Hogwarts Express

I totally forgot to blog about our last minute trip to Seattle a couple weeks ago!  We heard about a Harry Potter exhibition at the science museum there and since we have a big Harry Potter fan under our roof, we decided to make a trip up to see it before it ended.

We brought our good friend, James, with us because he's a big Harry fan too. We had a fantastic weekend.  We drove up Friday morning and went straight to the museum.  We spent several hours playing there. 

We had to get tickets for a particular time, so when our designated time came, we enthusiastically went to the Harry Potter exhibit.  The exhibit was mostly costumes and props from the movies.  They had movie clips going constantly.  But the beginning was the best part.  They had a few children come up one at a time to be "sorted" into the proper wizard houses.  The boys were ecstatic to be sorted into Gryffindor.  James went first and literally did a fist pump and said "YES!" 

After we finished the exhibit, we ended in the gift shop.  The lights were dim and it was extremely crowded.  It goes without saying the boys wanted everything there.  And unfortunately everything there was ridiculously priced.  We settled on Ron's wand, which was a cheap piece of small plastic, for $8 each.  Harry Potter's wand was $50 and the boys were devastated when I dropped the bomb we were not getting one of those for each kid.  They had a pack of trading cards that the kids also really wanted for $50 as well.

That evening we went to dinner at Red Mill Burger, featured on Man vs. Food.  Yum!  We drove to the hotel and spent the rest of the evening playing in the pool and hot tub.  After showers that night, Sambo curled up in a ball on a chair and was asleep before we even turned off the lights.  James and Buddy wanted to sleep together and begged and begged.  We aren't dumb and knew that was a really bad idea.  They were still extremely excited about the Harry Potter extravaganza, but we agreed they could sleep together -- with the condition that they would get no warnings if they fooled around.  They fell asleep all cuddled together within ten minutes.  I really wish I had taken a picture of that sight.  Adorable!

The next morning we loaded up on a gigantic breakfast in the hotel.  Then we took a long walk down to Pike's.  It was a little drizzly and we got to Pike's right when it opened.  It was by far the least crowded I've ever seen it.  We took the "Hogwarts Express" (the monorail) and happened upon a Chinese New Year celebration.  We hung out there for awhile and the kids did a craft.  Eventually we walked back to he hotel and headed home. 

G and I agreed it was especially fun to take a little weekend that revolved entirely around the kids.  I'm not a Harry Potter fan (although I'm considering conversion), so I was really surprised that we could fill two days worth of conversation exclusively talking about the first three books of the series.  Even though I'm still suspicious of "wizards" and "dragons" I now want to read the books just because I'm curious how in the world the author could be so clever to captivate millions of people -- from small children (even Sambo is a fan) to adults.  It's incredible!