Chicago Day I: Harry Potter

The highlight of day 1 was clearly Harry Potter: the Exhibition. (Which was the first day of the exhibition.)

Y: the Harry Potter Exhibit was totally awesome. It had artifacts from the 6 movies - no 5 movies AND the one that hasn't come out yet. There was this one girl that was hugging the doors from the great hall from the movie - that's just crazy. Favorite, even though it totally creeped me out, was the Forbidden Forest. The Hungarian Horntail looked so real, and the acromantula (giant spider) was creepy, and the baby thestral was cute. I liked the Dark Mark effect. As soon as we get home we need to watch the movies.

X: My favorite thing was probably Hagrid's hut. It was really cool, had Buckbeak and Norbert's egg. The dragon did freak me out, too. The Great Hall I liked because it had Dobby and all the great stuff that happened in the hall. Including the Tri-Wizard cup.

K: the effect of entering was like boarding the train, with steam and windows flashing by, etc. was really impressive. What was amazing was all the detail from the books and beyond that they put into the costumes and props that you can't even see in the movies. Like Ron having moth holes in his sweater, t-shirt being ivory rather than white from many washings, etc. The robes looked polyester in person as opposed to the satin and silk look onscreen.

J: we got to go in just the four of us, and Ysabela and I got sorted. Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw - guess who was in which. The detail on the wands was incredible - Prof. Slughorn's had slug details, and Voldemort's was skull-and-bones-ish. Hermione's had ivy.

You get to play Chaser and pot mandrakes, too. (Baby mandrakes - no worries.) All the staff had english accents (some put on, some real). K liked the detail in the audio tour. The costumes were so small - amazing to think how tiny the actors are. The gift shop was even full of details, as if from Diagon Alley.

Otherwise, we did hit Graham Crackers to get the scoop on Free Comic Book Day on Saturday, and saw that Dorothy and Martha Stewart the little girl and the Wicked Witch - are going to be at Marshall Field's today.