Welcome to Hogwarts

When Husband took this photo, I did not yet know what I was about to experience.

I don't think I need to spend much time delving into how much I love Harry Potter. Other than Little House on the Prairie, they were the first books I ever read. I remember when my grandmother sent me a copy of the first Harry Potter I looked at the cover and scoffed. "I'm 9 years old. I don't need to read about wizards." Oh how I was wrong. Driven to madness by summer boredom I picked up the book and went to Number 4 Privet drive. And my life was never the same. Too dramatic? Maybe. But I'm tearing up remembering reading it for the first time. 5 midnight book premieres, 7 midnight film premieres (I was too much of a weenie to stay up for the last one), and thousands of hours reading/listening (bless you Jim Dale) to these books later, I got to go to Hogwarts.

Walking into Hogsmeade was a dream. It was a bit strange though because it was half Hogsmeade and half Diagon Alley. But I wasn't going to judge it that harshly because the flipping stone buildings were crooked and diagonal and perfectly lovely in every way. The longest line we waited in was for Ollivanders.



The quality of these photos is not great, but the lighting was of the dingy wizarding type. Here's Ollivander helping a young boy (who was 12, bless!) let a wand choose him.



Ollivanders was stacked floor to ceiling with boxes of wands. I really did cry at this point. Honestly, think of how much you longed to go to Ollivanders, school letter in hand, and look at and touch the wands. It was more than I could respectably bear.

Assistants then took down a special date from each of us and helped us to find the correct wands. I was slightly disappointed by how creepy mine was. I always fancied myself carrying a prettier wand. But the wand chooses the wizard, you know, and so there must be something to it. The handle is a snake and a skeleton. Husband's handle looks like a shrunken head. Really, they are quite creepy. Mine is so heavy though that it will be our new home defense system. Stupify THIS intruders!



Here we are with our wands heading to the castle.

After we got our wands we headed to the castle so Husband and his dad could ride the ride and I could drool over the castle. Even though they advised pregnant women NOT to ride the ride, Husband said it wasn't bad at all and I risked it. It was so worth it, baby. Though baby jabbed me a few times (or it was my breakfast, it's still hard to tell at this point) afterward.





The inside of the castle was perfect. We walked along creepily dark passage ways, past the one eyed witch with a hump, and the Potions classroom, through the greenhouses, past Dumbledore's office and the eagle that led to it. (I tried Sherbet Lemon and Lemon Drop and Cockroach Cluster none worked) We walked through the History of Magic Classroom and through corridors full of talking portraits. I was in Hogwarts heaven.

Stay tuned for more to come: Hogsmeade revisted