Theme: Neo San Jose
Location: San Jose McEnery Convention Center
Even though the convention was already going on, Paco, Henrieke and I were hanging out on the couch at Croc's house all day. Croc, Yippee and Bacon were all at work, and we felt more like relaxing a bit before diving to the busy convention center. When Croc returned from work at 18:00, he gave us a ride to the hotel. We met our roommates Eligecos and his brother Geeker in the lobby and put all our stuff on our room, which was luckily on a low floor in the Hilton, meaning we could easily use the stairs in case the elevator would break down. (Spoiler: it did) We went to see the opening ceremony and ran into Zahzu, who joined us.
This year's theme was Neo San Jose, essentially Furry Cyberpunk. Outside the opening ceremony, Henrieke met a guy from the lemur chat who recognized her. Then we went to get registered. As it turned out, Henrieke wasn't pre-registered (oops!), so she had to stand in a longer line. After that we sat on the floor in the reg area for a while, Henrieke still had some drawing jobs to finish.
Procyon dropped by to say hi. I walked around and took some fursuit photos in the meanwhile.
I ran into Growl, who I didn't see since we suited together in the old town of Stockholm! Henrieke eventually finished work, and I craved a latte, sadly the Starbucks inside the hotel was already closed, I did run into Aatheus however! I also said hi to Omi, then Henrieke, Zahzu and I went to our room and we chatted about lemurs and other important things.
We got up at 8:30 and had some breakfast on the room. Henrieke had a headache in the morning sadly.
Henrieke needed to send something out at the post office, so we went to do that. On the way we picked up some snacks at 7/11 and I dropped by the Bernie Sanders campaign office, which was just a few meters further.
After that we were back just in time for the bat panel. We didn't know what to expect, but it was the best! There was a lady from an animal conservation, and she brought some microbats with her! We saw a Mexican free tailed bat, a big brown bat and a pallid bat.
After the panel was over, we talked to the guy in the awesome bat kigu, who turned out to be Drek, the organizer of this panel. I asked if he knew Chiros and of course he did! We spend some time chatting and getting close looks of the microbats and also chatted a bit with the lady from the bat conservation. After that we took a short break on the room, then we went to check out the Dealers Den. We met Louve, Rowkey and Jill there. I met up with Zahzu to get some tacos at the Taqueria nearby. Over there, I ran into Procy, Tachi as well as Scruff, who I never met before! Zahzu went back to the hotel and I dropped by the Bernie Sanders office again to pick up some flyers and encourage the guys there to drop by at FC. Back at the hotel I had lunch with Henrieke and spread the Bernie flyers on the tables.
Vee and Sharpy joined us. I checked out Sharpy's absolutely amazing sketchbook, then headed to the Dealers Den by myself to check out all the tables.
I chatted a bit with Sapphire and said hi to Cooner and PointedFox. After that I took a short break and then went to do some art trades outside the Dealers Den. I also traded with Tachi.
We also saw this amazing manta ray costume! I saw that the Bernie Sanders campaign staffer was at the con, I explained the con a bit to him and he got busy with signing up people for the primaries. Near the registration I met Vinci and her 3 adorable kids, sporting Pokémon kigus! They had loads of fun with all the critters at the con! I went to the room with Henrieke for a bit, then I went down to check out the inflatable panel as well as Artmemis, a multiplayer spaceship game that was happening in a panel room. I decided to suit a bit, so I went up to wake up Baseball.
Baseball went down and met lots of people including Growl. He did a trade with Vinci! Then he met C_Eagle and TK and had a lot of fun with Vinci's kids!
I went to the fursuit lounge with Henrieke and chatted a bit with Sithy and Okill, also Vee and MrGreenface. Baseball went to the dance for a bit, then Henrieke and Baseball met up with C_Eagle again. We all went to our room and C_Eagle surprised me with an old camera for my collection! Henrieke gave a Donald Duck figurine to C_Eagle that she had brought with her from Amsterdam. We went back down for more art jam. Tachi, Astro, Procy, C_Eagle, Geekfox, Nico and others were there.
Zahzu joined later. Matrices and Synchra dropped by in costume as well!
We went up to our room at 2:20.
We got up, had some breakfast and went downstairs a bit. I checked out the art show and met Rowkey and Louve there. There was a lot of nice art, generally more toony than at European cons! Henrieke joined later. We had some leftover waffles from the waffle buffet, then we went to the Dealers Den. I got a really cool Camp Howl fruit bat t-shirt.
We chatted a bit with Robin, then I went to the Jazz concert which was really nice.
During the concert I also peeked into the DefCon furs meet which was taking place at the same time. I took some photos of Fizzle being cute while playing the drums.
Then it was time for some suiting. I suited as Tyler and Henrieke as Baseball. Byte also joined us. Baseball, Tyler and Byte went to the photoshoot with 15 minutes to spare. They also ran into Dax and Tyler also met Croc, who he hasn't seen for many years! We got lots of photos taken. Taking a break in the fursuit lounge, I chatted with Eden and Deezlberries, who was suiting as Brok.
Baseball then tried finding the bat meet to no avail, then Tyler and Baseball peeked into the Dealers Den and said hi to Rowkey, Louve and Jill. On the way to the fursuit lounge Baseball met Artie and his kids! Back at the fursuit lounge I figured out why Baseball couldn't find the bat meet, it was tomorrow!
Back on our room I took a well needed shower, sadly allergy also hit me with a dumb headache. We went downstairs again and art jammed a bit.
I also chatted with the guy from the Billy DeFrank LGBT center, which had a table in the public space, and did a trade with Redwulf.
Later we walked to the Spaghetti Factory with 27 people. The occassion was Tachi's birthday! We got a huge table where we sat together with Zahzu, Kipper, Ciderbun, PointedFox, Scruff and some others. We did more trades and chatted with PointedFox about his work at Disney while having some spaghetti.
Back at the hotel we sat at the tables in the public area again. C_Eagle was also there, who introduced me to Changa, one of the founders of the first furry convention. We had an extremely interesting chat about old tech and furry fandom history. He also gave me one of the meticulously hand-made VHS tapes of Zootopia, complete with extra flyers and trailers.
We said good night to C_Eagle and ran into Vee and BB Wolf. I planned to check out the party floor but was too tired, so we went to bed at 2:20.
We got up at 9:00, then went straight to sit and art jam with friends.
I traded with Koidel and Nicogotchi. Then we went to Johnny Rocket's for some burgers and shakes. Henrieke did a trade and I chatted about font rendering with Tachi. I also chatted with Kipper about the good old days of openCanvas.
Afterwards I checked out a Japanese house-wares store with Kipper, then I picked up some snacks at 7/11. Back at the hotel I ran into Mynx. Outside the hotel there were lots of fursuiters.
I picked up a bat hoodie at the Dealers Den for Chiros, then I met Lance who gave me some shirts and a Jornada that he held onto for me. We went to our room to dump the stuff and pick up the Hagelslag we brought for him from the Netherlands.
We delivered the Hagelslag, then I said hi to Quaggy in the Dealers Den.
I saw that the bat meet had finally started, I quickly went to wake up Baseball. Luckily the bat meet was still going on by the time Baseball made it there.
Henrieke was spotting a bit and then went back to the Dealers Den. Baseball joined Drek and all the other bat fans to the bat meet photoshoot.
Afterwards he went to the inflatables panel, which was right next to the fursuit lounge/photoshoot area. He met Paco there and got some cute photos taken!
Baseball then went down to the art jam table. He drew something for Tachi and ZenFetcher and other people and had fun there! After a while Baseball went back to our room and I went downstairs again to make it in time before the Dealers Den would close. I got some fur samples from Big Z Fabrics. Henrieke and I chatted with MoodyFerret about Star Trek for a while.
They showed us pictures from Star Trek LA. We also met Agouti-Rex. We talked for about 40 minutes, but eventually the Dealers Den closed.
I heard that Venti was roaming around so I went to the Mariott to see if I could get a photo. After a while I did find him and got some pictures. We also met Eligecos and Zahzu. I asked Zahzu if she wanted to suit as Baseball. We went to the room with Eligecos, Byte, Zahzu and Venti. Everyone suited up and I went along to take photos. Getting down to the lobby took a while because of elevator troubles.
Downstairs the group ran inti Vinci, Artie and their kids. It was adorable! After some suiting, we all went to the fursuit lounge where we hung out chatting for quite a while. The Furry Variety Show was going on and I managed to get a peek of Paco's skit there.
We then all went downstairs again and outside, but there weren't many people to interact with at that time. We went back to our room shortly after 21:00.
Back in the lobby we sat at the table again and did more art jam. We got visited by Matrices' Bonk.
I also checked out the dance a but together with Cami and figured Baseball would like it. Since I already did art trades with everyone, I went up to the room to get Baseball. Baseball partied on stage with Drek. Sadly he missed Cami. Then Baseball went to the art jam and drew some pictures for Paco, Koidel, Kipper and Geekfox. Baseball went back to the dance for a bit and Henrieke took some photos, then suddenly the lights turned on and the dance ended.
Baseball and Henrieke went to the room at 3:00 and we went to bed shortly after.
We got up at 9:00. Eli and Geeker had already left at this time. Paco was packing up. We said byw, but we'd see him soon again anyway.
Henrieke and I packed until 11:00 and then went to help Zahzu who felt really sick. We helped her with packing her bag, then we downstairs to check out at 11:30. There was no line anymore at this point, which was nice. We put our luggage into storage and looked if anyone was left to meet up with. Rowkey was out shopping, eventually Zahzu joined us. Nico, Tachi and KaiClavier were there as well. I did another trade with Nico. Rowkey also joined.
Rowkey went to get Ramen and I went to Earl of Sandwich with Tachi, Kai and 2 others to pick up some subs.
Back at the hotel it was time to say good-byeto Zahzu. We hung out some more with Rowkey, and later Drek also joined our table.
We chatted about bats and also drew bats. When almost everyone was gone, we said bye to Rowkey and left the hotel at 17:00 and took an Uber to Croc's place.
