Happy 16th Birthday to me!
I wish that I could have spent time with my
parents, brother, sister, and family today; but celebrating my big day in
Florida at Universal Studios has been amazing!
The forecast – even throughout the day –
was for rain and thunderstorms, but even though we had some moments when that
looked likely; we didn’t really have any rain at all; and the weather was
perfect for a day of extreme fun.
Michael and I were up early again for Tai
Chi by the pool and a swim; Rowen and I took extra time getting ready for the
day with bonus work on our hair; and Michael and Tim came over to our room so
that they could be with me for the morning video chat with my family while I
also quickly opened my gifts – or most of them.
Rowen gave me her gift early; and I wore the new shorts and top
today. Michael liked the outfit a lot;
and thanked Rowen for it too – several times! :^)
We picked up breakfast to go again; ate it
while on the bus ride to Universal; and then it was time to play for the rest
of the day! Park pass options for all of
us were picked months ago, but while some of our fellow band members picked one
park or the other; Michael, Tim, Rowen, and I were among the majority that paid
the extra for the two park day pass. It
is basically impossible to hit all of the rides in both parks in one day, but
we managed to go on all of our favorite extreme rides – and caught encore rides
on a couple of them near the end of the day before the parks closed. Starting out in the Islands of Adventure
park, we worked our way around it; passed through Hogwarts, Hogsmeade, and
Diagon Alley on our way to the ‘old’ park; and then did a loop of the extreme
rides there before heading back through the entire park to catch some rides we’d
skipped along the way in case we didn’t have time for them – along with having
the bonus fun with the repeat coaster rides.
Thanks to our last visit, we didn’t need to
re-visit a lot of the attractions and stores that we saw with my family, but we
did still do a bit of souvenir shopping.
We were able to spend some time with Rebecca, Lucas, and some other
friends for a couple of hours after lunch; and spent the first two hours with
our own group as we started out this morning; but we spent the rest of our time
with just the four of us – unless we just happened to end up in line with other
friends while waiting to go on rides. We
got wet a few times today, but it really was a perfect day for those types of
rides too; so it never took long to dry out; and cooling down from the heat
felt great. The four of us have never
met a rollercoaster that we didn’t love; and there are some really awesome
coasters and other extreme rides at Universal.
The guys let me pick what we’d do more often than not all day, but that
really wasn’t a big deal; since I didn’t pick anything that we didn’t all want
to do. Even the souvenir shopping wasn’t
a problem for Tim; since he could pick up some toys too – particularly in
Hogsmeade and Diagon Alley.
We had from nine this morning until seven o’clock
tonight to get our fill of extreme rides, and to make the most of that; we only
stopped to have lunch and a couple of snacks along the way. We even had those snacks while waiting in
line for rides so that we multi-tasked to save time and get to more rides. Waiting until after the park closed to have
dinner was an option because we were then allowed three hours to hang out at
CityWalk before heading back to the hotel. We had Mexican food for our meal; played a
round of mini golf; and did a bit of shopping while wandering around the
place. That wasn’t as extreme as the
ride fun had been all day, but it was a great way to wind down from our
Universal Studios adventure – and spending the evening with Michael, Tim, and
Rowen was a perfect way to wrap up my birthday!
Our day isn’t actually over yet, but I’m
writing this update while getting ready for bed and waiting for Michael and Tim
to get here with food after stopping in their room to get changed too. I’m going to keep Michael – as I’ve already
mentioned; though the boys don’t know that for sure yet. I’m sure they’re hoping for that as much as
Rowen and I are; but I’ll have to let you know the rest of that story with my
next – and last update from here in Florida tomorrow night.
Before I wrap this up, I’ll add that haven’t
written much about my actual birthday gifts because most of them were cards and
spending money in various forms. Michael
also got me a beautiful pair of earrings that I’ve been wearing all day, but
there were no cars or any big gifts at all – which was just fine with me. This definitely has been my best birthday
ever-so-far; I’m going to have more fun with Michael to make the day even
better for both of us; and we still have one more full day of sun and fun ahead
of us to look forward to before we head home on Friday morning.
It’s time to finish getting ready for my
hotel sleepover with Michael now, and while this update again doesn’t come
close to reporting on all of the amazing adventures we had today; it’ll have to
be enough while I get on with actually living my life.
Until next time...
...May the Magi Force be with you!
