Adventure Wednesday at Hogwarts

So I have this Google spreadsheet that I use, to lay out my blog topics in advance.  (Otherwise I'd never remember what I had planned!)  And that spreadsheet tells me that today was going to be Adventure Wednesday with Ghostbusters in the Cemetery.  Which is a delightful adventure, and even includes a recipe.  But while I prepared Monday's Diet Butterbeer recipe, it struck me that I should veer off schedule and share some photos of our trip to Orlando - exactly one year ago - to visit The Wizarding World of Harry Potter.  After all, it is two days until the last film hits theaters.

We happened to be in the Orlando area just weeks after the Wizarding World opened at Universal Islands of Adventure.  My mother left our family a last gift of a vacation together, so the fifteen of us (including my dad, my siblings and their spouses and children, and Tom & I) hopped an island cruise from the Orlando port.  We figured that while we were there, we would be bad Potter fans if we didn't get to check out the new park - even though we knew it would be incredibly crowded.  What we did not realize was that it would also be incredibly hot - like, well upwards of 100 degrees - and they'd march us the long way around the park!  So by the time we got there, we were soaking wet but still happy to be there.

I'm going to show mostly detail photos, and try not to include too many spoilers - I know a lot of my readers haven't been there yet.

We wish the Hogwarts Express was actually running - would've
been a cooler way to arrive (figuratively and literally!)

Young wizards' trunks on the platform.

  

We headed right for Hogwarts, where the Forbidden Journey ride awaits.

   
The queue is amazing.  Better than any queue I've seen.  Which is a good thing...

...because we were about to spend two hours in it.

Flying warthog greets us on our way in.

   

We coiled around outside for about an hour, until we finally made it into the Herbology greenhouse.

   

Cheeky mandrake.

And finally inside the cool - past the Mirror of Erised.

   

The moving portraits were by far my favorite aspect of the park. This picture does not do them justice.

   

We traveled through several classrooms, an office and a house common room.
Here's a detail from the Defense Against the Dark Arts room. A Lockhart book!

   

Very overheated at the entry to Dumbledore's office.

   

Pensieve!

  

The heartbreaking thing about The Forbidden Journey is that when it first opened, it could not accommodate larger riders.  Two members of our party - including myself - were unable to board.  I knew going in that it would be the case, but it didn't make it any easier when I finally got to the front of the queue and knew that I couldn't enjoy it with my family.  Tom offered to stay with me, but I wanted him to enjoy the ride and tell me all about it, so I sent him on his way.

To this day, this was one of the two most upsetting size-related experiences I've had.  I'll write more on the other one, one day.  This is one of the many reasons I am glad to be on a path to good health - to avoid similar experiences.

I'm told that the ride now accommodates some larger passengers.  And I'm really looking forward to returning and enjoying all of the rides.

From there, we headed into Hogsmeade.

Love the little details everywhere.

   

The shops were brilliant.  Everything beautifully themed, and the souvenirs were fantastic.

A self-stirring cauldron! Great use of animatronics throughout the park.

Scrivenshaft's Ink and Quills - from the outside.

Scrivenshaft's elegant window display, up close.

   

Weasley Wizard Wheezes! The Puking Pastilles "waterfall" was my favorite of all the window displays.

But Honeydukes was my favorite, inside! There was a long line just to get into
some of the stores - and at the registers. So we got a lot of Honeydukes photos.

Crowded view of Honeydukes.

   

Bertie Bott's display.

   

They look just like the ones from the movie! No cheaping out with plain packaging at WWoHP.

   

Same goes for the Chocolate Frogs - looks like they're hopping off the shelves.

Lots of traditional British candy, too. I didn't get a photo, but
I LOVED the sherbet pears. Wish we could find some around here!

   
 
   

View of Hogsmeade, with Flight of the Hippogriff in the background and frozen Butterbeer keg in the foreground.

   

   

We ended our day with a hearty pub lunch and a frosty glass of Butterbeer at the Three Broomsticks.

   
We were so hot, and it was so crowded, that we totally skipped the rest of the park.  (Except for a ride on short-lined Cat in the Hat for the benefit of air conditioning.) I really liked what I saw in passing, so I'm really looking forward to our eventual trip back, whenever it might be.

I thought I'd leave you today with a comparison photo.  Since the trip was exactly a year ago... I thought we should take a look at how far I've come.

Me in front of Hogwarts, at the least flattering angle possible.

   

   

Compared with my photo this morning - weirdly angled and make-up free just like I was in Orlando.

  
And that brings us to the end of our adventures today.  I'll bring you that Ghostbusters-cemetery-recipe post next week, and I'll be back with an unusual post tomorrow.  Until then - keep taking care of you, and I'll do so, too.

A toast to Harry Potter... with a glass of low-calorie Butterbeer!

You can call me a nerd.  You can call me a muggle.  You can call me whatever you want, but don't stand between me and Harry Potter.

This Friday marks the last official opening of a Potter movie, and there's no better time to celebrate with my recipe for low-calorie Butterbeer, the Potter drink of choice.  Recently, Tom and our friend Rena joined me in my Butterbeer Test Kitchen, to figure out the best possible low-calorie way to recreate the flavor of Butterbeer as offered at The Wizarding World of Harry Potter in Orlando.

And the results?  A delicious facsimile, Diet Butterbeer at only 20 calories!

We started by sampling diet cream soda, which would serve as the majority of the beverage body.

We sampled three different zero-calorie cream sodas for the occasion.  The winner was Olde Philadelphia, which we hadn't heard of before. The perfect hint of caramel flavor for the beverage base. But any diet cream soda would work.

We added a touch of sugar free butterscotch syrup for the "butter" flavor.

The trick to the Wizarding World recipe is that their "beer" and their "head" are two separate elements, added together in the glass.  There was some debate about what would make a good head, so we tried it two different ways.

Tom and Rena toast.

   
But my wacky idea was far and away the winner...

The winning head: salted caramel ice cream, stirred until it melts, then folded into fat-free
Reddi Whip. Plain caramel or dulce de leche should work, too.

Here's the recipe our test kitchen settled on, with links to where you can purchase:

Diet Butterbeer Body:
1 cup of zero-calorie cream soda (Olde Philadelphia is best - we bought ours at Rocket Fizz.)
2.5 teaspoons of sugar-free butterscotch beverage syrup (DaVinci's is best, I bought online at Boba Tea Direct.)

Diet Butterbeer Head:
1 tablespoon of salted caramel ice cream (We used Carmela, but plain caramel or dulce de leche should also work - as long as they're smooth, no chunks.)
2 tablespoons of fat-free whipped topping spray (Reddi Whip is best.  Available at most grocery stores.)

Instructions:
Combine the soda and butterscotch syrup in a glass.  Set aside.
Stir the ice cream until it is frothy, then fold in the whipped topping spray.  Spoon it carefully onto the Butterbeer body - then enjoy!

To your good health, Harry!

Butterbeer is the perfect cuppa to toast the end of an era.  After all, the series has captured my heart for... can you believe it?... ten years.  It's been amazing to watch the actors blossom into maturity.  They're so grown-up now!

It isn't only the actors who've grown.  Our friend Erik put things into perspective by counting the girlfriends he's had since Sorcerer's Stone hit theaters.  And that made me realize just how far I've come since I was first swept away to Hogwarts... cinematically speaking, that is.

I saw the first movie opening weekend, in my hometown - Midland, Michigan.  At the time, I was recently graduated from college, single, and living with my parents and building my savings so I could afford a move to Los Angeles. I went with a dear friend from high school, Amanda - who was also single at the time, and who now works as a teacher, and is married with a beautiful daughter.  We were at the Midland Cinemas, the only real first-run multi-screen movie theater in my hometown, which opened when I was 15.  (Before that, we had to go out of town for new movies, or watch scratchy second-run reels at Studio M.  Where, by the way, I'd have my wedding reception six years later.)

The film transported me.  I had only read the first book, in preparation for the film, but it spurred me on to read the rest of the series.  By the time the second film came out, I was settled in LA, where I'd moved without any existing family or friends in the area.  I was pretty lonely.  The books, and the fandom friends I made online, made me feel like I was part of a community.  By the third film, my new friend Audra and I had already gone to a midnight Potter book release party... and by the fourth, my soon-to-be-husband was in tow.  The three of us went together to the final book release... in costumed geekery.

Audra wears a Slytherin scarf. I'm in a Gryffindor one, with a Dumbledore
t-shirt I made.  Tom is in - yes - a Weasley sweater with "T" for Tom.

   
Flash-forward to this weekend... and how things change!  But friendships remain.  Audra and Erik are now house-hunting, Tom and I are four years into our marriage, and some of us are not just fans of the entertainment industry, we're part of it.  So when Audra was invited to a special early screening of the film, she brought the three of us - her own "Potter Pals" - along for the ride.

And when we met up with them at 7AM to stand in line for our sneak preview, we brought along a batch of Butterbeer for a breakfast of muggle champions.

While queued up for the movie, Erik raises his glass.

On our way into the Chinese for the movie.

Where were you when the first Potter came out in 2001?  And how will you be celebrating the end of the Potter era?  We'll be heading back to the theater to watch it again. Frankly, we wanted to turn right back around and watch it again after we saw it, but alas, we must wait for Friday.  If you make the Butterbeer, be sure to take and share the pictures of you enjoying it - and heck, if you're dressing up all nerdy, send those pictures too!

I'll be back tomorrow with a weigh-in and tales of last week's time offline... until then, keep taking care of you.