Way back in 2016, the internet was very excited about a Harry Potter-themed cafe opening in Nevada near Vegas. It just so happened I was going to be in Vegas around the time it opened for a book convention. I managed to hitch a ride with a fellow Potter-loving fan and went to Bad Owl Coffee, where we were delighted with the delicious food and whimsical decor. Adam and I visited again in our May 2019 trip. Here’s what we thought about it!
I had always wanted to see a Vegas magic show, and there was none better than the legendary Penn & Teller. When we arrived at the theater there was simply a plexiglass box sitting on stage as well as a wooden crate of similar size. The audience was permitted to inspect these items in preparation for the show to start.
Overall, the exhibit was wonderfully designed and put together. It was wonderfully quiet. As it was just beginning to open to the public, it hadn’t been largely discovered yet. This gave us the added benefit of everything being shiny and new.
Celine Dion, Penn & Teller, great food, and lots of touring… our May 2019 trip. I love Vegas because it is the perfect place to take a quick trip, have a great adventure, then head home for work the next day. I have missed this special place!
Disneyland isn’t the only spot we visit when we go on vacation to Southern California. We generally try to spread our Disney days out so we aren’t completely exhausted going several days in a row. We are very fortunate to have a place to stay close to the parks, because my Uncle Peter actually is an architect that does a lot of contracted work for Disneyland. This post is about the stuff we do in between our park days.
“I can’t believe that yesterday I was at my office working and today I am standing in Disneyland.”
In the end, this turned out to be a much larger, more expensive vacation than we had planned. We ended up eating at many incredible restaurants, bought plenty of souvenirs, and enjoyed our vacation to the fullest. Little did we know what challenges would await us later in 2020. I am so glad we went all out because looking back on this trip was a bright spot as we trudged our way through the rest of the year.
I remember that I was actually excited to go home. We had the perfect honeymoon, but we were ready to go back and start living our normal lives. That’s pretty special… when you want to come home from vacation.
In all these replicas and artifacts represent an important part of human history and it was a lot of fun getting to see some of these up close and in person. The men and women who were responsible for all these incredible achievements will hopefully be remembered for ages to come. To think we went from slide rules and hand worked equations to the supercomputers of today is still mind-boggling.
We considered these more like “Bonus Days” and I still think that is the right attitude when you are Disney fans who have Universal days in your schedule. There are pros and cons to Universal, but we did overall enjoy ourselves, though we weren’t too sad to leave it when it was time.
They definitely wooed us with their amenities. They know they are not Disney and even though this is considered their more “moderate” hotel, they treated us like they really cared if we came back and I deeply appreciate that.
After two days of taking it relatively easy at Epcot, we woke up on Day 6 feeling refreshed for our last day of Disney World….
