but first, hogwarts.

you guys should know by now that ty took me to universal studios japan for my birthday. i've been talking about it on here for like weeks and then i blew up insta & snapchat when we got there. we were really excited to take drey to jurassic park, the boy is obsessed. however, i have been itching! (and secretly so has ty)  to go to the wizarding world of harry potter. and let me just tell you, it was freaking awesome.

so before you can actually go into the harry potter world, you have to get a ticket for a set time. we figure so it helps with the congestion, but regardless, it was a cluster of asians. so many people! most of them were dressed up, too. it was easy to pretend i was really there ;-)

first thing we did was get butterbeer and it was delicious. obvi. i 'ooooed' & 'awwed' at how awesome life was while drinking harry's favorite drink. we walked around diagon alley for a bit, going into a couple stores like ollivander's! shelves & shelves of wands. i saw people with armloads of wand boxes waiting to checkout. one girl had a huge bag full of them and tyler said "you think we should tell her the wands aren't real?" haha.. seriously though. 

then we did the castle walk. *cue gasp* soooo cool! it was dark, gloomy, talking pictures, we went through the griffyndor dorm entrance complete with sassy portrait, dumbledoors office, snapes classroom, hagrid's little home, the greenhouse... the whole time i was like whaaaa?!  i want to live there. for realz.

afterwards we had 2 choices. stand in line for 2.5+ hours for the greatest freakin' ride we'd ever get to go on OR split up, i'd take drey on flight of the hippogriff & tyler would stand in line at honeydukes (which had about an hour wait to just go inside). we chose the latter. I took drey on the hippogriff coaster & ty got a spot in honeydukes line. we made it back to tyler just before he went inside so drey weaseled his way over to him and got to go inside. $40 later they came out with a box of bertie bott's every flavor beans, chocolate mint frogs, fudge flies & 2 "swally-pops". 

be jealous.

To the Plantations! {part 2}

The day after ole Myrtle's, we drove down River Road. 

It's just like it sounds, a road on the river. Yup.

You actually can't see the river from the road anymore.

They built a levee... I KNOW.

It's safer for the homes and shit, obvi, but ughhhh. I wanted to see the steamboats from my car.

How am I supposed to pretend it's "wayyy back then" when the views aren't the same?! 

Anyways. Our second tour was of the Evergreen Plantation.

Again, no pics allowed inside the house. FML.

These slave cabins were my favorite!!!

22 original cabins are still standing. The history!

Oh! Ever seen Django? That's the house! And those cotton fields in the movie in front of the house?

Fake. Cotton balls glued onto sticks. True story.

Coming up next, The Laura Plantation. 

I could take pictures inside this next one, yessss!

To the Plantations! {part 1}

While on my road trip, we drove through Louisiana and made stops along the River Road &

toured Plantation homes. Heeaaaven!

Don't let Swamp People scare you, Louisiana is beautiful!

My sister & I loved it. 

We toured 3 different homes & then did a drive by of one & snapped illegal pics from the shoulder... oopsie.

First stop was Myrtles Plantation.

This one was actually not on River Road

{mama, drey, nephew caden, sister}

I wasn't allowed to take pics inside except of the mirror, because it was haunted. Gay.

But it was UH-MAZING inside. They had 1 room that was always kept locked because

everything inside of it was original to the house. Ahhhhh, it was awesome. 

What an extravagant life.

That's all! Stay tuned for Part 2, beotches.

Norwood

~~~
Norwood, in Birmingham, AL, was probably the coolest {and scariest} neighborhood I've ever driven through.
These homes were absolutely UH-MAZING. Beautiful! Well, were.
A lot of the houses that you see above were occupied. Seriously, people lived in them.
And some were just vacant. Abandoned for years.
 
The homes started to be built in 1912 & by the 1920's-1930's, it was a thriving neighborhood full of Birmingham's most elite residents. It had schools, it's own little trolley, healthcare centers, & religious institutions.
After World War II, it started a slow, depressing decline as residents had started moving out due to the haze they lived in because of the neighborhoods high elevation & the fact the freeway was built that totally bypassed the neighborhood and cutting it off from part of "downtown".
Slowly but surely, the residents moved "to the other side of Red Mountain". More like Red Hill, there are no mountains in AL, haha.
The majority of the residents in this neighborhood now are black Americans {i refuse to say african american because not all black people come from africa}. And I'm pretty sure it's Crip territory... STOP sign, last pic. What chu think?
And a little girl, prob like 7 or 8 yelled out while I was taking pictures "what y'all think you're lookin' at!?"
She scared me and I ran off.

The city of Birmingham has dubbed Norwood as part of the Historic Registry. Which basically means, it's going to become beautiful again! People who care about elegant homes & history will move in & take care of their house. They just need to tackle the houses individually. There were quite a few houses that have already been stamped as "worthy", notice the 2nd to last picture has the sign bolted to the brick. Historic. Nooo touchey.

Minus the scary people staring at us, crack heads tweekin' and yelling at the ground, Crip graffiti errywhere & the sad looking homes that were once lived in by the olden days elite, I loved it. Loved.
And the houses were HUGE. My pics don't do them justice but they were giant. 

To read more about the history, go here.
If you want to read memories of the first residents who grew up in Norwood, go here.
If you want to just know more in general about it, go here.
You won't regret it. It's amazing.

Now that you know a little more about it, go back and look at my pics again.
Can you imagine growing up in one of those gorgeous homes and seeing it as it is now?
Kinda depressing huh?