A belated post for all the awesomeness of Florida and to say that while I have thoughts about my new job, I promised not to talk about them extensively in online public spaces. Email if you’re that curious.

Alright. FLORIDA.

The first day and a half were spent at Universal Studios. We arrived Sunday afternoon and spent the evening exclusively in the Wizarding World of Harry Potter (part of Islands of Adventure), spent Monday morning at the original Universal Studios and then Monday afternoon back at Islands of Adventure.

Almost all of my pictures were from HP, because, um, awesomeness?

(This was taken from inside of the greenhouses while waiting in line for the awesome ride of awesomeness Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey.)

After HARRY POTTER HARRY HARRY POTTER we spent Tuesday at Disney’s Animal Kingdom. It was, how shall I put this, AWESOME.

We were at the gates before they opened, along with a few hundred other people. The park opens with employees carrying a rope and setting a walking pace towards the far back corners of the park, so that guests can’t rush and hurt themselves, I suppose. We ended up walking with a pair of employees, both of whom had been with Disney for a long time. One was new to the park, though, and was being trained. We must have made a good impression, because Raphael, the man doing the training, took us to the employee entrance and let the three of us skip the growing lines for the Kilamajaro Safari. This is a long safari trek through a variety of African habitats with dozens of different animals out living as they might in the wild (the big cats have subtly separated habitats from the herbivores). We skipped the fast-pass line and the regular line and were placed in the second row of the very first bus of the day, behind another very friendly employee in the front row whose job it was to count the animals outside. Stina and Dylan told us to get on the first bus we could, as the cats go inside for most of the day due to the heat, but I don’t think they meant that! The employees called it a Magical Moment. I tend to agree.

(I feel like this ostrich is begging to be a tumblr meme.)

Brad took a lot of photos, too, and they are available on his picasa page.