My Trip to Las Vegas

Most people go to Las Vegas to to gamble or to see some shows.

I went to Las Vegas to visit Hogwarts.

Yes.  I am among a small percentage of people on this earth that have never read OR watched a Harry Potter movie.

So in July when my brother and sister-in-law needed to go out of town for a week and my niece Beth and nephew Travis asked if I could stay with them (I still feel honored by that request BTW) we decided one way to entertain me would be to rectify my non-Harry Potterness and watch all eight movies.

Which we did.

In four days.

I am surprised that we didn't have British accents by Tuesday.

Along the way we tweaked the series just a little...Watching those movies one right after the other made Hogwarts and it's residents feel like a real place with real people, so it's only natural that we would have little nicknames for our buddies...

Harry Potter being a teen aged wizard with a big bank account of course was renamed Harry (Big Poppa) Potter.

Hermione by the sixth movie became Hormones...

Lucius Malfoy due to his luxurious blond locks became Luscious.  (That was Beth's shining moment!) 

My own best effort was to proclaim that Hedwig would be called Owly and that he would be Harry Potter's best friend and he shall call him Owly.... 

I don't know why we christened Prof Snape Prof Snade.  Or why I was so drawn to him....

And, of course, Cedric Diggory was "Shovelface".  (Thank you, Honest Trailers!)

My nephew Travis - along with Tattoo, Belle and Jack in Harry Potter watching mode.

I had such a great time!  (And I hope they had a good time too!!)

And yes, we did do other things besides Harry Potter - 

We accidentally saw the Red Rock Canyon when we turned the wrong way for the comic book store.

We ate our weight at Sonic.

We broke in the GPS mode on my phone trying to find PF Changs.  (Travis is a WONDERFUL navigator.)

I nearly had my fill of Jack in the Box tacos...(They ordered milkshakes instead.)

We had a couple of evenings where we hooked my computer up to their big screen and watched YouTube.  Amazing stuff can be found on YouTube!!

We went (inadvertently) to the BIGGEST MALL I'VE EVER BEEN TO IN MY LIFE!!!  I needed a Pandora charm and I didn't want to go to the Vegas strip (we'd already DONE that - looking for PF Changs) So we looked up a Pandora store on Google and of course it took us to the huge Fashion Show mall on the Strip.  By sheer luck we parked in the appropriate parking garage, walked in and I was totally intimidated by the size of the place.  After 6 wrong turns we found the Pandora place, got my charm and  I announced that we would do lunch and that each kid could visit one store and then we would be outta there!!!

I also got the rare opportunity to see Travis and Beth in their natural setting without parents hanging around to make them feel shy or bashful.  I got to see what a talented guitar player Travis is, and what a whiz he is at anything to do with the internet.  I got to see that Beth is an artist and a writer and great photographer. I got to see that they are both bright, articulate and honestly fun to be around kids.

And I got to meet Big Poppa and his friends. 

I'm on the 4th book as we speak.

Thank you, Bryan and Sarah for sharing your children with me.

I had a blast!