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We were lucky that Ros got into Harry Potter before our trip, so we could plan a few Harry Potter themed activities. The big one was a visit to the Harry Potter sets in Leavesden. (When we bought our train tickets at St. Pancras to Watford Junction, the bloke at the counter said "So, you're going to see Harry Potter, then?" Apparently, there's nothing else to do at Watford Junction. *g*)

The Sweetie and I figured it would take an hour or two to do the exhibits. When we got there, the signs said to allow three hours. In the end, we took five, and I feel like we could have spent even more time, there's just so much stuff there. Ros is not generally a big one for museums or exhibits, but she loved it all. If she hadn't, I'm sure she'd have managed to drag us through it all in an hour.

We never had time to get Ros' pic taken at Platform 9 3/4 in King's Cross station, but fortunately they had trolleys you could get your pic taken with here.

I'm rather fond of snakes (I was born in the year of the snake) so Ros took my picture in front of the Chamber of Secrets door. One thing that was fascinating about the tour was how much of the movies was created with actual physical props rather than CGI.

Ros catching a ride on the Knight Bus. I love the "Nothing Underwater" sign.

Here we all are on the Hogwarts bridge.

I was surprisingly chuffed that you could sit in the Weasleys flying car.

And here's the Sweetie and Ros on Hagrid's motorcycle.

One of the many smart things the tour does to keep kids engaged is to give them all a passport book. They have to find the station to get a page of the book embossed in every room. They also hide golden snitches all over the place that you have to find.

There were a lot of amazing things--Ollivanders wand shop, Dumbledore's study, Snape's potion classroom--but this is one of the things I was most impressed by: the animatronic Buckbeak. He would actually bow to you.

Until recently, I've never been a huge fan of Mr. Potter. I never got past the first book, and I watched the movies more because they're chock full of actors I love than because I enjoyed them.

But I have to say that reading the books with Ros has really turned it around for me. The books do get better, and the emotions of the characters get deeper. We just finished Goblet of Fire last week and I struggled to keep it together when I was reading the scene where Harry duels with Voldemort. When his mother and father appear to help him, I just about lost it. Ros gave me the usual side eye I get from her when I'm about to cry whilst reading a kid's book.

(Kid's books, man. I never cry reading adult books. On this trip I nearly lost it in Waterstone's when we were in the kid's section and they had a display with all the World War II kid's books I loved when I was a kid. I Am David and The Silver Sword, I'm looking at you.)

Today had a bit of a Harry Potter theme, too. It's Ros' birthday--how did she get to be nine?!--and we surreptitiously picked up Hermione's wand and a box of Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Beans in the Harry Potter store for her. It took her about 0.5 seconds to guess what was in those pressies. *g*