In Colorful Waters: My Weekend in Pictures

{Yes, hi, this is Natalie, not Nicole for once, posting about my weekend. Surprise!}

This weekend I went to...(drumroll please)...Hogwarts! Or Harry Potter Land (as I dubbed it) or Universal's Islands of Adventure (as it's really called). And it. was. awesome. There was Hogwarts, the cute little snow-topped village of Hogsmeade, the shops, the castle made into a roller coaster, butterbeer! And of course, the Hogwarts Express and Platform 9 3/4. I'm usually like a giddy 8-year-old at amusement parks to begin with, so you can imagine how out of control excited I was here. And I'm not even one of the crazy wait-in-line-all-night-and-memorize-everything-about-the-books fans--imagine what they were like.

Butterbeer. Ohhhh, butterbeer. When I heard they made the Harry Potter drink real and sold it at the park (thanks to Nicole) I wondered what on earth it might taste like. In one word, the answer is: delicious. It's fizzy, caramelly, with a dollop of creamy deliciousness on top (or blended in if you opt for the frozen option). All in all I pretty much wanted to drink it all day long. (It also gave you a fantastic white cream mustache. Total win.)

Some more shots of Harry Potter Land. Cause it was too cool and I couldn't resist.

Now if you've never been to Islands of Adventure, they do have other areas than just Harry Potter. Like, for example, Jurassic Park! Let me preface the exclamation points by saying when this movie came out and we were just wee kiddos, Nicole and I saw it five times in the theatre. So my happy face in front of the Jeep and the T-Rex? Yeah, that's about how ridiculously excited I was the whole time to be in Jurassic Park. (Although, after, I wasn't quite so happy, as all the Jurassic Park rides are water rides, and I was completely soaked after the 3 of them. And cold.)

Now I've pretty much only been to amusement parks in LA, so I came here and found out they sell alcohol in the park. Color me double excited! I bought a beer to drink just out of principle.

That was my Saturday (well, leaving out the 4-hour drive there and back, but I'm a fantastic car sleeper, so that was interesting to pretty much no one). On Sunday, priority #1 was to try and adopt a new kitty. We had to put our sweet little cat down a few months ago due to illness and we're finally recovered enough to want to bring a new kitten into our home. These precious little guys (look at those faces!) were at the no-kill cat shelter we're in contact with, but, no surprise because of their ridiculous cuteness, they were snatched up already. So we're still on the hunt. Hopefully we get a new little guy soon (although I'll admit it's a wee bit hard when you're being as picky as we are: I only want a boy kitten, he only wants a "colorful" kitten...we're a bit ridiculous).

Then, after a fun mimosa brunch on my co-worker's 46th-floor balcony (um, hello, vertigo), I joined my man and some friends at the Miami Heat Friends & Family Festival. I'm not a huge Heat or basketball fan, but it was fun to see the players close up (they're so tall), and even get a short chance to say hi to the team's coach and owner. There were also about 40 restaurants offering yummy food (although no booze this year, to our surprise), carnival games, a snow pit (I can't tell you how fast that was melting), and it was right along the water on a sunny breezy day. All in all, it was pretty exciting.

Most of the things I ate at the event I didn't even remember to photograph first. But then I saw macaroons. And had to get them and show them, of course, to Nicole, the macaroon fiend.