California Days 3 & 4

I'm back again today to talk about a couple more days of our California trip. I decided to split the trip into 4 different posts because I took so. many. pictures! If vacation recaps aren't your thing (I totally get it!) I promise, I'll be.back to sharing recipes soon! I have some baking and cooking on my to-do list over the next couple of weeks, so recipes will be up soon :)

On our third day in California, we hit up the San Diego Zoo. I won't delve too much into this because I know it's a controversial topic, but I have a love-hate relationship with zoos. I love being able to see animals from all over the world, but I find it hard to see animals in cages. I'm glad I saw the San Diego Zoo, below are some highlights from our day there.

And by far, my favorite day of the whole trip - Universal Studios and City Walk. Going in to the trip, I was more excited for Disney than I was for Universal but I'm a changed girl! I'm a big Universal fan now! I love seeing behind the scenes of movies and tv shows. Universal offered a great mix of walk up attractions, shows, character meetings, tours and rides. We were at Universal on New Years Eve but it was surprisingly not too crowded! We didn't wait in crazy lines and we got to do a little bit of everything.

We walked through City Walk to get into Universal and I loved walking through all the stores and getting a little taste of Hollywood before entering Universal.

Once in the park, we headed straight to Harry Potter World because the family we were with said we absolutely had to do the Harry Potter ride. Confession - I have never seen any of the Harry Potter movies or read any of the books. I've been told countless times that I'm missing out. It feels like a big commitment (7 books & 8 movies!?) but I'm thinking about it. It might be something I conquer this summer.

After Harry Potter, we headed to the Transformers ride. Another confession - I've never seen any of the Transformers movies! There were many shocked faces when I shared these facts about myself. Apparently I have my work cut out for me in the movie watching department!

Also on this day, we got to tour the WB lot on a little tram. This was the highlight of my day at Universal. It was so cool to see behind the scenes of movies and tv shows. We got to see a little bit of Whoville, the JAWS set, and the sound stage for the Mindy Project! We also got to experience movie weather - flash flooding, rain, thunder & lightning... and CGI!

We headed back to Harry Potter World for an amazing light show! They projected a show on the side of the Hogwarts building and it was pretty incredible - there was music and snow! Apparently the way to my heart is through fake snow because I was all about Harry Potter World after a little sprinkle of fake snow!

After the light show in Harry Potter World, we hit up the Minion ride and the Simpson's ride before heading home. It was such a great day at the most fun theme park!

Happy Thursday!