It finally arrived. Corra’s 13 Trip. We went through lots of possibilities: going to Las Vegas, going to LA to visit my sisters, finding a showing of The Lion King Broadway play. She settled on going to Universal Studios newest theme park before any of her siblings. Plus a day at Sea World because she loves animals and aquariums and we had a plan. Usually we try to go on their actual birthday but since school started exactly one week before her birthday and we don’t like to miss school at the begining of the year…we had to go a few weeks early.
We drove down to Orlando on Wednesday, Epic Universe was Thursday, day off on Friday, Sea World Saturday, and we drove home on Sunday. It was a lot but we had sooooo much fun.

Chick Fil A for lunch and a movie got us through the 9 hour drive. An audio book helped too. We stayed at the same condo I found for Neil and Layna to stay at when she came down for her 13 trip. The pool was great.

Epic Universe is a brilliant theme park. Corra was the most eager for the How to Train Your Dragon land (The Isle of Berk) and the additional Wizarding World (from the Fantastic Beasts movies). We got to meet our favorite dragons and eat at a dark wizard watering hole. The stage shows for those two lands were phenomenal and since Corra was the boss we saw each of them twice. The food was great. The other two lands in the park were super well done even if they were not really Corra’s thing. Her siblings will love them when we come back with the family. But I have to say, the fireworks show at the end of the night set a high bar…they were Corra’s first professional fireworks show and they were soooooo worth it.
On our day off we wandered around the shopping districts and even played air hockey…Corra’s first time (at least that she remembered).

Next week I’ll have part 2!