Weekend Re-Cap, Photo Heavy, Word Heavy, go get a coffee and then come back and read!

Here's my beautiful Binder from Karen Russll's Photographer's Workshop. She sends one of these to everyone in the class, along with matching pen. I haven't even cracked it open yet. I'm waiting for a quiet time, when the stuff is unpacked from the trip, the groceries are bought and put away, and I'm well rested. Maybe in 3 days.

Itook the day off work! So that some of that stuff could get done.

So, we went to the Anime Convention for the second year in a row. The kids consider themselves pros now. We took Emily's friend, Iliana, with us. She'd never been before. Her dad lives in Burnaby so she stayed with him and met us there every morning.

We stayed at my Aunt and Uncle's place and took the Sky Train in every morning. This was a first for us. My Aunt took us Thursday night, gave us the tips, where to stand on the escalator, on the right so faster people can run up the left side, how to buy tickets, where to get off, where to get on, how to stand to avoid ending up in someone's lap when the train stops and starts up again.

I snapped this picture infront of the cruise ship, just outside Canada Place and right next to the swanky new Vancouver Convention center where the event was held.

This is the view from the main floor of the VC center. That is the longest escalator I've ever seen. The convention was held in the 'basement' of the center, and on the 2nd floor. The 'basement' is supposed to look like you are underwater. The tile work is amazing. The wall on the right is glass tiles and there are blue lights behind them that 'glow' giving the underwater feel. To the left of the escalator is street level. People were standing in the window staring in all day. It's very apparent that some attendees spend hours and dollars on their costumes. Some make their own, some order them on-line. Most have one costume for each day of the convention, 3 costumes. We all noticed a 'trend', and I don't have pictures to back it up. But the Asian kids dress nicely, respectfully, with no parts hanging out, they dress appropriate to their body shape. They don't smell of body odor, they aren't heard swearing. Now, the Caucasian kids are different, their costumes are generally too small, too revealing, things are hanging out, and by things, I mean very large muffin tops and boobs, they have a distinct "I didn't have time to put deodorant on" scent to them. They swear, they do it loudly, they complain about other people's costumes. But both enjoy Anime/Manga, and spending money.

Right away, Shaun got asked to pose with this person, all 3 kids were from D Gray Man, I won't even pretend to know what or who they were. I like the cute charaters, the soft and fluffy ones.

My Neighbour Totoro. A movie character, I haven't seen it, but the kids borrowed it from Tara's Shawn and we had to take pictures of Totoro for Shawn.

Another Totoro, even when the kids come in the same costumes, they are so different it's not a big deal. Usually they meet, and get photos taken together. Her friend helped her make the costume.I always appreciate full costumes, I can't remember who this is, but I love the details.

Here you can see the 'Artist's Alley' in the background. Kids rent the tables and sell artwork they have made. Buttons, stickers, posters, stuffies, book marks, bags, key chains, my kids bought it all.

This is me and Sharon.

I lived in Coquitlam about 17 years ago. I had one good friend, Sharon, she lived in the same appartment building. We had kids that were a year apart, she had Nicole a year older than Shaun, and Alex, a year younger than Shaun. We spent a lot of time together. Then I got out of that situation in a hurry, we saw eachother on time after I had met Kerry and then lost touch. I always think of her when I go to Vancouver, and other times too. So when I was in the 'Artist's Alley' and I saw this woman that looked exactly like Sharon, I whispered "Sharon", just in case it wasn't here. And she looked up, I didn't cry but I could have. It was SHARON! She was with Nicole. She looks exactly the same, if not better than she did 17 years ago. This was my favourite thing about the trip!

We took in a bit of Anime Idol, some of those kids have great talent. Some are very brave to get up on stage.

The girls took part in the 'Glomp' game. Glomping is when you run up to someone and hug them, it's best to ask for permission first. Dozens of kids stand in a large circle, this one happened to be outside on the side walk between Canada Place and the convention center, right in front of all the tour buses, so the tourists got an eyeful. A dozen kids stand in the middle, and spin bottles. They run and hug the person the bottle is pointing to, and then swap places with that person. Deodorant is a must.

Then the kids made a huge congo line. Again, the tourists were in shock, many took pictures.

The best cosplayer at the convention. Master Roshi was in character, he walked, hummed and posed like the real Master Roshi would have done. He even crossed the street in character. This guy had to be my age, he was not a teenager, he was also there by himself. That's devotion to Dragonball!

See that wall behind him, it's the ends of 2x4, super neat, probably 40 feet tall.

A guy on a segway is not something we see in Kelowna on a regular basis, but in Van. it was the norm.

Domo, one of Emily's favourites. She was trying to buy all things Domo.

The trip down was fairly uneventful, a bit of thunder and some very large lightening gave us a scare, but it was short lived. But the way home was another story. It started raining and I could see the cars up a head had all pulled over. So I did too and then the downpour of rain and hail hit and it was so loud we couldn't hear ourselves! The water on the right side is probably 4 inches deep. There are at least 20 cars behind me pulled over, and you can see the dozen or so cars on the left side of the road pulled over. We sat there for at least 10 minutes and then a truck with a small boat passed us going about 40 kms. so I decided if he can do that, so can I. I was so brave, didn't help that the navigator, Shaun, said we shouldn't do it. But I did, and we drove slowly and we made it out save and sound.

I made the kids get out of the van and sit for a picture at the look out, you can see Okanagan Lake behind them. Always thinking of scrapbooking! I will make a mini album for the kids, like last year.

The girls both bought these hats, by Punchbrand. I think every person there bought something from the talented woman! The hats are so cute. Shaun bought a couple of her pins.

I made it to a couple of scrapbooking stores. We didn't make it to Krispy Kreme but we felt the trade off was worth it. Instead we found T&T market at Metrotown, the largest Asian market I have ever seen. It had a huge sushi selection, dim sum, bakery, and grocery store. The kids found their favourites in more flavours then they are used to. We found fresh BBQ pork buns that were the best I've had. I hadn't had any good ones since I lived in Vancouver, 18 years ago. And so we bought 4 and then I had to go back and get more to bring back for Kerry. I also had a a green onion pancake, I buy them here at Safeway, but probably won't ever again because I have tasted what they should be like and it is far better than the flat, oily thing at Safeway. I will probably crave these things!

The kids spent way too much money but I figured it was not that big of a deal. Everything they bought was stuff they can't get here. We went to Sakura Media so many times that the guys there knew us. Everytime we went they had just unpacked new books so the kids were thrilled!