Self-Portrait

I call it...

... self-portrait after roller coasters.

I've been wearing my hair straight lately.  But when I got back to my room last night, I took a look at myself in the mirror and understood why everyone was being so nice to me in the restaurant.  Hair everywhere.  Defying gravity.  It looked like I had a hell of a lot more hair than I thought I had, and none of it was behaving.  So I figured that today, I'd just wear it curly.  Because:  1.  It is going to get messed up anyway, so I might as well not waste any time styling; and 2.  Florida humidity.  It actually didn't look half bad this morning, but after a full day at Islands of Adventure park, well, ... the picture speaks for itself.  I want to get some dinner and I think I better find that headband.

(I could've purchased a Harry Potter headband.  But I'd already dumped enough cash on HP crap already.)

My Day:  Took 8:20 a.m. shuttle from hotel to park.  At City Walk, visited Starbucks for some tea to put myself in a happier frame of mind.  
Strolled over to Islands of Adventure entrance turnstiles while drinking tea.
Spilled tea down white shirt.
Entered Park.
Unsuccessfully looked for Tide pen in park.
Contemplated washing tea out of shirt in sink in Ladies Room.  Realized the flaw in this plan when I saw the first mother with a six year old boy in there.  Did best I could with a wet paper towel.  It wasn't that impressive at getting the stain out (but it did wonders for showing everyone in the park part of my bra).
Went over to Harry Potter World
Courtesy of advice from internet, approached line at Ollivander's and asked the nice lady how long the wait was.  She said about 30 minutes; it was actually more like 10.  (Made a mental note that here, like Disney, they overestimate wait times -- I think this is intentional, because you'll be really pissed off if it takes longer than you were told.)  Saw cute young child obtain wand.
Was dumped into wand shop.  (Surprise.)  Decided to ignore character choices and pick the wand that I liked the bestest based on sight alone.  Looked at ... what? ... two dozen different styles of wand (character and not-character).  Guess which one was my favorite.  Professor Snape's.  Heh.  Decided to ponder whether I actually needed to purchase Snape's wand.
Went to "Three Broomsticks" restaurant for my included breakfast.  It was ... food.
Walked in the other shops on a scouting mission.  Decided on some gifts I'd buy later (when I came back to buy the wand ... or not.  I was supposed to be thinking about that.)
Left Harry Potter World to do the rest of the park.  
This turned out to be, more or less, a lot of poking in and out of shops, and riding all four rides in the Marvel Superhero land (including the really good Hulk roller coaster, which messed up my hair more than that Dr. Doom drop tower did -- and some X-Men themed thing that everyone called "the teacups" because, yeah, even though it was supposed to be the Storm Force Accelatron (really, Accelatron), it was teacups.  Full marks to the ride operator, who had to lead us in a round of applause for spinning our teacups fast enough to "defeat Magneto."  I didn't get it either, but she gave that line the dignity it deserved.) 
Also saw some Sinbad Stunt Show (which I stumbled into when looking for lunch) and boy, those lines were so corny, that "defeat Magneto" business was starting to look like a Shakespeare sonnet.  And the kids in the audience weren't going for it either.  I mean, dead silence after each joke and stunt.  I felt bad for the actors.
And then I actually stopped for lunch.  Seriously.  All of that was in a very short amount of time, because random Tuesday in March.  Also, single rider line.  With the exception of that Dr. Doom thing, I didn't wait longer than 10 minutes for anything.  (Not even the stuff like the Hulk coaster or the Spider-Man 3-D thingy which were both better than it was.)
Lunch over in the Jurassic Park part of the park, which must have been the deadest place anywhere as their one big attraction (River Adventure) was closed for repairs.
(Which reminds me!  Near some of the water rides, I saw "People dryers" -- big booths (I saw a family of three in one) with heaty vents that dried you off after you got drenched.  For $5.  I remember one day at Disneyland when I would have paid five times that for a People Dryer.  Nice invention.  I also appreciate how they take your money (in terms of park admission) to get you wet, then charge you more to dry you off.)
THEN, after I'd done all that needed doing, I returned to Harry Potter World to enjoy a lovely cup of frozen butterbeer (surprisingly drinkable!) and do all of my shopping.
(Moment of actual inspiration when I realized, "I don't know if my boss likes Harry Potter, but I know he likes owls!")
(Moment of stupidity when I asked for the AAA Discount -- which they, in fact, have -- but discovered I'd left my AAA card at home.)
Amazingly, did not buy only Harry Potter crap.  There were a few necessary purchases in Dr. Seuss land as well.
Shuttle back to the hotel at 6:00.  Islands of Adventure DONE.  Shopping DONE.  

Tomorrow:  the main Universal Park ... at least until it starts raining.