Dave, Tyler, Janae, Josh & I got up super early on Monday morning to catch our flight. We had to be at the airport at 5:30! 

Wiped out, waiting for our flight.

We flew to London Gatwick airport and then took a train to Watford. We checked into our hotel and rested/slept for a while, and then we went out to eat. Huge bummer - while we were eating, a piece of my front tooth chipped off!!! This happened once before about a year ago, but our dentist was able to fix it the same day. Holy crow! Right in the middle of my two front teeth! It looked so bad. I made a point of smiling with my mouth closed in any pictures. :/

We went to the Warner Bros. Harry Potter film studios for the late afternoon/evening. It was great fun. 

Here's what Dave wrote about the making of the Harry Potter movies:

-There's a lot more real stuff than you would think, it's not all just CGI. They really built the Hogwarts cafeteria, interior of the Ministry of Magic, animatronic versions of Buckbeak, and Hagrid, and thousands of props and models that were used in filming.

-The 1:24 scale model of the entire Hogwarts castle is absolutely amazing. They used it for all of the fly by shots, and the detail is right down to working hinges on doors.

-There are literally hundreds of thousands of items. All the portraits hanging in hallways, etc. are real, they made thousands of different wands, and all the little artifacts had to be created for each room. Just the potions room alone has over 3,000 different little bottles and boxes etc.

Wands from the movie.

The Gryffindor common room

They had a full time portrait artist working the entire 8 years of the filming, there are hundreds of these portraits everywhere. 

Potions class

The Burrow - the Weasley's home.

Mmm Butter Beer! :)