Harry Potter Town

Once a year, Harry Potter fans flock to Staunton, VA. Shane and I decided to investigate. We parked at Patrick's and then we all walked the half-mile into downtown.

Shane enjoyed walking on every wall we came across.

When we arrived downtown, the streets were blocked off. The smell of popcorn and food trucks wafted through the air, heavenly.

Patrick and I wanted to poke around before we bought anything. I wanted to get Shane to pose for a picture with a Hagrid cosplayer in platform shoes, but instead he found....

...a dragon to climb on.

Truth be told, I'm not sure it was meant to be climbed on. There were a ton of other kids up there first and a cop walked by and said nothing. I could see some gaps in the structure where it was assembled, though...

...so we moved on to the train station.

Sadly, there were no trains. There were some decorations, but the event seemed mainly about local vendors and fans dressing up.

Shane wanted to explore the bridge that went over the tracks.

Staunton's a quirky town. I like the odd design and the hills.

Several old rail cars had been transformed into a quilt shop, a restaurant, and something else.

There was a neighborhood on the hill that overlooked downtown. It would be neat  to live on a house on a hill where a short walk over a bridge would drop you downtown.

Shane managed to find a loose brick on our way back into town. No surprise was hidden inside.

Staunton is normally a sleepy town. Patrick was amazed at all the people. He's seen it before, but not ever there. We passed numerous closed and abandoned buildings as we walked around. The streets were crowded when we got back into the thick of it.

We didn't stop anywhere, because the lines all looked far longer than we'd want to deal with. Shane wouldn't have stood still either.

We ducked down a side-alley on our way out. There was a door for what looked to be an apartment next to a restaurant. Again, I really wonder what it would be like to live in that type of setting. Shane wondered where the water flowed through the grates.

Patrick half-tried to convince him that when people flushed it came out the pipes on the side of another building.

We walked around in the sun and the heat for at least an hour, maybe two. Patrick bought some water bottles and I bought some loaded fries to split as a snack. Our wallets escaped mostly unscathed. Shane wanted to climb up on all the walls on the way home.

Shane was mad when I made him hop down to walk normal later on down the road. Patrick handed him a screw. The "present" distracted him long enough for us to continue on (but then he started trying to use the screw on every telephone pole that dotted our path!).

It was tree-climbing time when we made it back to Patrick's.

Patrick and Shelby settled in for dinner when Shane and I hit the road.