Day 7 - Awards, Festival and Dessert

Today's pictures are here!

We didn't have to get up real early this morning, which was nice (although it was still early). We chose to leave the hotel and have a regular breakfast today instead of the hotel provided stuff. We found a cafe not far away, and the food was good! Pancakes, French Toast, Eggs - and everyone tried a little grits! The team has been fantastic at trying new foods. While there, we noticed that they had some amazing cakes and pies and decided we needed to come back later for dessert!

Heading to the GWCC, we arrived at our closing ceremony. It is always fun to see the big table full of LEGO trophies. All the teams were announced and got to run across the stage and all were given World Festival medals. We watched all the awards, and cheered for several teams that we had gotten to know over the week. We did not bring home a trophy, and of course the team was a little disappointed. But, we learned so much and we all realize that we are winners just for making it and being there.

We ventured over to the FIRST closing ceremony next. There we got to see the semi-finals of the FRC (the big robots). Pretty exciting! They basically are playing a robot game of soccer, at the end of the match to earn more points the robots have to attach to a pole and lift themselves in the air. Very interesting all the ideas and ways that the teams chose to do this last part.

There were many speakers, including the Director of NASA, a taped message from Bill Gates, Dean Kamen, etc. The FRC and FTC awards were handed out, then we went on to the festival!

FIRST goes all out for the closing festival! There was a full carnival of "bouncy" things to do, batting cages, games, karaoke, and more! A great dinner, free pop (Coke of course!), and it ended with a great fireworks display. The kids all split into groups and ran around doing as many things as they could.

We left the festival and headed for dessert. Wow, the cakes and pies were wonderful! While there, we also listened to more karaoke singers, and even danced with some people until they kicked us out of the bar area. It was fun, the kids were actually getting a little rhythm!

Another late night, but totally worth it.

THANKS again for all your support and for reading about our trip!