We'd caught a red eye from JFK International to London, hoping to sleep on the plane and be raring to go once we touched down at Heathrow around 9:30 a.m. their time. There was just one problem ... there was a horrific thunderstorm in NY the night we left, and flights got delayed ... and then more delayed. ... We spent eight hours at the airport and didn't leave until about midnight, more than four hours late. NOT good.
We had already purchased our Warner Bros. Studio Tour tickets for Friday afternoon, with plenty (three hours') time to spare. It wasn't enough.
Oh well. I decided not to worry about it a bit, because it was completely out of our control. We'd land when we landed, get our rental car, and strike out for the attraction northwest of London, hoping they would take mercy on our bedraggled group, which had traveled 5,000-ish miles from home to their attraction.
We got our rental car, and proceeded to get pretty damn lost coming out of Heathrow (it's HUGE!!!). Our phone don't work over there, so we had no GPS, no way to call for directions, and we didn't yet have a map of anything beyond the airport giveaway of touristy spots in central London.
However, eventually we found our way, and the lovely parking attendants laughed good naturedly at us as we drove into their lot on the wrong side of the road. ;)
"Not from around here, are you?" one asked as we rolled down the window. LOL!
I've not read a single Harry Potter book, nor have I watched any of the movies. However, I was entirely blown away by the visual feast we were treated to on the tour. Here's a link to a set I created on Flickr from our visit. I'll let the photos speak for themselves. I did caption them, so if you click through to the Flickr link, and then click on the first photo in the set, you should be able to click through the photos and read the captions. http://www.flickr.com/photos/9430651@N03/sets/72157635768956515/
My Harry Potter experience at Warner Bros. Studios London was great! I was amazed at how well the props were preserved and how much work they put into the place! Anyway, The tour featured a theater at the beginning where you would see a short presentation on making some of the films in the series and how it was their "school" while they were filming.
In the studio, you could see many props from the films, such as Buckbeak, the Hippogriff, models of the characters, a giant working clock, and many more. (Plus, there were chess pieces outside!) Not only that, but you got to see some of the costumes the characters were wearing.
Midway through, there was a rest area where you could Literally drink the iconic Butterbeer, and keep the cup it is served in. At one point, there was a video station where you could record videos of yourself riding in a bewitched car of riding on a broomstick from London to Hogwarts.
Probably the most amazing part of the tour was a giant model of Hogwarts near the end of the tour. the model took up almost the entire room and was extremely detailed. Also, near the end was a crafting station where you could make a origami paper house.
All in all, I think the Harry Potter exhibit at Warner Bros. Studios London was a large highlight of our vacation.And here's Annabelle's ...
In England we went to The Harry Potter tour in the Warner Brothers studios. The stuff we saw there was amazing! We saw an animatronic hippogriff (Buckbeak), a "potent potion" that changed color, The Knight Bus, and much more! My favorite parts were riding on a green-screen broomstick and drinking actual Butterbeer (butterscotch soda)! We also stopped at King's Cross to visit platform 9 3/4! We got to pose as if we were going through the divider (between platforms 9 and 10) or casting a spell! (on a Slytherin, of course).
Overall I think it was an amazing experience!Part of the tour included some green screen magic. The kids each posed for photos on a broom ...
And there was also some 'flying' involved. After you wade through the first two minutes of these videos, you'll get to the parts where CJ and Annabelle take to the skies!
Here's Bee's broomstick tour ...
And CJ's ...
After the Warner Bros. Tour, we made our way to our hotel and slept HARD for about 12 hours!
We were actually in London twice on the trip, and during our second stint in town, we were on the Tube riding the Piccadilly line when CJ rather urgently brought something to our attention. He'd been reading the route map we were on, and noticed one of the stops was King's Cross. That's where the famed Platform 9 3/4 was located. In the Harry Potter series, Tube platform 9 3/4 at King's Cross was where students would board the Hogwarts Express, the train to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Of course, we simply had to go.
We found the platform with little trouble, and the kids waited in line to have their chance to pretend they were heading off to wizard school! They were allowed to select their preferred house. Annabelle associates with Hufflepuff, and wore the appropriate scarf.
And before leaving, they each got a chance to cast a spell on a nasty Slytherin. CJ chose a behind the back shot, because at the Warner Bros. Tour, during wand training, he was taught that was the most deadly. The crowd and staff got a kick out of his technique.
Annabelle went for a more classic attack. ;)
MATH MATTERS: I was up pretty darn early this a.m., and one of the things that propelled me vertical was my desire to finish my class. Happily, I knocked out several lectures and assignments and finished it! Talk about time well spent! Math is so important and, unfortunately, it has such a bad rep with students, mostly because of the way it's taught. It's time for a math revolution!
I'm definitely going to follow up with a number of the things I learned from the class, including integrating math puzzles into our learning, and less bo-ring textbook/workbook-y stuff. One of the resources Prof. Jo Boaler pointed us to is a new Web site called YouCubed: http://www.youcubed.org/, which declares itself "The new movement to revolutionize math teaching and learning" on its main Web page. YouCubed is f
"free and affordable K-12 mathematics resources and professional development for educators and parents."
We'll definitely keep it on 'speed dial,' to use an antiquated phrase at this point.
Speaking of math, I stumbled across some NASA math exercises today. There's even a "Space Math" Web site: http://spacemath.gsfc.nasa.gov/. And here's a link to some challenges (a PDF): http://spacemath.gsfc.nasa.gov/YOSS/YOSS.pdf
BE ON THE LOOKOUT FOR: A Soyuz launching tomorrow (Wed., Sept. 25)!
Expedition 37 will be rocketing toward the stars at 1:58 p.m. Pacific Coast time that's 2:58 a.m. time at the liftoff site, the Baikonur Cosomodrome.
Image Credit: NASA/Carla Cioffi
The trio on board will be Michael Hopkins of NASA, and Oleg Kotov and Sergey Ryazanskiy of the Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos). They'll be ISS residents for the next 5.5 months. NASA TV coverage for the launch begins at 1 p.m. Watch it here: http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/index.html
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