Today started off with Patrick having a rough night. I’m not sure what time he woke up, but he didn’t want to go back to sleep. When we finally let him get up, he was super tired, and quite grumpy. We got up and got him ready. We went to breakfast, but decided we would take a slow morning to see if we could get the day back on schedule.
Wednesday mornings Give Kids The World (GKTW) has horses for kids to ride. Many of the kids haven’t had the chance to ride a horse. Patrick had ridden one long ago at a fair, so it was a good experience for him. He was more interested in the buckles and straps on the sadle than actually being on a horse. At the end they gave him a hat, because he was now a cowboy. He tried to give the hat back because it was too big for him.
We came back to our villa and Emily tried to get Patrick down for a nap. That took some doing, but it worked. We all fell asleep, I set an alarm. I didn’t want to miss the day because we got a late start and got caught by rain. Patrick decided again he wasn’t really sure that he wanted to get up. We coaxed him up. It was 11:30 when we got out the door. We stopped in at a Katies Kitchen a rebranded Boston Market for some takeout lunch. Emily ate while I drove to Universal Studios.
When we got to Universal we were smart and asked about seeing characters. The Dispicable Me characters were out, so we headed that way. Patrick wasn’t really impressed. He wanted to ride a roller coaster, which is his way of saying that he is bored and wants to have fun. There was a kids zone not to far so we headed that direction. Patrick wasn’t sure he like it, but again wouldn’t tell us that. As I got off I noticed that there was no line, so we asked to ride again, and they had no problem with it. That time around Patrick giggled, and laughed through the ride.
We wandered around a bit, and decided that we would try to meet Captain America, but we needed to hurry because we wanted to try to see Sponge Bob as well. So we hustled over to the other park to see Captain America. When we got there, Captain America was no where to be found. People were waiting around for Spider Man. I stopped in to ask and the worker kinda brushed us off, and aid well he might be out later, but you never know. That kinda bugged me, so I complained a bit to him, probably shouldn’t have done that.
We got back to the other park and met Sponge Bob. And Patrick Starfish. Kinda fun to say the phrase “Patrick meet Patrick”. Patrick was excited to meet the characters.
Emily had researched last night a few things to do today. One of the things she was excited to see was a stage show about animals that performed in movies. I wasn’t sure how Patrick would do, but we were in the right place at the right time. When we arrived, an employee took to Patrick and chatted with him until it was time to go into the theatre. We got front row seats. Patrick did fairly well. The animals did great. We were told to stay seated and we would be able to meet an animal. We followed the instructions, it felt kinda funny to have them usher everyone out of the theatre. But we got to meet Marley from “Marley and Me”. A very nice gentle dog. Patrick was happy to see the dog, but more interested to play with the head trainers radio.
We got out of the show, and it had been raining, but cleared up by the time we got out. It was almost time to meet Dora (one of Patrick’s current favorites). So we wandered and found Bumble Bee the Transformer that he could have his picture taken with. Bumble Bee really wanted to interact with Patrick, but that was fairly difficult to do when you are dressed as a car.
We headed back to where Dora would be. We sat on a curb and didn’t tell Patrick who was coming. When the music started to play, Patrick started to smile, and then he spotted Dora and Boots. He was super excited. They characters danced around, and Dora had a bit of a costume malfunction in that the back of her head was coming open, and they pulled back. I was afraid that she was done, but came back just in time for Boots to join her and start taking pictures. Patrick was super excited to meet them, and see backpack. He was also excited to see Diego.
We decided to head back over to Islands of Adventure to see Captain America. We got there a little early. So we hung out where we thought they would come out. The super heros came out and Captain America wasn’t there. I was worried that he decided to take the afternoon off. But we walked to where he hangs out, and he was there! After 4 tries, we succeeded in meeting Captain America! Captain America chatted with Patrick and showed him his shield. We got a great picture with him.
We had checked off all the goals for today. So we decided that we would wander back up to Hogsmead, get some Butter Beer and take Hogwarts Express back over for the parade in Universal Studios. We had received tips on where to be to see Dora in the parade. To get to Hogsmead you have to go through Dr. Seuss land.
On the way through Dr. Seuss land we spotted the Cat in the Hat, and they pointed us in the direction of other Dr. Seuss characters. The last character we met there was The Grinch. He had a lot of fun with Patrick, including picking his nose and wiping it on Patrick, Patrick proceeded to pick his nose and wipe it on Grinch. They played for a few minutes, we were all laughing when we walked away.
Patrick saw the One Fish, Two Fish ride and declared that he wanted to get on that ride. Since we didn’t really have anything firm to do we said sure, and since I rode it with Patrick yesterday it was Emilys turn to go with him. He laughed the whole. Chances are good he’ll be talking about the fishy ride for a while.
We got to Hogsmead, and grabbed some Butter Beer, and headed for Hogwarts Express. We arrived back in Universal Studios, and went to the spot we had been told about. It took the parade a long time to get to use, so we let Patrick run a bit.
The parade arrived with all of Patrick’s favorite characters yet again. Dora and her crew stopped just down the street from us. Patrick was fascinated with them, the crew came by and high fived Patrick. One of the flowers chatted with Patrick for a long time, she let him touch her costume, Patrick loved it.
From there we hit a few more rides and decided we were done. We headed towards the car and came back to our villa. This was the latest we had been out all week. The rain stayed away pretty well, so all the rides were up and running.
The GKTW activity tonight was Village Idol, one thing that Patrick wouldn’t be into, so we ordered pizza to our villa, and had an evening in. GKTW offers a non dairy pizza, something that we haven’t seen anywhere else. Patrick actually took a few bites of his pizza which was great.
As Patrick went to sleep he talked about meeting Captain America, the fishy ride, and Dora and Boots. He seems to process the day as Emily helps him go to sleep, so we find out what he really liked at the end of the day.
On the schedule for Tomorrow is Epcot and another park (haven’t decided which). Sounds like my cousin is going to come down and spend some time with us which will be fun to have a local.
Here are some pictures from today:
Patrick Hoopes 