Boy, are we truly exhausted!  Our trip to Dragon*Con this year was another terrific time where we met lots of great new friends and got to hang-out with many existing friends from around the country and world, too.  This was Dena's 5th year, and my 2nd.

It was a bit more interesting than usual this year, as my sons Chris (18) and Jordan (16) came along with us for their first ever Dragon*Con experience.  They did great and hung out with us for the first day or so, then finally felt comfortable venturing out on their own.  They also made several new friends, and are looking forward to future D*C trips in the years to come.  Chris was sporting his new costume as Ezio from Assassin's Creed, and Jordan was a rendition of Johnny Depp's Mad Hatter.  Both went over very well, and we all learned a few things that need to be "tweaked" about each of these costumes.

My Dad and Step-Mom also came down for a few hours on Friday, since they now live in Columbia and don't get many chances to visit with the grand-kids.  They seemed a bit astonished by the whole D*C scene, but said they really liked it and may try to actually attend next year and even give the whole "costuming thing" a go.  We'll see what the future holds there.  It does take a lot of time and energy to work on the costumes and we're usually pretty worn-out by the end of the convention season.  It was definitely great to get to visit with them though.

Our flight left on Thursday, Sept 2nd and arrived in Atlanta just after 4:00 pm EST.  This time around we weren't able to spend any time with old high-school friends as the weekend plans were just too packed with activities already.  Dragon*Con this year expanded from 4 host hotels to now 5.  We got our room this year on short notice, so we ended up in the Hyatt since the Hilton's rooms were already sold-out and we weren't able to find an open one to pick-up.  It was also the first year I wasn't able to use hotel and airline points to pay for the travel arrangements, so it was a big tighter on the budget, not to mention the added costs of taking the kids, too.  We basically spent the remainder of Thursday walking around the venue and running into friends.  We decided not to costume on Thursday, but then Dena was persuaded to put on Slave Leia and hang with friends Will, Kris, Cristina, and Mike for the evening until heading to bed.

As now reported by CNN, Dragon*Con had approximately 40,000 attendees this year, making it by-far the largest convention of it's kind in the U.S., and probably the world.  Unlike San Diego Comic Con International, D*C is primarily a fan-driven party con, not a media convention.  Where last year we were able to get our badges on Thursday within about 45 minutes or so, this year the Thursday line was taking 4 - 5 hours to get through, so we got up early on Friday to try.  Getting in-line an hour before registration opened still took us and hour and a half to get our badges.  But that's still not too bad given how long some folks waited in line for theirs.  There is a new skywalk between the Hyatt and the Marriott now, which was absolutely fantastic!  We used it a ton and it sure helped keeping off the streets and out of the weather.

As for the things we got to do at this years' D*C, we took our Jason Palmer Firefly print (which we purchased at D*C last year) and were able to continue getting it signed by cast members Summer Glau (River Tam), Sean Maher (Simon Tam), Jewel Staite (Kaylee Frye), and Morena Baccarin (Inara Serra).  We only have a few left to get on this thing before we can frame it and hang it in the office.  We also picked-up a couple of the "Little Damn Heroes" figurines created by QMx.  Dena got an awesome new baseball cap from "Her Universe" sporting pretty pink Swarovski stones in the original Star Wars logo!  But mainly our weekend was about costuming and hanging with friends.

We dressed in our his/hers Firefly (Serenity) Jayne costumes for Friday this year.  Hung out with Dad, Susan, and the boys all day, and just had a generally good time visiting with friends.  We did stop by the Rebel Legion/501st mixer Friday night for a few minutes to check things out.  Mainly said hey to a few friends and then left to go back to the con for a bit.  We then decided to swap into our zombie costumes for Friday night for some ghoulish fun.  I think we're gradually getting better and better at applying our own zombie makeup, but I can definitely see an airbrush kit in our future to help with this.

We decided to skip the Jedi Assembly photo shoot this year in-favor of some much needed sleep, but were able to make it for the Dragon*Con parade.  Needless to say I wore my Obi-Wan Kenobi Jedi costume and Dena went as Classic Leia this year.  We marched with the Rebel Legion group this year, too.  Took several pics of the parade from the sidelines while we waited for our turn to march, and the weather was so great this year in Atlanta...so the parade was pleasantly cool and breezy to walk in!  Then we worked a shift at the Rebel Legion booth.  I really do enjoy working the booth, too, as we get to meet lots of new people and answer questions about the organization and costuming.  We followed that up with the Slave Leia photo shoot from 3:00 - about 5:00, with a nice new twist of doing some shots around the pool just for fun.  After that we switched costumes into our Jayne's again for a Firefly/Serenity photo shoot, then grabbed some dinner with friends and planned our evening at the Firefly/Serenity Shindig.  Had a great time at the Shindig this year with lots of friends attending with us.

Got up Sunday morning to do the Rebel Legion photo shoot at 10:00 am, then mulled around the exhibitor halls for a bit before getting out of costume and just doing a casual Sunday afternoon.  Finally at 7:00 pm the boys, Dena and I all met-up with Kris & Will, Cris & Mike, John, Kevin, Heather, and *frak*...can't recall her name (You just meet so many new folks at D*C each year and it does get a bit tough to remember all their names sometimes) to have our annual Dragon*Con feast at Mary Mac's Tea Room. Another fantastic meal, for sure.  I had their chicken and dumplings, Dena had fried chicken, and Christopher and Jordan both had the fried shrimp.  The sweet tea was superb, as always!  The remainder of Sunday evening was spent just doing a bit of people watching and hanging out with a new friend, Jorg.

Once again on Monday morning we packed-up the hotel room and then headed to the Metro Cafe for some breakfast.  The service and meal there this year was a bit on the not-so-good side, but the fellowship with friends is always nice.  Hopefully we'll have better experience with the actual meal next year.  After that it was time to pick up a couple of last-minute souvenirs and then catch a cab to the airport.

It was a truly spectacular time at Dragon*Con this year.  It was really great to have the kids with us, and I think they both really had a great time, too.  I must say they're rather spoiled...their first D*C at ages 16 and 18.  Wish I could have been so lucky when I was a kid.  Oh well, I'm sure they'll have a long life of sharing their con experiences with their kids someday (not so soon, I hope O_o ).  Thanks again to all our friends who make the convention experiences as super as they are.  We miss you all already and look forward to next year...Dragon*Con's 25th anniversary should be a complete blast!

As usual, you can check-out all our photo craziness in the Photo Gallery of this site.  It can sometimes be exhausting because take tons of pics, but they are definitely something to see!