the wands!  Really looks like Olivanders.

I took a selfie with him, but he was more interested in my Muggle phone.

Next up was the Harry Potter ride. It was actually in the castle!

Man was it hot!  They had misters throughout the area but it was not hitting us.  Plus the fans were pointed above us, so we didn't get cooled off at all.  Oh well.  Hopefully they will install some roofing.  

Do you recognize the car behind me?

So, my sister decided that the ride was not worth the heat, so she got out of line mid way.  Once we go to the castle, they told us we had to put our bags in the lockers. Their system was pretty awful, I must say.  It was nearly impossible to get a locker.  We should've given our bags to my sister to hold.

Then as we were waiting for my husband to find a locker, I heard the employees telling riders that if they go in the single rider line, there's no wait, whereas the regular line is about an hour (from in the castle!!), so we opted for the single rider line.  That was a good choice!  We missed some of the decorations, but I think we agreed it wasn't worth the wait.

Sure enough, we walked right on.  It really didn't matter if you were with your group since you don't really have a chance to talk to anyone. I was too busy screaming.  It was pretty rough, so if you don't like a lot of motion or have kids that might get scared, this ride is not for you.  Surprisingly, my mom loved it!  She's a trooper. 

Ok so after you get off, you get let out into the store.. then need to get your stuff...  So if you are sly enough, you can enter through the store, go to the locker and cut through to get in line again.  We didn't do that but I can see that happening.

That was the only ride, so the rest was just exploring and shopping.   My daughter wanted to get a wand, so I told her to get the interactive one that you can do spells around Hogwarts.  While she was picking out her wand, mom and I went to the Owl Post.    This was in the cage.  WTH?  It moved too.

Had to show my family when they joined us.  LOL!

They decorated the stores well.  Don't forget to look up!  Saw they hung brooms above us.

My daughter was so happy to show me her wand.

She got pretty good at using it to cast spells.  When you wave the wand a certain way, it made things happen in the park.  Object would move, etc. Pretty darn cool Universal!

Then we headed to the candy shop.  Look at all the chocolate frogs!

We had fun playing with all the weird treats. I imagine this is what the candy cart on the Hogwarts Express looked like.

Ok I don't remember what this is!  Sorry, guess I'm not a true Harry Potter fan.

By then we were hungry, so we stopped at the Three Broomsticks for lunch.  It was pretty good for park food!

Ok this next photo was making fun of my mom.  She kept saying "potato" as if she was casting a spell, so we would all crack up laughing.  She's so funny.

Here's a picture of the outside.  See the broomsticks?

OK this picture is junk but I'm including it anyway since I always thought it was cool in the movie that the pictures in the paper moved.

We went back to the Owl Post since Akemi wanted to get an owl.  I entertained myself by trying on hats!

This is how hot it was there...

Before we left, we were able to catch the frog choir!  I saw someone else post this and wanted to see it.  It reminded me of acapella frog rap.  LOL!

Couldn't leave without taking a selfie with Hogwarts Express!

By Universal!  It was HOT, but fun.

On to other adventures...  After we left Universal, we found Michaels!  I had a short but fun shopping trip.

Then Paul wanted to go to Little Tokyo to watch a taiko performance.  We made it just in time.  He was really happy.  I don't think I've really walked around Little Tokyo before.  We had fun shopping and ended up eating dinner there.  They had good stores!

See, my husband was happy with the sushi.

Ho mom- you going eat all that? LOL!  I always make her pose with the food and everyone thinks she eats it all when she only eats like a 1/4 of it.

That ended Day 6 of our adventure.  Still a few days left to post about, so I'll try to finish it up so I can share our next adventure!!

LA Trip Day 5- Citadel

So we decided to take a break from the theme parks and go shopping!  Yay!  My daughter hates shopping.  I know... how the heck is she my daughter right?  Regardless, we dragged the girls with us.  They seemed to entertain themselves by taking selfies on my phone.

After going through the mall, we were hungry and ended up at Ruby's Diner.  Not our first choice, but it was air conditioned, so we settled on that instead of the food court 

They gave the girls those paper cars... cute yah?  Yes, I ordered chili cheese fries for lunch.  LOL!

Before we had to drop off the girls, we decided to get a snack.  I heard of a place that sells churros that I wanted to try.  It was supposedly nearby my brother's house but it turned out that it wasn't as close as I thought. 

This little gem of a place is called The Loop.  Their churros are formed into a (huge) loop, thus the name.  What appealed to me was you could get it with soft serve!!  You could also get it glazed with toppings.  We weren't that hungry, so we all just shared one. This place was founded on social media, so they created a wall that is a backdrop for your selfies!

There it is!  It was the best churro I've ever had!

And they've totally embraced the pokemon craze!

We were pleasantly surprised to come home to more dessert!  My sister in law made us mochi cupcakes!! I was in heaven!

And finally, my brother's dragon fruit plant was blooming!  I think it only blooms like for a day or two.  Mom was so happy she was able to see it! He had about 4-5 blooms on that one plant!  What I didn't get a photo of was our dinner at Cheesecake Factory.  My brother in law was able to join us, so we were happy to finally see Guido!  After dinner we were tired and headed back to the hotel minus my nieces.  Next up is The Wizarding World of Harry Potter!