PHEW!
Well... we're home. I even went to karaoke last night, although it was mostly for the principle of the thing (I was zoned enough that Grank was joking about having to defend his brain from my zombie attack.) This post will be long and far from comprehensive, so I'm cutting it multiple times.
We had two days in Chicago prior to the beginning of Terminus, and although we were jetlagged, we used them well. The Field Museum, which was within easy walking distance of our hotel, was epic. We were there for 5 1/2 hours, and we got through about 1/3 of the museum! That night we had an incredible thunderstorm. There were actual storm warning sirens over the lake, and we found out the next morning that there had actually been a tornado that touched down in Bolingbrook (which is to Chicago as St. Albert is to Edmonton.)
We also visited the Lincoln Park Zoo (the walk to which was punctuated by occasional uprooted trees). The zoo was both wonderful, and FREE. That's right, a *good* zoo that doesn't charge admission! Bizarre! By the time we got back to the hotel in the evening, the Harry Potter fans had effectively taken over the lobby, and there was much squeeing and huggling all around.
Terminus was AWESOME! *Six full days* of AWESOME! Wrock Chicago kicked ass, although there were often two performers on at the same time on different stages that I wanted to hear. Why why WHY did the Gringott's Grrls have to be on opposite Gred and Forge? WHY??? My Sweetie and I dressed appropriately for Erin's House of Black set as Sirius and Andromeda, but then we wimped out and changed back into muggle attire (it sucks being allergic to your wig!)
Interesting thing, the evening "Headline" show was not nearly as fantastic as the shorter sets in smaller rooms during the day. The sound was not good enough quality for the volume, if that makes any sense to anyone but me. Oh, and we were in an *upstairs* ballroom, and the hotel was old, and people's dancing actually damaged a chandelier in the room below us. And the thing that made that especially awesome is the fact that we were sharing the hotel at the time with a gospel choruses convention, and the room below us was the Bible-Thumpers' vendor room. *snickerfits*
... and now, because I've taken far too long to write this much, and I really need to get over to Mom's place and do some laundry (our basement is being renovated and our washer and dryer are currently blocked off behind a pile of DOORS of all things!) I will write more later.
We had two days in Chicago prior to the beginning of Terminus, and although we were jetlagged, we used them well. The Field Museum, which was within easy walking distance of our hotel, was epic. We were there for 5 1/2 hours, and we got through about 1/3 of the museum! That night we had an incredible thunderstorm. There were actual storm warning sirens over the lake, and we found out the next morning that there had actually been a tornado that touched down in Bolingbrook (which is to Chicago as St. Albert is to Edmonton.)
We also visited the Lincoln Park Zoo (the walk to which was punctuated by occasional uprooted trees). The zoo was both wonderful, and FREE. That's right, a *good* zoo that doesn't charge admission! Bizarre! By the time we got back to the hotel in the evening, the Harry Potter fans had effectively taken over the lobby, and there was much squeeing and huggling all around.
Terminus was AWESOME! *Six full days* of AWESOME! Wrock Chicago kicked ass, although there were often two performers on at the same time on different stages that I wanted to hear. Why why WHY did the Gringott's Grrls have to be on opposite Gred and Forge? WHY??? My Sweetie and I dressed appropriately for Erin's House of Black set as Sirius and Andromeda, but then we wimped out and changed back into muggle attire (it sucks being allergic to your wig!)
Interesting thing, the evening "Headline" show was not nearly as fantastic as the shorter sets in smaller rooms during the day. The sound was not good enough quality for the volume, if that makes any sense to anyone but me. Oh, and we were in an *upstairs* ballroom, and the hotel was old, and people's dancing actually damaged a chandelier in the room below us. And the thing that made that especially awesome is the fact that we were sharing the hotel at the time with a gospel choruses convention, and the room below us was the Bible-Thumpers' vendor room. *snickerfits*
... and now, because I've taken far too long to write this much, and I really need to get over to Mom's place and do some laundry (our basement is being renovated and our washer and dryer are currently blocked off behind a pile of DOORS of all things!) I will write more later.