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OK, safely back home from Chicago. The weekend recap:
Ammy crashed on my couch Thursday night, and we got up at zero-dark-hundred to make it out to San Francisco airport. We flew on ATA, which I'd never experienced before. Amazing electronic check-in; there were 30 people in line in front of us, and I thought "Well nuts, this will take a while." Got through the line in 5 minutes. Computers are cool, and zippy.
The flight was nothing special. We arrived at Chicago Midway just about on-time. Here's where the amazingness of the weekend started. Our hosts actually sent one of their committee members out to the airport to pick us up! Thanks, Chicago Browncoats!!!
Our hotel was right downtown ("in the core") just a block off the Miracle Mile. We got ourselves quickly checked in to both hotel and con, found our room, then wandered down to the Chicago Navy Pier. Imagine Pier 39 in San Francisco, but 10 times bigger and stores with 1/10th the quality and you've got Navy Pier in a nutshell. But the views of the Chicago skyline were fabulous, and I snapped a few nice pics.
The welcoming event for the ball was a Chinese rooftop dinner and tea ceremony. We were all a bit wallflowerish, I'm afraid. Highlights included cool gift bags filled with Firefly-related goodies, custom Firefly-related fortune cookies, and a fabulous rooftop view. Low point: Chinese food from a hotel buffet line does not equal Chinese food from California; I'm not sure what exactly the entree was supposed to be, but I wouldn't have realized it was supposed to be Chinese food unless somebody told me.
After dinner we made our way down to the Blue Sun Room to watch a couple of eps of the show, then we moved over to the Bordello, an ongoing room party. Both of these were good chances to get to know our fellow con-goers, although it's hard to interact with folks when you're all watchin' TV. The Bordello folks had done an amazing job decorating their room with pink fabric, a shrine to Firefly, incense, etc. and made all of us strangers very, very welcome. Even though they were totally wasted.
Next: Part 2, What Took Place On Saturday!
Ammy crashed on my couch Thursday night, and we got up at zero-dark-hundred to make it out to San Francisco airport. We flew on ATA, which I'd never experienced before. Amazing electronic check-in; there were 30 people in line in front of us, and I thought "Well nuts, this will take a while." Got through the line in 5 minutes. Computers are cool, and zippy.
The flight was nothing special. We arrived at Chicago Midway just about on-time. Here's where the amazingness of the weekend started. Our hosts actually sent one of their committee members out to the airport to pick us up! Thanks, Chicago Browncoats!!!
Our hotel was right downtown ("in the core") just a block off the Miracle Mile. We got ourselves quickly checked in to both hotel and con, found our room, then wandered down to the Chicago Navy Pier. Imagine Pier 39 in San Francisco, but 10 times bigger and stores with 1/10th the quality and you've got Navy Pier in a nutshell. But the views of the Chicago skyline were fabulous, and I snapped a few nice pics.
The welcoming event for the ball was a Chinese rooftop dinner and tea ceremony. We were all a bit wallflowerish, I'm afraid. Highlights included cool gift bags filled with Firefly-related goodies, custom Firefly-related fortune cookies, and a fabulous rooftop view. Low point: Chinese food from a hotel buffet line does not equal Chinese food from California; I'm not sure what exactly the entree was supposed to be, but I wouldn't have realized it was supposed to be Chinese food unless somebody told me.
After dinner we made our way down to the Blue Sun Room to watch a couple of eps of the show, then we moved over to the Bordello, an ongoing room party. Both of these were good chances to get to know our fellow con-goers, although it's hard to interact with folks when you're all watchin' TV. The Bordello folks had done an amazing job decorating their room with pink fabric, a shrine to Firefly, incense, etc. and made all of us strangers very, very welcome. Even though they were totally wasted.
Next: Part 2, What Took Place On Saturday!
