"Is there any way we could meet the band after?"
So now that I'm home, I can write a full report of the trip to Vancouver last weekend. But because I'm freaking paranoid after listening to crazy stalker fangirls while up there, I'm gonna have to just ask that you don't take any of the pics. I trust you guys. But still. antoniettac is a firsthand witness to this paranoia. lol
Thursday, April 16.
Arrival at the hotel in Vancity! WOOHOO!!! Finally made it. Once the hotel room was all set up, it was late afternoon/early evening so it was decided that we should go to the Granville Island Public Market. Great idea cause the produce there was good for dinner and breakfast. Holy crap raspberries are expensive during off season!!!! $16.99 per pound??? I mean come on!
Let me introduce you to Gnome. He's my little travel buddy. You're going to see a lot of him in this post. I made him from the cutest little pattern and some scrap yarn. The view from the hotel, btw.
Outside of Granville Public Market. Never did go in that shop. But across from there was this little tiny kitchen store. At the door they had this huge display of banana holders. In a variety of colors. *clears throat* In the smallest handwriting imaginable was a paper sign that said, "Don't worry. A banana's shaped like this, too."
The view from the balcony was spectacular!! We could see two of the bridges going into downtown, it was pretty cool. The helicopter flying really close at midnight, not so cool.
Friday, April 17.
The touristy day!
Went to the Aquarium in Stanley Park. Haven't been to an aquarium in years, so this was really fun. Except for the kids running around, tapping on glass, parents chasing after them doing nothing. But that was quickly forgotten when I saw this little guy. A poisonous frog from the Amazon. Cute but deadly. Hmmm, sounds like someone we know. ;)
Creepiest animal of the day: sea urchins. They looked like they had little silvery eyes everywhere. And they were moving. *shudders* Remember, if you get stung by one, have someone pee on you!! We learned this from Survivor Marquesus didn't we? *nods*
Not sure what this rather large hole in the open clam was, but when in doubt, take a pic.
When dolphins belly flop for food.
He's kind of a treehugger. *shrug* (Stanley Park)
The view of part of the city from the Totem Poles in Stanley Park.
Now I'm sure many of ya'll know about the pigeon statue on the steps of the Vancouver Art Gallery. The one Sam and Jack walk past in an episode of SG-1. (Foothold?). Well, we went in search of it. After walking around the block twice, getting distracted by following who appeared to be a paparazzi cause we were there for dual purposes of course (Stargate and New Moon), seeing no one we recognized, and asking at the coat check desk IN the art gallery, our mission failed. The statue had been moved due to construction going on out front for the 2010 Olympics. There's a lot of that going on. But I took a pic anyway, just for proof that I did at least try.
Saturday, April 18.
Robson Street people watching/shopping. For seven hours. After many adrenaline shots seeing men in plaid shirts and black beanies, skinny girls in Ray Bans, and guys with spiky hair and wolf pack-like complexions, we left Robson only a tshirt and some makeup heavier. If you go to the MAC store, ask for Baron. He was very, very friendly and helpful even though they were packed. He could have been short and rude, but he helped me find just the right lipstick and gloss in time for the concert. BARON, YOU ROCK!!!
Ate at this Greek restaurant across the street from Zara. SO GOOD!!! Plus, they had a section of the menu for vegetarians, for which I was very grateful. AND they had seating outside, so we didn't have to stop people watching. And car watching. Cause DAMN that city has a lot of Porsches and sports cars. We were standing outside a Blenz on the corner and stopped at a red light was a Ferrari. Light turns green. Ferrari zooms off. Lamborghini races off right behind it. *swoons*
The rest of Saturday night was not spent eating out or going out, but instead being incredibly girly by trying different outfits, makeup and hair for the concert Sunday night. Chica's gotta be prepared!
Sunday, April 19.
The day of awesome! All around. Everything.
So I woke up to this sight out the window: The Vancouver Sun Run. Couldn't believe the amount of people!!!
After a lazy morning, it was off to Bridge Studios!!!!!! It was a little difficult to get directions cause half the roads in downtown were closed cause of the run, but we got there!!!
After that it was a little more shopping on Robson (cause we're boring like that and stay in one area). It was nice just people watching though. Lunch at Red Robin!!! Oh how I love that place. The Whiskey River Barbecue Gardengburger is amazing and probably very fattening but who cares.
Full of milkshake and fries, it was time to get ready for the concert. Yes, I didn't need to get there til 6.30 pm but it takes a long time to get ready to go out. lol. And after some fashion decisions were made by dannysgirlsg1 via that lovely thing called AIM, I was ready to go. If I didn't puke first. So nervous!!! Kept it together though.
Now for those of you who don't know what concert I'm talking about, 100 Monkeys was playing with Tripsonic, The Manipulators and The Sandman at the Rio Theatre. 100 Monkeys is, of course, the band that Jackson Rathbone is a part of. They have a completely different sound live, so I was quite excited to hear my favorite songs which weren't included on their first album, Monster De Lux.
Okay, so 6.30. Got my preordered ticket from will call. Got my spot in line (one of the last ones under the awning, thank the gods). The girls who got in line behind me, let me just say wow. They were the stalker fangirls you hear about hanging around outside the sets and meeting the cast at clubs. The local ones. I'll be honest, they kind of scared me a bit. They had been at a concert the night before (The Dills at the Metropole) and met some of the cast. Yes, btw, I'm a notorious eavesdropper. Just leave the poor people alone, you stalker girls!!! It's one thing to go to a concert or a convention where you paid for a ticket to see this person and they come prepared to be there and see a bunch of excited fans, but to intrude on their personal chillax time at a club or bar or restaurant or even outside their hotel, wow. Have you no respect? Oh, but in their eyes, I guess respect was pleading with the bodyguard that all you want to do is buy a beer for Rob.....and then keeping the bottle afterwards. *rolls eyes* Okay, back to the fun times.
Doors opened about a half hour late, which I now think I know the reason why, but we'll get to that later. The Rio being an old fashioned movie theatre, seating was first come first served. Total plus going by myself cause I got an odd seat in the fifth row center. *claps* First warm up band came up, Tripsonic. Pretty good. A few girls got up to stand at the bottom of the stage. I was too shy to yet. lol. Couple songs passed, more girls went up. *twiddles thumbs* Then I spotted some girls just completely dancing without a care in the world. They seemed pretty fun, so I got up and joined them. We didn't stop dancing through the WHOLE SHOW! It was so much fun!!
Then came the Manipulators. That guitar player, he's an animal!!! That was such a great band to just rock out to. We went out to get water from the concession stand and ended up talking to Marty aka the Bananager a little bit, who was working the merch table. Me thinks that conversation set things in motion. Went back in, Manipulators finished up, Sandman came on. Yum. It was about this time that we started to plant our feet and keep our spots as more girls realized that if they wanted a good spot at the stage, now was the time.
There was a balcony at the back, k? There were several people in the balcony sitting down. That, from what we gathered and who we saw up there (a bass player, the lead singer's daughters) that was the band's VIP/guest area. We were thinking it was Ashley Greene up there, we were, however wrong. The girls and I began figuring things out, watching the security guys, the curtain to backstage. The security guy escorted a curly red headed chick from backstage. I thought she was just some chick trying to get back there, but no. I'm pretty sure now, after it was confirmed Ashley Green, Rachelle Lefevre and Rob Pattinson were there, that I saw Rachelle coming from backstage. *squee* I think they might have been the reason the doors opened late, cause either they were late or security was checking stuff or something like that.
100 Monkeys came on. All the girls screamed, including us. Dance dance dance. Can't believe not more of these girls were dancing hard. It's just the music that you have to move to. It gets into you. Marty transformed into the Bananager, complete with outfit. We danced with him quite a bit. And a note to the band, please clean the banana suit. Kinda smelly. Not that I'm complaining, it added to the experience. We rocked hard, completely oblivious to everything else going on around us, mostly. About the 4th or 5th time we danced with the Bananager, the chick I had met got an idea. A very good one. We had met the bass player from Tripsonic and he reeked of beer. Yeah, since it was an all ages show, no alcohol. But all the band members had coke/pepsi cups, which we suspect were full of alcohol. Thought: Hmmm, maybe the band's a little flirty/tipsy/drunk? So we were there with the Bananager and she leans over all flirty like and asks "Is there any way we can meet the band after?" There was like a split second where he looked like he was considering it. But then he said that no, the band was jetting off right after. I told him that was understandable, what with the craziness lately. But I have a feeling that if the guys hadn't been leaving right after, we would have gotten backstage. And that's an objective statement, that is. Not wishful thinking. Dead serious. I think he recognized us from the merch table, saw that we were true fans of the music, not just Twilight fans. Now I know that there's pics of Rachelle and Ashley on the side of the stage, on the piano side. Of course, we had to be on the opposite side. But we were there mostly for the music, so it was all good. Not sure where Rob was. We figured, after taking a good hard look at the group in the balcony, that he must have been up there for part of it. As Ann put it "You didn't see him, bb, but he most definately saw you!" (considering how crazy we were dancing even through the warm up bands when there were only probably 30 girls up there at the stage) Yeah, I freaked out the next day. A lot. Jumping. Crying. Squeeling. The whole bit. XD
So, back to the show. Pic! That's with NO ZOOM. We were RIGHT THERE!!!!
Monday, April 20.
Yep, 420. That was a brilliant idea. Sure, let's go shopping in the mall right next to the back of the art gallery, where 5,000 people are smoking pot. *rolls eyes* That shit stinks. Best quote of the whole trip though was from a guy walking by "To the weed!!" as he was being all dramatic and pointing outside. Great mall though. Favorite store: H&M. Had never been in one before. *sings*AMAZING*sings* Was in such a bad mood with all the rude people and noise of the gathering outside though that I didn't think to take a picture. *sigh* Bad tourist, bad. Next time though! The rest of the evening was spent eating Nat's Pizza ordered in and enjoying the sounds of the city that would be left behind the next day.
Tuesday, April 21.
The trip home. *sniff* Everything was best summed up though on the way out of downtown.
Him: "So did we conquer the city?"
Me: "No, we accomplished the mission."
There was one last stop to be made though. We couldn't have Vanmission without doing a little set visiting. Don't get too excited, it was used for Twilight, not New Moon. KALAMA HIGH SCHOOL aka Forks High.
This trip was something I'll remember for the rest of my life. My stomach still flips when I realize again that I was in the same room as Jackson and Rob. Combine that with visiting Bridge and just being in that city, it was incredible. Hopefully, sometime soon, there will be another Vanmission. Hopefully one that's a bit wilder. ;)