I won a grand prize vacation.

About a year ago, on April 23, 2019, Quentin sent me this text.

Of course, our gut reaction was to think it was spam.  People don't really win free trips.  This has to be a scam.  I searched the name of the bank that said he won, and the bank really exists, he does have a credit card through them, and they were having a contest!  This might be real!  

As the reality sets in that this is a real possibility, Quentin feels bad that he didn't act excited for the girl who called to tell him he won.  He called her back and gave her the over the top reaction she deserved.  

Then we moved on to the hurry up and wait phase of winning a trip.  I researched the official rules and read them over and over.  It appeared we would have to travel by April, 2020.  We already had quite a few summer trips planned, so we couldn't really go this summer.  Since I'm a teacher that narrowed it down to Thanksgiving, Christmas, or spring break.  We waited on the travel agency that we had to book through to contact us.  This part killed me!  As a travel agent myself, I didn't want to leave things in somebody elses hands.  

The company finally contacted us in June.  We were on vacation at Disney World.  We had to fill out an affidavit and start narrowing down where we wanted to go.  We were all over the place.  Europe, Disney Parks around the world, a cruise, Hawaii, a baller style trip to Disney World.  

Quentin and I went back and forth on where we should go.  We had finally decided on staying at the Contemporary for a night, then a four night Disney Cruise, then a club level stay at Universal Studios.  This is what Quentin really wanted.  Since we already have annual passes, I didn't want to go to Disney.  I was pushing hard for Hawaii.  Q finally relented and we agreed on a week at Disney's Aulani resort in Hawaii.  

I won't go in to how difficult is was to work with this travel agency.  They were slow.  They didn't return calls or emails.  They missed out on the best Southwest rates the day they dropped.  They were so frustrating.  However, it was a free trip and if we have to use this agency, we will just have to deal with it.  Finally we were booked!  Flying to California, then a week in Hawaii, followed by a weekend in San Francisco before returning home.  We would travel over spring break 2020.