Howl O' Scream

Halloween.

Here in Florida, it doesn’t really feel like fall yet (read: it’s still 90 degrees outside), so we have to participate in fall activities just to feel like we are participating in this season that the rest of the country gets oh so excited about.

When we are kids, we most look forward to dressing up, trick or treating, and coming home with way too much candy. But as you get older, what do you have to look forward to? You can’t really trick or treat - and before kids, you don’t really have any reason to. So how do we “celebrate” Halloween as we grow up?

You betcha – by scaring ourselves to death in Haunted Houses. If you know me at all, you know that scary things and I don’t mix. I think the only scary movie I ever saw until I met my husband was Signs and most people tell me that falls more under a thriller than a scary movie. Needless to say, I’m a baby about anything scary, so making a decision to go to Howl-O-Scream took a lot of convincing from my friends.

For those of you that don’t know what this torturous activity is – there is this thing people like to do in the month of October that involves going to a theme park and walking around at night, riding rides, AND WAITING FOR PEOPLE TO JUMP OUT OF THE BUSHES AND SCARE YOU TO DEATH.

From my small amount of knowledge, there are two of these theme park after dark events in Florida – Howl O’ Scream at Busch Gardens and Halloween Horror Nights at Universal Studios. Since we are way closer to Tampa than Orlando, we chose the first.

Friday after school (thank goodness for Football bye weeks, can I get an AMEN?) we got in our car and headed up to Tampa. We met up with friends, walked in the park, and of course – it started pouring! It was still light out so we decided to walk through a Haunted House. Waited in a little line, went through it, not terribly scary. I survived without a heart attack. Decided to go ride a bunch of roller coasters (found out my husband is actually terrified of roller coasters which is why he isn't pictured below - who knew!) and pretty much forgot about the “haunted” park. It’s darker now and we walk out of one of the rides and as luck would have it, there are a group of people dressed up like they are cast members of the Purge walking around just staring at us. I scream. Sarah runs away. And so it begins…

Don't we look so happy?

Then this happened. See the clown who disrupted our selfie?

Creepy much? As you can tell - totally caught off guard. 

Look closely. Freaky, right?

But in all seriousness, this was a total adventure and we had a ton of fun. There were 7 Haunted Houses that you could choose to walk through and there were 3 or 4 walkway areas where the cast members were dressed up ready to pounce on you. All the rides kicked butt and the houses were incredible. If you want to be a part of a really great time and be amazed at how real some of these costumes and characters can look, hit up one of these evenings in the park and enjoy some “adult Halloween time.” Even this scaredy cat had a good time :) 

Enjoy this season & think of me as the leaves are falling.
Hilary & Josh