Island of Adventures- And it was an adventure!

On Sunday night we had the opportunity to attend the grand reception for the AUA at Universal's Island of Adventures. Basically the park is shut down and only people with tickets from the conference can be there. The park had three major sections opened for us with lots of food, drinks, and entertainment.  Ryan's ticket was provided by the hospital and he bought one for me as my birthday present. Nana and Pop were willing to babysit so off we went!  

First we boarded a bus at our hotel and they took us straight to the entrance of the park. 

One of the first things I saw was the stand with the Butter beer.  Now for the record I have not read or seen Harry Potter. And apparently according to everyone we told that to we are awful, uneducated people that are missing out on one of life's greatest joys. Whatever. Anyway, even though I had not read them even I had heard about Butter beer and had to take a taste. It actually was great! Frozen was much better than the chilled.

Then we saw the first roller coasters, the Dueling Dragons. Now granted I had been on these 5 years ago with Ryan, David, and Greer (and David almost got stuck in one of the chairs permanently!) so I had lived through it once but looking at all of those drops and turns and flips did make me a little hesitant. But- on we went!

So the coolest thing about this night was how there were such short lines. Have you ever waited in line for over an hour to ride a 2 minute roller coaster? We sure have. This night we rode a coaster, got off, ran around and got right back on. There seriously was no wait which was awesome. I will say that maybe you need the wait because after doing this a couple of times I was starting to feel a little green.   I convinced Ryan we needed to try some of the many food samples and walk around the park for a little bit.

All different types of food and for some reason we decided to get a picture with a corn dog.

After we did a few more things we noticed that the most popular Harry Potter ride was back in service after it had been temporarily shut down. Even with such a small crowd the wait was still around 30 minutes so we went to get into line. I will tell the short version of this story but this ride ended up ruining our night. First of all we got stuck on it TWICE when it broke down. Anyone who knows me well knows that I am extremely claustrophobic and tend to get a little anxious in those situations. I seriously almost had a panic attack and was about to pass out. The whole being stuck and strapped down in a seat and can't move in a hot area for an undetermined amount of time- not cool.  Then when the ride was finally over Ryan and I were SUPER sick.  I have been on so many roller coasters in my life and it has never affected me like that one did.  Maybe it's the fact I have had two kids or that I am now 30 but boy I will not be going back to Harry Potter World anytime soon. And poor Ryan. Oh my.  I ended up having to practically drag him back to the bus. It was definitely a night we won't be forgetting anytime soon! We finally made it back home and boy were we ready for bed. And just so I can always remember the joys of raising small children, after being so sick that night and not getting to bed till around midnight sweet Harrison decided to get up at 3:30 and never went back to sleep. Gotta love vacations with kids! :)