Family Road Trip, Florida and the Carolinas, Aug 2019, part 3

We said goodbye to theme park madness and headed for rural northern Florida. We drove a couple of hours to a farm stay in Butler Lake, Fl. It is located near Gainesville and we were to stay 2 nights. We arrived before dusk so we could look around a little. It was a very flat landscape with some standing water due to a very wet summer. There were beautiful live oak trees festooned with moss.

There were donkeys, goats, horses, and chickens. They were all quite mellow and we were allowed to climb over the fence to pet them, so we did. We made dinner and settled into a cement block building that had been used at various times as storage space, a barn, and a tofu making facility. We didn’t spend much time there because we decided to explore Gainesville, but we definitely enjoyed quality time with the animals. I braved the mud for a short hike across the pastures and also explored the little camper parked on the property, adorably bright yellow and with a guest book that mentioned its adventures. Apparently the camper is rented out at times.

Gainesville proved to have many thrift stores, a college campus, and great pho. Worth mentioning is Flashbacks, a funky shop with all kinds of unique items and a great vibe. It’s everything I want in a thrift store; I kind of wanted to move in there. It was around the corner from Faith Vietnamese Restaurant where we had lunch during a massive downpour. We had a very cozy meal as the only diners, our party of six, watching the rain pound against the large front windows. The conversation with the owner and his wife was wonderful and the pho was delicious. After the rain subsided, we made our way through the puddles and streams in the street back to the car. We drove past the college, but our resident college applicant was not interested in finding out more, since she doesn’t want to live in Florida, and I can’t blame her.

More appealing was a bunch of graffiti- the 34th Street Wall, where we headed next. This is a low wall, over 1100 feet long, next to a fairly busy four lane road. It has been painted and painted over again by people of varying motivations- school spirit, peace, anger, self-expression. We drove by slowly and admired the wall. It went on for quite some time. Even the trashcans were painted.

A second night at the farm brought more hanging out with animal friends, another dinner and watching a cooking show we liked. The next day we said goodbye to the animals and did a little detour before driving up to Chapel Hill, NC. I had made the executive decision, a very unpopular one I might add, to go see the Devil’s Millhopper. When else would we get to see such a large, geologically important sinkhole?! It called to me. We headed out of Gainesville towards the site. We paid the modest entry fee, were jostled about not at all by crowds because no one else was there. We watched the somewhat dated but still informative educational video, and walked over to the sinkhole itself. It was magnificent, but we would have to admire it from afar because the famed staircase was closed for repairs. This would go down in the books as another miss in adventure travel, alongside the unseen pink dolphins of Thailand, the fog-obscured five sisters waterfalls of northeast India, the absent manatees of last February (come to think of it, that was in Florida, too), and probably others past and future. Anyway, it was a nice hike and maybe I’ll go back sometime. It’s supposed to be awesome! On this day, we hiked around the perimeter and called it a day as we headed for the last stop of the trip, the Fabulous family of Chapel Hill.

Family Road Trip, Florida and the Carolinas, Aug 2019, part 2

All of us in front of the Hogwart’s Express, inside the train, Really at the Leaky Cauldron

It was the next day and we were headed for Harry Potter World! First, we went to some ticket place to get discounted tickets, and we hit a grocery store to bring lunch. We ended up getting 4-day passes for the cost of a little over 2 days. They were paper tickets and we had to bring them to the park, and show them multiple times each day. We were going to both parks, Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure, because each has part of Harry Potter World, connected by the Hogwarts Express Train (well played, Universal Studios). We did a good job of keeping track of the tickets, though I did worry a little. Parking also was not fun, there was a fee of course, and a fairly long walk from our parking spot to the entrance, and then to HPW. Overall, though, we were in good spirits and ready to be entertained.

Suessland and Gringott’s

I have to say, I do not like crowds, I do not like heat, and we really did well on both counts. The week we chose was one of the less busy times for the park. It is hurricane season and the beginning of the school year, so many people do not plan their theme park vacation during the last week of August. We waited not at all for many rides, actually letting people in front of us in some cases, as we looked at the elaborate scenes in line for the HPW rides, and later for the Mummy ride. It did rain every day, and was a little intense one afternoon, but this didn’t affect our experience. We weathered the worse storm in the indoors Mummy rollercoaster, which we rode as many times as we wanted with no waiting. The movie is a little dated, but it’s an awesome roller coaster! I also personally loved Spiderman, also indoors, more rollercoaster and 3-D effects, and no line. There are lots of indoor options during rain.

We were there from open to close that first day, and I’m a little embarrassed to say how much I enjoyed myself. I really prefer actual life experiences to artificial amusement park ones but the rides were just so entertaining. It turns out I really like the simulated projections, especially the 3-D ones. I preferred them to the roller coasters, which I also went on because why not. The Simpsons ride was especially awesome because it was a cool simulation ride and incorporated a cynical take on amusement parks that matches my own cynicism, yet here we were at an amusement park! So meta and breaking the 4th wall, etc. The kids really liked the Hulk roller coaster, I think that was their favorite. We all liked the Harry Potter rides and shops, we also caught a couple of live shows in HPW which were excellent. We ate at the Leaky Cauldron and also at the Three Broomsticks, something I would normally never do because of budget worries, but this was a bit of a splurge vacation, the food was good and we really enjoyed ourselves. The scenery is great throughout.

Weasley’s Wizard Wheezes, Stan Shunpike and the night bus, Diagon Alley

We pretty much repeated this on day 2 and 3, going back to our favorite rides, trying to go to the best Universal rides outside of HPW though they hadn’t been on our radar before arriving, enjoying the short lines and lack of crowds in general. At night we saw the light show on the HPW castle and also watched part of the Universal Studios fireworks and light display over the lake. We had one late morning and went thrifting while the kids swam in the pool and otherwise lounged at the rental apartment, but the thrift shop was mostly a disappointment.

The third day we packed ourselves out of the apartment and after our last day at the park (we never used our 4th day passes, 3 days seemed enough) headed for a farmstay I had arranged. It was time for part 3 of the trip.

Final thoughts and tips:

1) Don’t be afraid to go during “hurricane season”. Orlando is not near the ocean, so it might rain every day but likely won’t have serious flooding. The low crowd volume/short lines are worth it!

2) Universal has many awesome rides outside of HPW that should not be missed, easy to find lists of these. A surprise favorite for us was the Poseidon Adventure. Shrek we thought was overrated. E.T. was excellent for younger kids, esp if they saw the movie.

3) It’s ok not to buy the $100 HPW wands. Watch other people use them to see the cool effects that happen in the shop windows and displays. Spend instead on butterbeer, English pub food and excellent desserts in the restaurants.

4) Go at night to see the light shows. Spend a morning at your accommodations to enjoy the pool or just to relax in between time at the parks.

5) See the live shows, especially the short but excellent HPW shows. We also saw Sinbad (ok), the Hollywood make up/special effects show (pretty good), the Blues Brothers (I’m a fan), a Stomp type street show (great), and a random Marilyn Monroe street performance (cute).

6) Make sure you see the Gringott’s dragon breathe fire!