Johanna asked if she could participate in a Geography Bee at school - sure why not! Tony loves that type of thing and enjoyed helping her study. She took a test to qualify for regionals and then participated in the Regional Geography Bee on a Sunday at school. She came home very excited! She did better than she expected and qualified for Nationals then asked if she could pretty please go to Florida in 2 weeks to participate!?!? Well, Mom and Dad learned our lesson about asking more questions upfront because we had no idea that was a possibility. But we made it happen! Tony was on call for work and Walter had school so Johanna and Michelle went ourselves over Memorial Day weekend.
We started in Milwaukee, driving to Melissa's and staying Wednesday night. We got to see Charlie and Melissa gave us front door service to the airport Thursday morning. Johanna was excited for her first ever flight and enjoyed take off as well as flying above the clouds. A little turbulence didn't bother her and we had a nice smooth landing.
After our flight, we checked into the hotel and walked to the other side of the conference center (20 min walk) to check in and find our competition space.
Friday morning was the first competition day. We got to sleep in a little, getting coffee and breakfast on our way to the conference center for 9:30am competition. The competition is two sessions with 8-10 students and a total a 35 toss up questions per session that students buzz in to answer. The competition was tough that first day (competed against some of the eventual winners) so we were glad to be done early and decided to spend the afternoon at Disney Springs. We visited the M&M store, Lego store and escaped the heat to watch Devil Wears Prada 2 where we had our best meal - Disney chicken tenders.
That evening, we met up with Johanna's classmate who was also competing in the Geography Bee and had some nice relaxing time at their resort's pool.
Saturday was another 9:30am Competition. Johanna met her goal winning a toss up in each session. She answered a question related to the unicorn being Scotland's national animal and a question related to Hershey Penn. New Years Eve chocolate Kiss drop.
After the competition, we hung out playing cards and waiting for the big event - a special trip to Universal Studios! Johanna's favorite ride was the Mummy, worst ride was Fast and Furious (not very exciting) and Mom learned she can't handle motion simulation very well.
We had special park access and got to stay until midnight instead of leaving when the park closed at 9pm. It started raining (which in some ways was better than the heat) and we made the best of it and stayed all the way until midnight taking the last shuttle back to the hotel. It was a VERY long, wet 20+ min walk back to the hotel including a slight detour for locked doors - not getting back to our room until after 1am. Luckily, we were able to sleep in the next day.
Sunday was a free day so we went back to Universal Studios. We spent plenty of time in the two Harry Potter parks. It was a hot day and longer lines - 1 hr + for Hogwarts Express and Hagrid's Motorcycle ride. The motorcycle ride was totally worth it (probably both our favorite) and we got some butter beer while we were there too.
We got some great food in Jurassic Park and took full advantage of the air conditioning. Johanna was able to go on the Dr Doom drop twice and decided to hit up the Mummy ride another 4 TIMES for a total of 6 rides.
We made it all the way to closing time at 9pm and at the last minute decided to run back (literally run there and back) to pick out a souvenir. We just barely made it back to catch the last bus and almost needed an extra seat for our new "friend".
Unfortunately, Monday was a 4:30am wake up call to make it to our flight on time. Michelle waited 45 min in line for Starbucks but then we boarded and had an easy flight. We were back to Melissa's place in Milwaukee by 10am so Michelle napped while Johanna and Melissa went out for a snack. On our way home, we stopped in Johnson Creek to pick up a souvenir for a special someone since we didn't have time in Florida. Tony had Johanna's special dinner request (tater tot casserole) waiting for us when we got home. Walter was so happy with the souvenir toy we got him, he said "you two should go to Florida more often!" All-in-all, a successful girls trip!
