A postcard from…
the Wizarding World of Harry Potter!
We spent MLK Jr. weekend in Florida, and THIS was our main event: Hogwarts & Diagon Alley! The theming was so good that we felt like we were really there. I knew we would be amazed, but it was even more incredible than any of us imagined. Just wow! Seriously, we were in awe.
Our Christmas gift to the kiddos (and ourselves) was a one-day parkhopper ticket to Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure, and our goal was simply to immerse ourselves in all things Harry Potter. And even with less than ideal weather, we did just that!
We rode all the HP-inspired rides, drank all the butterbeer, took in all the details of our favorite books and movies in real life, ate at the Leaky Cauldron, walked through Hogsmeade and Diagon Alley over and over again (with a quick walk through Knockturn Alley, too), enjoyed a live performance of the Tale of Three Brothers, did all the lingering we could, and got to take an unexpected ride on the Hogwarts Express. It was an unforgettable day!
The timing of this trip was blanketed with an unexpected loss just a week before: the passing of our beloved Papa.
It can feel hard to enjoy life when your heart aches and your eyes are puffy from years of tears. It can, also, feel wrong to smile and laugh and have fun when your heart feels heavy and downcast, like you’re somehow dishonoring your grief.
But perhaps days like this are the way to keep pressing on, to keep giving joy the final say.
Perhaps the best way to honor a memory is to keep making memories
To live loved and loving, letting all that has built us inspire us to keep building.
We made the last-minute decision to leave a day earlier and drive instead of fly, adding in a pitstop at Vilano Beach, FL. Our night at the ocean was healing, even with a chill in the air. The ocean has always beckoned me to be awed by, not fearful of, the mystery. There is so much we cannot see beneath the water's surface that invites us to trust not in our eyes, and it's never-ending nature offers us humility as we consider how small we are.
The ocean heals.
Wave by wave, it heals.
Papa knew it long before I did.
To live loved and loving, letting all that has built us inspire us to keep building.
We made the last-minute decision to leave a day earlier and drive instead of fly, adding in a pitstop at Vilano Beach, FL. Our night at the ocean was healing, even with a chill in the air. The ocean has always beckoned me to be awed by, not fearful of, the mystery. There is so much we cannot see beneath the water's surface that invites us to trust not in our eyes, and it's never-ending nature offers us humility as we consider how small we are.
The ocean heals.
Wave by wave, it heals.
Papa knew it long before I did.
“Youth cannot know how age thinks and feels. But old men are guilty if they forget what it was to be young.”
-Albus Dumbledore
Watch our travel video here!
-Albus Dumbledore
Watch our travel video here!
