Thursday, July 18, 2013

One Last Hooray!

It has been a very very very long time since I posted anything, I understand. I actually have some interesting things to share though now. First off, I did go home back in April for a week. I got to see most of the family, it was a busy busy week, but it was good to be home. Here are some pictures from my Texas trip:














So going home was the highlight of April. Then came June and all the new interns. We now have 5 new wildlife rehab interns and then me, the only old intern left trying to keep the newbies in line haha. My roommate left recently to head home to Illinois, but not before our last roomie outing to none other than Harry Potter World!!!! Last weekend Jess and I traveled four hours to Islands of Adventure and Universal Studios in Orlando to fulfill our long anticipated urge for all things Harry Potter. It all started after I got off of late shift Wednesday night around 9:00. We ate, packed up our things, Jess said her goodbyes, and we headed out to our hotel around 9:30 that night. Jess was in charge of getting us there so she was following her GPS which took us through all these backroads and rincky dink little towns. Sure enough when we were going through one of those towns a cop was waiting for us. Mind you it was late at night, he was waiting in a construction zone with his lights off and out of sight in the dark. He got in between me and Jess and decides to pull her over. Luckily he just gave her a warning and told both of us to watch our speed once Jess told him I was with her. One crisis avoided. A little ways down in another little town we got lost for a few minutes. We finally made it to our hotel at 1:00 in the morning. I told Jess never again are we following her GPS. So we got about 4 hours of sleep and then we were off again. We grabbed breakfast at our hotel, found the nearest pharmacy to get Dramamine for Jess, and then headed to the park. I stocked up on sunscreen before we left and we had everything we wanted to do mapped out and scheduled. It seemed like a maze trying to get to parking. Lanes would just end and people were crossing over 4 lanes because they didn't read signs ahead of time, very dangerous. We got to our parking spot: Spiderman lot!! They parked us very efficiently but getting to the lot was scary, especially with Jess driving. 

We made it!!

We followed the mass crowd to the first park, Islands of Adventure where Harry Potter World was. Jess got suckered into doing a survey the instant we got inside the park. First stop.....you should know by now :) The first ride we go on is the Dueling Dragons, a high speed roller coaster themed from Harry Potter. We make it through that, Jess had some doubts, and suddenly my stomach is feeling a little uneasy. The last time I rode a roller coaster I was fine, but how many years ago was that? Who knows. So we continue on and get in line for the main Harry Potter attraction. It is a virtual ride that is basically like a roller coaster through the castle and world of Harry Potter with props and a screen that makes you feel like you are in their world. About a quarter of the way through that ride I got sick :( Needless to say I didn't see much of the ride even though I was on it, but Jess enjoyed it at least. So she had to take care of me for the morning. We cleaned me up, she gave me hand sanitizer and Dramamine. We didn't ride a lot of roller coasters for a while. At about lunch time I had some Sprite and crackers and was doing a little better. 

This was Hogsmeade, the village where all the stores and rides were. You could also get butterbeer at a stand like this if you didn't want to go to the Three Broomsticks or the Hog's Head (restuarant/pub).

A picture of the castle from below where we were waiting in line for the ride. 

Same castle, different angle. They made this castle as an exact replica, at least from the outside, of the one in the movies and books. 

The entire castle from afar, magnificent. One of the rollercoaster tracks on the right. 

We wandered around Harry Potter World and explored all the shops, left that area to ride and see other things, and then came back at about 2:00 to eat at the Three Broomsticks (the hangout spot in Harry Potter). 

This is the Care of Magical Creatures book that the students use for that course. It moved!!! It had teeth too!!

Honeyduke's is the sweet shop. Jess got chocolate frogs (below in the window), we both got Fizzing Whizbees, and I got Bertie Bot's Every Flavored Beans (jellybeans with good and bad flavors). 

Chocolate frogs!!!! Yes, they are edible. 

Me and the Hogwarts Express!

We are standing in front of Owl Post, the post office where you can buy stationery and wizard equipment and mail stuff. 

The Three Broomsticks was very organized in taking our order and getting our food out to us, they even seated everyone to avoid confusion. I was very impressed with the service and food. Butterbeer was more amazing than I was expecting. It was like cream soda with sweet cream on top, YUM! 

Butterbeer!

Jess with her butterbeer and fish and chips. 



My lunch with all the fixin's. 

So we eventually made it through the first park with all my struggles and everything intact. Here are some of the other things we saw and visited in the first park: 

 We rode the Jurassic Park ride, I liked this one a lot, it only moved fast at the end and we got wet too :)

Meet Thor aka Chris Hemsworth. He is a Marvel superhero also part of the Avengers and gorgeous. 

We spent quite a bit of time in Dr. Seuss Land being kids. 

A giant hat!! 

Yes, yes we did. We rode the caro-seussel!! 

Dr. Seuss is so witty. Oh the places you will go if only you think. 

This was Poseidon, properly named Poseidon's Fury. It was a walk through adventure with a "tour guide". 

Now it was time to go to the other park Universal Studios where more adventures awaited, only one problem. Somewhere along the way I lost my ticket :(( and here I thought things were looking up after the Dramamine. So we trekked over to guest services. About twenty minutes and a little frustration later we were on our way to ride the Mummy, E.T., and Men in Black!! We made it through the rest of the day without any more major disasters. We arrived at 8 in the morning and left at 9 at night. Originally we were going to stay until the park closed at 10, but by 8 o'clock it was hard for us to stand much less function anymore because we were exhausted. The last two rides we wanted to do had wait lines of 80 and 85 minutes. We looked at each other and said can't......do.....it. We could not physically stand any longer, especially not for another 2 1/2 hours. There was no place to sit in any of the lines. We were also going to wait for the fireworks at the end of the night but we didn't do that either. I think we were content with what we had accomplished already. We had to put our belongings in lockers every time we rode a ride so we didn't get a lot of pictures of the actual rides, but here are some of the sights from this park: 

Woohoo, we made it!!! (seemed to be the theme of our trip)



My lovely roommate :) Shhhh....don't tell her I put this on here. 

Spongebob overload.  

One of my favorite rides, The Mummy. It was a roller coaster in the dark!

Got to love those minions.  

 Fashioned after Despicable Me!

Hanging in there :)))

That pretty much concluded our wonderful trip to Orlando. The roommate has left and will be missed dearly. 

A while back I also pet sat again for another family and then dog sat for our director. Here are the animals I took care of: 

Maxine, my cuddle buddy. 


Foxy



Slick, an attention hog. 




This is Molly, our director's dog. She doesn't like the rain or thunderstorms and finds comfort on my bed. She takes up a lot of room when you have a twin bed. 

We have a lot of baby raccoons right now at the clinic along with baby birds, take a look: 

Ok, so not a bird or raccoon, but I had to share anyway. These are baby soft shelled turtles that grow to be up to 7 kilograms or more when adults. They are gorgeous as babies. We got these little guys in when someone started digging in their front yard and found these newly hatched turtles and their shells in the dirt. 


Turtles are usually self sufficient when born, so we released them shortly after their yolk sac was absorbed. 

Baby raccoon trying to eat, trying being the key word. 

They don't feed with a bottle until they get a little bit older and start to suckle. 

One of our bigger baby raccoons. 

A baby loggerhead shrike, one of the cutest birds as a baby. 

Told you it would be worth the wait. Lots of pictures to keep you entertained. If you have a facebook there are more pictures there too. My adventures are coming to a close here soon. Hope you have enjoyed the ride as much as I have. 

Till next time, 
Sarah :)