Thursday 5th January 2006 (Universal Studios)

• Slept almost 12 hours.  We must have been tired!  I dreamt about the Golden Girls, not quite sure what that's about.
• Ate breakfast at McDonald's.  Had the Sausage McGriddle... how was I supposed to know that McGriddle cakes have maple syrup in them.  Had to pull it apart and ate the different parts.
• Caught the metro and then the free shuttle to Universal Studios. 

• Here's what we did:
• Shrek 4D
• Despite having to wait around for it all to begin, it was fantastic!
• 4D effects were amazing.  The extras (water, air) worked really well and the story itself was all you want from a Shrek show.
• Studio Tour
• This was really interesting, seeing the stages where shows are made.
• Saw Wisteria Lane, which was also the set for shows like Leave it to Beaver and The Burbs.

• We got in the middle of a subway disaster, King King wrecking a street, Jaws attacking the trolley car and we drove through the destruction that was created for War of the Worlds (included a real aeroplane).
• Animal Planet
• This was really cute.  They had trained cats, rats, a raccoon, monkeys, birds and dogs performing.  I loved it!
• Water World
• The sets and stunts were really good. 
• There were lots of crashes, splashes and fire.  They even crash landed a sea plane.

• They kept telling people in one particular section that they would get wet.  "Yeah, yeah" they said, but they did get wet.  There was a part at the beginning where actors were literally throwing buckets of water at them.  Some people were totally drenched.
• Jurassic Park

• We started out feeling nervous about this ride because we didn't know what to expect, except that we'd get wet.  As we inched forward in the line, we started to feel brave.  Once on the ride we were quite calm, and getting wetter by the minute, but then we got to the drop at the end... whoa, that was a long way down and steep!  It was good though.
• The photo that automatically gets taken shows Adie holding on for dear life and me with my eyes glued shut.
• Special Effects Stages
• We just kind of accidentally ended up at this one, and Adie became a star!

• He put his hand up to volunteer and ended up doing all sorts of fun stuff on the stage to show the special effects in front of all the audience

• He did really well and I was very proud.
• That was pretty much everything.  We were tired and thirsty and really wanted to get back to the hotel towards the end of the day.
• We tried to contact Jackie and Mikie at their hotel, but it looks like they haven;t quite made it yet.  We might call them from San Diego to see if they want to come with us to the zoo.