The Epic London Adventure- Part 2

Friday

Friday morning we got up and had breakfast at the hostel. Then the three of us hopped on a train to central London to have a tour of Historic Royal London. I'd been on the tour before, but Mady and Victoria hadn't yet. 

Victoria, Me, and Mady

On the tour, we saw Big Ben, the Palace of Westminster, Buckingham Palace, Westminster Abbey... I won't really go into it. If you want to know more of what we saw, check out my previous post here. The only difference was our tour guide. Our tour guide was a wonderful young man by the name of Jake. He was Jake the Tour Guide (not Jake from State Farm. And he wasn't wearing khakis.)

Victoria and Jake, the Tour Guide

After the tour we had a quick lunch and then hopped on the train to Watford for our tour of the Harry Potter Studios! It was so exciting! (I'm getting excited again, just typing about it.)

 There was a bus that took us straight from the Watford train station to the doors of the Harry Potter Studio. And it was even decorated, although I think they should have made it to look like the Knight Bus...

But we got there. I was so excited! We redeemed out tickets and hopped into line, which moved very quickly, and then we were in! The first thing we saw was the Great Hall. Everything was so lifelike, and the detail was amazing, but I guess it has to be for movies like this. There were two house tables set up, with the head table at the front, with several of the professors' costumes.

Dumbledore's Costume. Doesn't it look awesome? 

 Then we left the Great Hall and entered a giant room full of props from every movie. They literally had everything, from the Mirror of Erised to Dumbledore's Office.

The three of us in the Mirror of Erised

The Fat Lady was present. The Griffindor common room was there right next to her, shabby armchairs and all.

Here's Harry and Ron's dormitory!

Here's the spiral staircase to Dumbledore's office.
 Sadly, I didn't know the password. 

The office looked so complete, it even had a cabinet with his pensieve.

 There were several other sets, including classrooms (the potions classroom was my favorite!) and the Chamber of Secrets.

There was also the death eater side of things. Here we see a nasty scene in which the snake Nagini kills a Hogwarts teacher at a meeting of the evil death eaters.

They even had a display of all the creepy
death eater masks. Gave me the shivers. 

The Hogwarts Express was even there! With scenes from several of the movies. Here's Ron and Harry getting high on sugar:

 
Then it was our turn to get high off sugar, with some famous Butterbeer. I can't quite describe the taste. It was basically like liquid butterscotch, with cream. Maybe cream soda? All I can tell you was it was really really good.

 We visited Harry's horrible family at Privet Drive, and saw the Knight Bus. I tried to get a picture of the talking shrunken head, but I couldn't get a decent one. It was there though. You'll have to use your imagination for that one.

 After that, we came to Diagon Alley. That was one of my favorite parts. They had Ollivanders, the Weasley's joke shop, Madam Malkin's robes, the apothecary... everything.

The last thing was the Creature Shop and the model rooms. The creature shop had all the prosthetics and animatronics used by the costume and creature departments. They had models of the mermaids and inferi. I liked the mermaid head: 

 They had a life sized animatronic Buckbeak. and a giant Aragog hanging from the ceiling. All the concept art was on the walls from all the different ideas people had had.

Buckbeak concept art

But my absolute favorite part of the whole day was the very last room. They had a huge model of the complete Hogwarts castle. It was so beautiful, and it even had lights twinkling in the windows. It was the perfect end to a great day.

My Eulogy to LeeAnn

I thought that I should post this short piece I wrote for LeeAnn's funeral. Because I wasn't able to attend, LeeAnn's family allowed my writing to be read during the ceremony so I could be involved in the process. I want it to be available to anyone else who couldn't attend the service, and to those who did attend, but maybe wanted to read it again anyway:

I met LeeAnn in second grade, and we became fast friends. We were in every class together in elementary school. When LeeAnn moved to St. Louis for her second lung transplant when we were ten, I went to visit her in the Ronald McDonald House. Some of my most cherished memories take place at LeeAnn’s house during one of our many sleepovers. We used to stay up all night hyped up on Mountain Dew, and playing Mario Cart. Sometimes Shannon, LeeAnn and I would laugh so hard our stomachs would hurt. We had an equally amazing time in high school; She and I cheered alongside each other, goofed off in our art classes, and graduated together. When she started getting sick our senior year and had to start homeschooling, I was over often to share the latest gossip.

Then I moved to college and she went back to St. Louis. Like before, I visited her several times, both before and after the transplant.  We had a great time every visit, and I’m very thankful that I was able to have that time with her.  I feel at peace knowing that I was able to help ease her pain. I wish I could be here for her now, today, but I know that LeeAnn wouldn’t want me to miss this opportunity for adventure. I also know that a part of her is here with me in England now. A part of her is with all of us, with every person whose heart LeeAnn managed to touch. We all know that she’s in a better place now. She feels no pain; it is those left behind who must bear that burden. LeeAnn is now free, no longer bound by machines and medical tubes. I know that LeeAnn is reunited with her Grandma and is enjoying finally getting to know her little sister Sabrina.

LeeAnn Marie Binder

On Sunday morning I received some heartbreaking news that my best friend had passed away.

Her name was LeeAnn, and she had just had her 20th birthday on January 6. She suffered from a lung condition called Bronchiolitis Obliterants, and was in recovery from her 3rd lung transplant in August. The Steelers were her NFL team, and she had a huge crush on Troy Polamalu. Her favorite color was purple. LeeAnn liked listening to Disturbed and Papa Roach. LeeAnn has four siblings; Sabrina, the youngest, battled with the same medical condition as LeeAnn and passed away only weeks after birth. (Her and LeeAnn have a lot of catching up to do!) Shannon, the youngest surviving sibling, is pictured below between me and LeeAnn. Vincent is the second oldest sibling, and the only boy. Stephanie is the oldest.

 LeeAnn and I had known each other since I moved to town in second grade. We acted like dorks together at the middle school dances. She did cheerleading with me in high school. She won homecoming princess and prom queen. We graduated together.

I was so devastated upon hearing of her passing that I wanted to cancel my trip and stay home. Her funeral is on Saturday, and if I left I wouldn't be able to attend. But then I realized that LeeAnn wouldn't want me to miss out on this experience. She was so excited for me the last time I went to visit her in the hospital. We talked and talked about my upcoming trip.

Then it really hit me; LeeAnn is gone. She won't ever get to experience anything else ever again. Now it's up to me. I know that she'll be with me wherever I go, whatever I do. So now I have to live my life for her, too. When I get on that plane and go to England, so will she. When I get married someday, she'll be right there. When I have my first child, she'll be a part of that child too. Because she is a part of me now. I need to honor that, and live my life to the fullest so that she may experience all that she can't on her own. And then someday we'll meet again, and we can talk for eternity about all the adventures we experienced together.