When: June 12th – June 14th, 2009
Where: Vancouver, BC, Canada
Thursday, June 11th, 2009
My mom and I began our day at 3:30am (Eastern Standard Time). We woke up, got ready, finished packing, fed the pets, ate breakfast and left home a little after 4:30am to the airport. Our flight from eastern Pennsylvania to Chicago was at 7:04am, and even though it was a little rainy, there were no delays. I missed my Siamese as soon as we left our driveway, though. It was tough to leave her behind when I didn’t know how my not being there for several days would effect her. She’s almost sixteen years old with liver disease and stool problems, so she needs extra attention with her food and medicine. Luckily, my older sister knows all about that stuff since she works at Merck, so I tried not to worry so much knowing my pets were in good hands.
We landed in Chicago at about 8:30am (their time) for our connecting flight and final destination to Vancouver, BC, Canada which originally scheduled to depart at 9:40am. We boarded around a little after 9:00am, and again, even though it was rainy there too, we left earlier than we were scheduled to and flew off to Canada. Our in-flight movies consisted of “Everybody Hates Chris,” “He’s Just Not That in to You,” two episodes of “The Office” and a BBC broadcast about the incredible animals we call elephants.
We landed in Vancouver, BC, Canada about a half an hour ahead of time, which was awesome. Sunny skies and about 67ºF. After Customs, and me taking photos this time of their beautiful airport, my friend William picked us up and had us on our way, but we weren’t planning on stopping at our hotel first. Our room wouldn’t be ready until about 3pm, and we purposely didn’t eat much all day because we knew we’d be eating lunch at a little deli William suggested called Solly’s. Garry told me ahead of time that he’d be working until 1pm, and that he would call me or I could call him so he could meet us for lunch. We got to Solly’s around 1pm and decided what to eat. William, my mom and I all got the Eggel De Lox (since William highly recommended it) but with different bagels (I had the multi-grain bagel), and my mom and I shared one of their world famous cinnamon buns, all of which was absolutely delicious. Once we sat down with our food at a table on the sidewalk right outside of the deli, it was after 1:30pm and I decided to give Garry a call to see what was up. When he picked up, I explained where we were and he said he had been caught up in a meeting but would come shortly. We continued to eat and drink our Cokes but it wasn’t long before Garry pulled up in his vehicle and strolled over across the street from where he parked to hand my mom and I a big chocolate bar shaped like a bald eagle, and to order his lunch. We exchanged hugs and kisses and he politely complimented my haircut. We sat there chatting for quite a while without seagulls trying to steal our food this time. Garry fed a crow that came by and then tried feeding the pigeons who didn’t seem that interested in his bread. I ate all of my food for once so no one could tease me again. After some time of catching up, Garry wanted to head off because he had his dogs in his car who had been waiting the whole time we were eating to go for a walk at the beach. He offered us to meet his canine friends and I was just thrilled. My mom and I walked across the street with him and he cautiously brought his pups out of his car, who were clearly far too energetic to be cooped up for much longer. They were the sweetest and cutest dogs that I was so happy to finally meet. Their eyes were a beautiful golden brown with their soft black and white long fur. After that, it was time for Garry to take off and give them their walk but he said he would call us because my mom and I didn’t know what we were doing later, then we hugged, and Garry called me a dumpling. Hah! We really didn’t know how eventful our day was going to be with these guys…
We went back to William and chatted even more before we decided to leave and check into our hotel called the Sandman Hotel. When we arrived, they said that our room wasn’t ready yet but that they’d hold our bags until we came back later. So we all left and walked down the street a little where William showed us a memorial of the “Fox Trot” nearby Canada Place. After that, we got on the Skytrain and took it to our destination that was Waterfront. We saw one of the cruise line ships docked and William really wanted us to see the huge ship depart but that wouldn’t happen until about 6pm. So we continued walking down to the Vancouver Convention Centre where Anime Evolution was going to be held over the weekend to pick up our pre-registration that was supposed to have begun at 4pm. Instead, we discovered the doors were closed and there was a VERY long line in the lobby. Fortunately, as soon as the doors opened, they let people in and the line went fairly smoothly. After we picked up our badges, we left with William and booked it up back to the docked cruise liner just before it was about to pull out. What a spectacular thing to watch. The ship, which was a Carnival Splender, was gigantic! I’ve never seen a cruiser so big before that close up. It took it a long time to back out and turn around to pull out of the docking area, but it was so neat to watch. It was probably about 6:30pm when we left and decided to check out Gastown since William wanted to show us that area last time.
I had completely lost track of time as we walked around with our “tour guide” and enjoyed the beautiful evening. After we had checked out the Steam Clock, which was the world’s first steam clock so that was awesome, I noticed my cell phone was vibrating as a reminder that someone had tried to call me. What time was it? I didn’t know, I just checked to see who it was that was trying to call and it happened to be Garry. He was looking for us already? Oops. He left a voicemail but I couldn’t access it being out of the States so I called him back and figured out what was going on. He wanted to meet up with us and take another stroll around the area before we’d find somewhere to eat dinner. Once he found us, he took us down the street on foot and all over the place. It still amazes me how he knows the city so well and so much of its history. We went through China Town and some pretty shady spots (including “Crack Corner”) and told us tons of things like the area that was built over landfill where the ocean used to be, and an absolutely gorgeous Chinese replicated sanctuary called the Classical Chinese Garden. And he took us through a Chinese market that was really interesting because of its Chinese food and candy and fish and tons of food-related selections. Eventually we made it back to his car and he offered to take the four of us to a place he said had a chocolate buffet.
Cramping into Garry’s car was a challenge at first. He had one of his back seats folded up with his golf club bag laying in its place on the floor, and there was sand and dog hair everywhere from walking his dogs on the beach earlier. He swept off the other back seat for my mom and I, and we barely fit together on it while William took the front passenger seat, and off we went to the Sutton for dinner. What a blast it was! I ordered a somewhat spicy spaghetti and meatball dinner with water. I think we were all dehydrated from our long walk. A friend of Garry’s, Romero, was playing the piano across the small walkway from our table and he was absolutely incredible. He played two songs that he wrote himself for us and they were fantastic. Garry hopped on to the piano with him and played a little, and not long after that he sang “Georgia,” and I must say that he was brilliant! What a voice. During and after dinner, we joked around with each other and Romero, and met some other really nice people, including a small group from Texas. Unfortunately, it was starting to get late, and the gentleman that Garry is paid for our meals and we left the restaurant around 10pm. Technically it was 1am for my mom and I, so we had been awake for almost twenty-four hours at that point. I was beginning to feel exhausted and the fatigue from lack of sleep, so it was a good thing Garry was driving us back to our hotel. It was a little bit before 10:30pm when William, my mom and I hopped out of his car and said our good nights with Garry adding that he’d take us out to breakfast tomorrow. The three of us chatted for a little on the street corner before we went inside. William headed down to the parking garage for his car while my mom and I grabbed our luggage and went up to our room. We were pooped! I got my shower, checked the convention programming guide to confirm a few events, and began working on my report. It was about 12:30am until I went to bed. Now I know what Jack Bauer goes through on a sleepless twenty-four hour day. Ha ha! Yes, I am a 24 fan.
Some photos during our flight from Chicago to Vancouver:
Photos of the beautiful Vancouver International Airport:
Out to lunch with Garry. Photo was taken by our friend William. I know Garry was saying something when it was taken but I don't remember what:
The chocolate bald eagle Garry gave us:
Strolling around the Vancouver Convention Centre with William, catching the sea planes and a cruise liner:
Taking a stroll through Gastown with William and checking out the world's first steam clock:
Continuing our stroll after Garry finds us again. I took this photo because I thought it was silly how they had a Pennsylvania Hotel and I'm from Pennsylvania.
The back of Garry's head got in the way a little:
A piece of their huge China Town:
Garry showed us the world's narrowest building or store. It was the grayish painted section of the building with the red windows in the front:
The Classical Chinese Garden after it was closed:
If any of you have seen Cold Squad, Garry played Inspector Andy Pawlachuk on the crime drama show, he showed us the "Police" headquarters building:
A World War memorial statue:
Garry on the piano when he took us out to dinner:
A video I recorded of Garry singing a wonderful rendition of "Georgia." Anyone at the MechaCon this year will get to see him play and sing at the dinner:
YouTube Video: Garry Sings "Georgia"
Friday, June 12th, 2009
I woke up around 5am but had a difficult time going back to sleep. Garry wasn’t picking us up until 9am, and we had our alarms set for 7:30. I struggled to fall asleep but I couldn’t, so at 6:45am, I decided to get out of bed and just get ready. We were told to wear some semi-formal clothes (no jeans) to the place Garry was going to take us, so after we got all dressed (me in my slacks and nice blouse and my mom in her black dress), we got a call to our room from Garry telling us that we don’t have to dress up and to just be comfortable. Well, that was a big pile of Chalk right there. Ha ha! So we changed our clothes into more casual apparel and waited for him in the hotel lobby. When he picked us up, we had to decide where to eat because I think his original plans had changed for whatever reason. He took us about a block away from the beach, and we settled in a small restaurant called “Knight and Day.” My mom had eggs, toast and sausage, while Garry and I almost got into an argument about which one of us loved French toast more than the other. Ha ha! So he and I both ended up eating that except he had sausage with his. In my opinion, their French toast was better than IHOP’s! It was sooo good! We talked about all kinds of things as usual, from American cartoons, anime, and places that used to be good to eat in the area, to my sisters and brother, and traveling. We took a gander at the paintings on the walls and joked with a lady that was seated behind us and across the aisle, along with our waitress.
Time was getting shorter when we left the restaurant, but Garry said there was enough time for us to see the beach nearby so we strolled down there and caught a great blue heroin perched in the water and motionless. A little girl was slowly walking up to it and it was so cute but the bird finally thought the girl was too close for comfort so it took flight to some other rocks down the shore and landed. The three of us walked down the path quite a bit as Garry pointed out the $16 million apartments and where a woman was fined $20,000 for poisoning a tree so it would be cut down because it was blocking the view of her apartment. We had to almost speed walk back to his car since he had to be at work. Quickly we zoomed through the streets and he dropped us off near the Convention Centre and said he’d see us later after he told us to check out the lobby of the Pan Pacific.
First, we got our bearings because we weren’t that familiar with the area yet, and made sure we had enough money for the sky train. Then we headed over to the Pan Pacific and it was very impressive inside with a magnificent view of the ocean and the mountains from the bar and lobby. Knowing we didn’t have all day with a panel to see at the convention by 3:00pm, we left there and headed back to our hotel on the sky train. When we grabbed a map from our hotel and tried exchanging currency at the front desk, we were told to exchange it at the Montreal bank. So away we walked up the street past the post office and up to the bank. We got our Canadian money and backtracked over a block and down a couple to get to the library. I have never seen a library like this before. It was enormous and beautiful, even with a few little shops. The library wasn’t our main goal, however, we wanted to save more for the Van Art Gallery that we had heard so much about from Garry last year and this year. We strolled down Robson Street a few blocks and found it, entering through the café by accident and stumbling across a European starling and a fairly tame male house sparrow. The Art Gallery was fantastic, I just wish I hadn’t been so tired when we visited. My eyes were heavy and I couldn’t walk as smoothly. Anyway, there were paintings from the 1500’s and 1600’s that just boggled my mind with the detail and perfection. It was impressive. When we were done and saw almost everything in the gallery, we felt dehydrated and stopped at McDonald’s for a chocolate milkshake for me and at Blenz in the library for a smoothie for my mom. We walked back to our hotel and relaxed for a little bit before we needed to head back to the Convention Centre.
Getting the hang of the sky train, we got off at the Waterfront station and headed down to the Centre. We were there for a panel at 3:00pm with Adrian (never learned his last name), Richard Ian Cox (voiced Inuyasha from Inuyasha, and appeared on SG-1 and Eureka) and Garry Chalk (who was also on SG-1 and Eureka, and Cold Squad). What a great time it was, even though some of the comments and questions asked by the fangirls were a little obscure but the guests handled them in good spirit. I also met Josh Goring, whom Garry introduced us to because he worked with him on the new Scooby Doo TV movie (coming in Fall 2009 on Cartoon Network), and he was also a friend of a friend of mine. After the panel was autographs, but we were having a difficult time finding out where those were supposed to take place. The program guide side in room 220 on the next level up but no one was there. We ended up following Garry who was being escorted by a staff person, whom at the time didn’t seem to be sure where the autograph session was either. What a mess! We went back down the escalators and waited for a staff member so we could ask them where it was supposed to be. I was studying the program guide when I heard Garry call my name from the top of the escalator. He came down and said it was supposed to be in the dealer room (or the exhibition room), so we followed him down there and were relieved to finally find the autograph tables. At which time I took the opportunity to give Garry his painting of his dogs that I did for him. His comments and compliments were so up lifting, it made me want to do things like that all the time. He showed my painting to the little crowd that surrounded us and said I was a fabulous artist. All I could say was thank you and ask for a photo. He held me close and joked that he was going to marry me. I laughed it off and reminded him that he was already married and that he should show the painting to his wife. Next to him was Daniel Bacon and Adrian Petriw, both quite the gentlemen whom introduced themselves to me and posed for a photo or two since Daniel was being funny and making faces in each photo my mom took. And then we left to go back to our hotel and finally relax. We weren’t very hungry, so we decided to skip dinner and just snack on the granola bars and cookies that we had brought along and ordered a movie through our TV, “Gran Torino.” Not long after we had started watching it, Garry called my mom to remind us about the Chinese Night Market on Keefer Street. He said he was at home and too beat to go out, and that he really appreciated the painting I gave him but he wanted us to go out and see the Night Market if we could. Well, I passed out around 8:00pm and woke up around 9 when the movie was over. My mom and I both agreed it was getting too late to go out so we got ready for bed although I was up until about midnight or so watching Family Guy and typing away again on my report.
At the beach with Garry after he, my mom and I had breakfast together. A beautiful great blue heron showed up, and some tankers on the horizon:
Inside the very big and awesome library during my mom's and my walk on our own. The little shops are on the right and the books on the left behind the glass windows:
The very nice Van Art Museum:
One of the panels at the convention. From left to right, Adrian (last name unknown) who usually plays villains, Richard Ian Cox (voice of Inuyasha from Inuyasha), and Garry Chalk (voice of Optimus Primal from Beast Wars/Beast Machines, Optimus Prime from Armada/Energon/Cybertron, Slash/Turbo/Al's Waiter from ReBoot):
Garry and me after I gave him his painting of his dogs:
Me with Daniel Bacon (left; appeared in SG-1, Dark Angel, Smallville, Supernatural) and Adrian Petriw (right; voice of Iron Man/Tony Stark in the new Nicktoon's Iron Man: Armored Adevtnures cartoon):
A rather friendly and quiet seagull that landed near us outside when we were done at the convention and looking for food:
Many of the cosplayers gathered around the outdoor foodcourt almost all day every day, so here are some photos of their costumes. I don't know who most of them are but I thought some of you would enjoy seeing some:
And a Master Chief I bumped into back in the dealer/exhibition room:
Saturday, June 13th, 2009
Sunny skies this morning when we got up around 7am. Today we needed to find our own place to eat breakfast and somewhere to exchange money since the bank was closed. We meandered on down to McDonald’s by the library for Egg McMuffins and orange juice. It was just a beautiful morning. Then we went back to our hotel room and watched some TV because we needed to leave at noon and get to the Convention Centre by 1:00pm for autographs. Coincidentally we got there right when Garry did and caught up to him on the lobby escalator. I came up to his side and said, “Fancy meeting you here!” He said, “Hey!” and thanked me again for the painting and that his wife absolutely went nuts over it. I thought that was great and said he was welcome. He also asked if we had made it to the Knight Market and we ashamedly said no explaining that our movie was about or over two hours so it had gotten late and I was out like a light at one point. He said it would be open again tonight and recommended we go see it while we could. We didn’t chat long because he needed to figure out where he needed to be, but when he left we crossed paths with Lee Tockar and he was just the friendliest guy and very approachable. He couldn’t hang either because he was in need of the “green room” to relax a little. We were early so we hung out in the exhibition/dealer room where the autographs were held. However, with the bags of clothes my mom was carrying, and my drawings that I was carrying, one of the bags my mom had also had my Sony cam-corder in it. Apparently she didn’t realize that the bag was upside down in her arm, so with the weight of the camera, it untied the bag and dropped, slamming on to the floor. It was like slow motion, my head looking downward to the floor and watching a couple pieces of the camera scatter. Someone nearby saw it happen and said, “That’s not good.” No, not really. I bent down and grabbed the memory card that had popped out of it, the lens cap and some other tiny piece that wasn’t even worth holding on to. I examined the camera after my mom handed it to me while she kept apologizing. I could tell she was really upset, and although the expensive camera was mine and I had had it since college, I attempted to keep myself calm. It wasn’t worth making the situation worse and getting angry about it. The plastic part around the lens was cracked, and another plastic part was poking out a little that I couldn’t get to stay snapped together. Externally, it didn’t look too bad. I turned it on and found out that the zoom wasn’t working at all, and everything seen through the lens was blurry. I couldn’t tell what anything was. So that was the end of that. Luckily, I had my smaller Sony Cybershot camera that takes pictures and video, so at least I still had something to use. Trying not to dwell on that, I decided to focus on spotting Lee so I could calculate how much time I could wait in line. We waited until about 1:15pm or so before Lee showed up and we got in line. I was hoping to get Lee’s autograph so I could give him his drawing of Ravage, but the line was going waaay too slow and I didn’t want to miss the ReBoot Q&A Panel. We left and went up two floors for the panel, bumping into Josh again. He reassured us that ReBoot was going to be in the two rooms where the video screen was pulled down. So we waited there, not knowing that we could’ve gone inside and grabbed some decent seats before the crowds showed up. We both got stuck standing against the wall to the left of the room. This panel was one of the best I have ever been to at any convention. The guests included the co-creator of ReBoot Gavin Blair, Micheal Donovan (who voiced Mike the TV, Phong, and Cecil), Shirley Millner (who voiced Hexadecimal), Garry Chalk (who voiced Slash, Turbo, Al’s waiter and others), Ian James Corlett (who voiced Bob at some point in the show), Sharon Alexander (who voiced adult AndrIa), Paul Dobson (who voiced Matrix), Scott McNeil (who voiced Hack), and Michael Benyaer (who also voiced Bob) who wasn’t there in person but on the screen they had where he could see some of us and hear everything from Los Angeles. The panel was a riot and I think just about everyone had some great questions about the show and about Beast Wars. It was a LOT of fun, to say the least.
When the panel was over, it was time for us to go back to the dealer room where they were going to be holding autographs for “Storm Hawks.” I didn’t know Scott was going to be there because I was originally waiting for Brian Drummond, but since he never showed up, I figured I’d give Scott his drawing of Silverbolt. The autograph lines were miserable and probably the worst part of the convention simply because no one was there to enforce people to keep moving in a timely manner. We were probably in line for about thirty to forty-five minutes, and that was a SHORT line. By the time it was our turn to get autographs, it was already time for the ReBoot guests to start signing which was about 4:30pm, and not all of them showed up right away. In any case, Garry made it along with another ReBoot guest and we chatted a little while I waited for my turn with Scott. Well, he already knew why I was there. He saw the paper bag I put down and said, clapping his hands and bouncing in his chair, “What do I get? What do I get?” I said, “You know what you get!” and laughed, handing him his drawing of Silverbolt. He took it slowly and stared at it for a bit before getting Garry’s attention. “I have a copy of it and a copy of the Dinobot drawing you stole from my friend a couple years ago at MechaCon that you can sign for me if that’s okay,” I told him and he didn’t say anything, he just kept staring at the ‘Bolt drawing. “Or you could stare at Silverbolt for another half an hour,” I joked. “I could stare at this all day,” he said. I laughed. While both he and Garry looked at it, they spoiled me with compliments, and when Scott set it down to sign my copies, Garry did the unthinkable. He grabbed the Silverbolt drawing and stood up, holding it high above his head in his hands for everyone in the autograph line to see and said, “My fiend Candice here drew this, and she’s the greatest artist ever!” Modest and bashful as I am, I didn’t know what to say, and I was NOT expecting that. I looked at the people in line, waved, and said thank you for their comments and some of their applauding as I bowed my head. I must have been bright red. After things calmed down, Scott explained to me that he would’ve done the Transmetal two Dinobot a lot differently had he known ahead of time what he was going to look like because I made a comment about him resembling Jay Leno. He got it right away making a gesture with his hand and a long chin. I asked for a photo and he never declines, but when he got up he gave me a heartfelt thank you and I said he was more than welcome and that he deserved it because he’s always so sweet, and he gave me a great big long hug. “Oh, you smell good!” he said after the hug. “Do I?” and I fluttered my hand around my neck to give off more of my body spray. He took another deep whiff and we laughed. When we were finally done, we had to get back in line because Ian and a bunch of the other guests finally showed up. We were at the way end of the line, which sucked because it was probably going to be about two hours or so before we got back up there. I wished I could’ve just stayed up there until the others showed up because I was just getting photos anyway except for Ian’s drawing.
A young man was playing episodes of ReBoot at the end of the line, so at least we had something to watch, and everyone back there was indeed watching. Ha ha! At one point, Garry got up from the autograph tables and came to the end of the line to see the fans. He noticed the laptop and watched a little bit of the episode, yelling out back to the tables, “Hey, they have a TV back here playing ReBoot!” People in line laughed and cheered. He noticed us at the very end of the line, save for a couple people behind us, my tired expression half hidden by the paper bag as I leaned my chin on to the frames of the drawings I had left over carrying in my arms. I simply watched him walk over and wrap an arm around me. I can’t even remember what he said, I just laid my head against him and sighed in exhaustion. I knew there was a very long wait ahead of us and the guests had a lot of autographs and discussions for the fans. It was about 6:00pm when we moved through the line a little bit. The Meet and Greet Dinner at the Mariott Renaissance Hotel had started at 5pm, and we were a little frustrated that we were still in line missing the dinner that we paid $40 each for a ticket. We hadn’t eaten since breakfast, our arms, lower backs and shoulders were sore and tired of carrying the bags of clothes we had to change for the dinner and my drawings, and it was cold in the room the entire time. But if the guests were willing to stay and finish, then so was I because I didn’t know who would be there on Sunday. Since they were all there now, I wasn’t going to take the chance of someone or a few of them not showing up the next day. Somewhere along the line, Scott got a pirate costume and was wearing it the rest of the autograph session. Ha ha! He walked around a little and posed for photos. A good looking pirate if I may say so myself. Ha ha! Garry noticed us closer in the line again and asked, “Haven’t you been through here already?” I said, “Yeah, but we’re here for the other guests that showed up.” Scott was saying that he didn’t like it that they were told to make conversations brief with everyone because it was closing time for the exhibition room. Those waiting at the end of the line deserved just as much time with them as the people who were in front, and he was going to stay all night if he had to and give all of the fans what they came there for. Rock on, Scott! Finally getting to the guests, it was almost 7:00pm. My first photo was with Paul Dobson, who was a real gentleman, then Gavin Blair who was another wonderful English man, and Sharon who was just as sweet as her character from ReBoot. After her I gave Ian Corlett his drawing of first season Cheetor. He was such a nice guy and thanked me, agreeing for a photo. It was such a pleasure to meet him. The last photo I got was with Shirley whom I just loved her voice and bubbly personality. She was a real sweetheart. The rest of the line consisted of Garry and Scott, whom I had already bothered earlier so I left them alone. While I was putting away my signed copy from Ian, I heard my mom asking Garry if he was still going to the dinner and he said he would try. Well, we were starving so we were definitely going but we still needed to change. Since the Centre security ushered us out to the exit of the room, we decided we’d change in the bathrooms that were right outside of the exhibition room. In a rush, we got out and left the Centre asking a nice gentleman who was holding the door where the Mariott Renaissance Hotel was. He pointed us in the right direction and we briskly walked a couple blocks from there.
We dropped off our bags and my left over drawings at the coat check and headed up to the third floor where the Meet and Greet dinner was being held in the Renaissance. I grabbed a Pepsi as soon as we walked in to the dinner because I felt dehydrated. Soon after we bumped into Garry who said we were smoking hot in our clothes, his “hot babes from Pennsylvania.” Ha ha! Even though it was about 8pm, there was still some food for us to nibble on so my mom and I found an empty table and put our drinks and purses down. We grabbed some food and noticed Josh was there, along with many of the other ReBoot guests like Scott, Sharon, Shirley, Ian, Gavin, and Lee was there as well. It was fantastic. We took our food and sat our table to finally relax for the day. Garry spotted us in the quiet corner and meandered on over to sit with us with his food. We chatted about food, traveling, and I told him how well my older sister did on her horse show on Thursday thanks to the text she had sent me earlier. He was happy for her. The “boyfriend inquiry” also came up, thanks to Garry. I honestly told him that I hadn’t found one yet but that I hadn’t really been looking right now in my life. I told him, “I’m young and I’m in no hurry,” while my mom proceeded to say that at my age she was already married with kids. Hah! And then my mom talked about the crow she saved earlier in day at the sky train station. Garry said that his wife wanted to ask me to do a commission for her and I said that would be great! But I would need to know what she wanted done. So he said she’d send me an e-mail about it. Garry insisted that he would make me famous one day with my artwork, and couldn’t fathom why I wasn’t already selling prints and making tons of money. The only two words that came to my mind were “unrecognized talent.” We were back and forth at our table the entire time and mingled about. I caught up to Josh and asked if he wanted to take that photo of him, Garry and I and he said yes but that he wanted to get one with Ian first before he ran off. So Josh gave me his phone and he asked Ian to pose with him doing Goku’s famous attack from Dragon Ball Z, and I had actually subconsciously did it myself while I was taking the photo. Shirley noticed that and was laughing with me about it. Then we grabbed Garry and he held me close commenting that I was kind of hot and I said, “KIND of hot?” And he said, “Okay, REALLY hot,” and we laughed. Josh stayed with us and we took a fun photo together. We relaxed a little bit after that and then mingled again. I was walking up to the table with the bread and fruit and noticed Scott sitting nearby so I pretended to jump in surprise when I saw him and he gave me the same expression. I just laughed and waved. Garry came to the table the same time I did and since I already had a pair of forks in my hands, I pretended to grab the piece of fruit he was going to take and we almost ended up having a fork fight. Ha ha! We walked back to our table and munched on our fruit. He noticed the empty table nearby had some little desserts left over, so he grabbed them and ate them. Ha ha! He cracks me up. Eventually he went off to talk to others, and I grabbed some bread and stood outside on the narrow porch next to our table. A seagull flew in on to the glass roof over the patio below and I started tossing it some pieces of my bread. It was real timid for a seagull, so it took its time cautiously walking over the glass and swallowing the pieces whole. Things were beginning to wrap up around 8:40pm or so. Garry demanded that we see the Chinese Night Market on Keefer Street so we promised we would but that would also mean that we’d have to leave soon because we didn’t want to be wandering the dark streets even though he said it was pretty safe in that neighborhood. He himself was leaving to go home and relax since his formerly injured leg was getting real sore. We hugged with our goodnights and Garry held on to me saying he’d like to keep me on a leash. I laughed and just kept hugging him back saying, “You’re so huggable. You’re like a teddy bear.” And he said, “So are you, my dear.” We parted and he gave my mom a hug and a kiss before he walked off wishing goodnight to other friends and fans. We left a little afterward and headed back to our hotel. My feet were killing me and I could NOT wait to take off my heeled sandals.
Once we were back from the dinner and our sky train ride, we changed back into the clothes we were originally wearing for that day, which was when I discovered I left one of my shirts in the bathroom at the Convention Centre! I couldn’t believe that I had done that! But I had got it real cheap at Wal-Mart so I didn’t care that much about it. So we finally headed down to the Night Market. It was really quite nice. It was like Musik Fest in Bethlehem only smaller but just as crowded. My mom and I ended up buying two t-shirts that had Vancouver, BC, Canada on them before we decided to head back when we saw all the stands. There was a lot different merchandise there, anything from socks and underwear to freshly cooked food, toys and bonsai trees. At about 10:00pm, we began walking back to the Sandman, stopping at the Classical Chinese Garden to see its hours for Sunday because I really wanted to check it out. We got back to our hotel and settled in for the night, ready for one more day of the convention and our last full day in Vancouver.
The crow my mom helped at the sky train station:
This one of the coolest cosplays I saw there; Dot from ReBoot. Awesome!:
I took this one for you, Wonko, because of your signature
I laughed everytime I saw it walking around:
The big and highly anticipated ReBoot panel. SOrry the photo is so dark. They dimmed the lights for the screen. From left to right: Gavin Blair (co-creator), Michael Donovan (Phong, Cecil, Mike the TV), Shirley Millner (Hexadecimal), Garry Chalk (Slash, Turbo, Al's Waiter), Ian James Corlett (Bob, and Cheetor from Beast Wars/Beast Machines, and Goku from Dragon Ball Z), Sharon Alexander (adult AndrIA), Paul Dobson (Matrix/adult Enzo), Scott McNeil (Hack from ReBoot, Rattrap/Dinobot/Waspinator/Silverbolt from Beast Wars/Beast Machines), and Michael Benyaer (Bob) on the screen:
A short video clip of Garry and Scott improvising with their characters from ReBoot. Scott did do all of his voices from Beast Wars, but those videos are all over YouTube because he does them at like every convention
, so I chose to show this one instead even though it's too dark to really see anyone:YouTube Video: Hack & Slash
Me with Scott McNeil after I gave him his drawing of Silverbolt:
One of the other best cosplays was Captain Jack Sparrow. This guy acted excatly like him, spoke exactly like him and looked a lot like him. I was impressed and had a blast getting his attention:
Eventually Scott was wearing a pirate costume as well. Never found out why but he had fun with it for the cameras while I was in line:
Me with Paul Dobson (Matrix/Adult Enzo):
Me with Gavin Blair (co-creator of ReBoot, Binky):
Me with Sharon Alexander (adult AndrAIa), and Gavin gave me bunny ears!
:
Me with Ian James Corlett (Cheetor):
Me with Shirley Millner (Hexadecimal):
Me with Garry, and Josh Goring at the Meet & Greet dinner:
A nice photo of Josh, me and my mom that Garry took with Josh's phone:
The Chinese Night Market that my mom and I checked out after the dinner:
And the science dome lit up at night:
Sunday, June 14th, 2009
Another gorgeous day in Vancouver! Well, it was a little cloudy with a chilly breeze, but it would warm up later with lots of sun. When we stepped outside at about 9:15am, we realized we’d be more comfortable if we were wearing jackets so we went back up to our room before we got far and grabbed them, then came back down and made our way to the sky train with our normal routine. There were supposed to be autographs at 11:00am, so we wanted to get down to the Centre’s area before then for breakfast at Timmy’s (or Tim Horton’s). I had a European style cheese croissant with two triple chocolate cookies and a small hot chocolate. Delicious! Then about 10:30am, we headed into the Convention Centre and went straight for the exhibition/dealer room. Since we were there too early, we walked around the dealer tables and checked out some really nice artwork and neat little knickknacks. That only took about 15 minutes, so we still had to wait another 15 until 11am. At about 10:55am, a staff member showed up and explained that autographs for Brian Drummond and a few others were going to be held in room 202 instead of the dealer room. Aye! We booked it back the two flights of escalators and hopped into 202 where there was still a panel going on. With nothing else to do but wait, we sat down and had fun with it. This panel had Vincent Tong, Mark Hildreth (voice of Heero Yuy from Gundam Wing), Aidan Drummond, Brian Drummond (voice of Jetstorm from Beast Machines, Zechs from Gundam Wing, Vegeta from DBZ) and Brad Swaile (voice of Trowa from Gundam Wing). The guests did photos and autographs after the panel, and I caught Brian Drummond and his family just before they were leaving the room. I handed Brian my drawing of Jetstorm and he was just simply astounded over my artwork and I was very grateful. He gave me many thank you’s, showed it to his family, signed my copy and took a photo with me. I said thank you and he returned another so I said he was very welcome.
After that was another ReBoot Q&A panel, and I knew it was going to be just as fun as it was yesterday. There were fewer guests, but it was still a good time. And the only drawing I had left to give away was Lee Tockar’s, so everything was going well. We waited about a half an hour until guests starting showing up for the panel. My mom went to ask a staff member if the autographs would be held back in the dealer room and they confirmed that. While she was over at the doors asking, Garry came in and waved to me. I waved back and stood up, walking over to the aisle he was coming down through. “Did you get to the Chinese Night Market last night?” he asked. I said, “Yes, we did!” “What did you think? It’s nice, isn’t it?” he asked. And I answered, “It was very nice! A little smaller than our Musik Fest back in Bethlehem, but I had fun.” He was pleased to hear that. My mom came over and Garry went on about having another busy day as he stretched. Then he walked back out doing his own thing and we sat down in our seats waiting for the panel to begin. This time it only had Scott, Garry, Gavin, Michael Donovan, Sharon and Michael Benyaer. We heard some of the same stuff from yesterday but there were some new stories as well that some of them remembered. It was still a lot of fun. At about 1:25pm, my mom and I snuck out because Lee Tockar was originally supposed to be doing autographs from 12:30pm to 1:30pm, and the ReBoot panel was supposed to be done by 1:30pm. We hauled it down both escalators and hurried into the dealer room, passing Richard Ian Cox, where we found no one for autographs. I asked the two staff members where Lee was supposed to be because I had a gift for him. They said he was in a panel back on the floor where we just came from. I sighed with a thank you to them and we ran back up both escalators. Just outside of the room he was in, we found Lee doing a couple autographs so I walked up and handed him his drawing of Ravage from Beast Wars. He seemed to be overwhelmed and couldn’t stop thanking me. He was just so incredibly sweet and appreciative. I kept welcoming him and he hugged me, signed my copy, hugged again and took a photo. He also did a little of Ravage’s Russian accent and I loved it. Lee was simply awesome. He asked if I had done anything with the Artist’s Alley there at the convention and I said I hadn’t. “Why not?” he asked. I replied, “I didn’t have time before the convention to sign up.” He gave me the name of a woman he said I should contact and then asked one of the fans nearby if she still had a card with the woman’s name and e-mail. She did and she handed it to me, so I jotted it down in my programming guide. Lee told me to e-mail her and tell her that he sent me to contact her. I was so grateful, I didn’t know what to say but to thank him a hundred times. We just kept thanking each other back and forth. Ha ha! When he left, my mom spotted Richard Ian Cox and asked if I wanted a photo with him. Yes, I did, and I had a message from a friend on the Beast Wars International message board that I told them I’d give Richard. He was also chatting with Garry, whose back was toward me, so I came up behind him and innocently gave him bunny ears while he spoke with him and another guest. Richard started “ooo-ing” at me and the others laughed. I walked past Garry who said to my mom and I, “They’re back!” “Yes, we are!” I smiled. Right after that he had to go do something, so he walked away and I was able to get a photo with Richard and chat a little with him. He’s really so sweet and funny. I told him, “A friend of mine from the internet told me to tell you that Cris Hernandez says hi.” He looked at me and said, “Oh, from Toronto!” I said, “Oh, good, then you know who I’m talking about,” and I laughed with relief. For some reason he thought we were from California, so we surprised him in correcting him that we were from Pennsylvania. After that, we headed down the other flight of escalators and while we were going down, we passed Garry who was going up. He was on his cell phone but when he saw us, he asked, “What are you guys doing?” And I said, “What are YOU doing?” “I’m just getting a bite to eat. I’ll be right back. Will you be downstairs?” he asked. I said yes and we waited for him in the lobby. When he came back down, I don’t think he saw us, so we caught up with him outside when he sat down on one of the steps. “So what are you guys up to?” he inquired. “We’re going to check out the Chinese Garden before it closes today,” I said. My mom asked, “And do you know if that nature store is open today?” I added, “Yeah, that Hill’s Native store?” He said, “Yes, they’re open today,” and he gave us quick directions to get there. We were pretty sure where it was but Garry always likes to help out. It was good to be reassured that we were on the right track. He said he was going to be busy with the autographs soon and that later on he was meeting some friends from Massachusetts. We thought that was cool that they were traveling even further than we had, and we commented that we’s Yankees were takin’ over Vancouver. Ha ha! He got up and gave us hugs. He said he’d give us a call later on and figure out if he had any time for anything after he’d be with his friends.
We went back to our hotel for our own busy afternoon. We checked out the Classical Chinese Garden which was absolutely beautiful and incredibly peaceful. I took tons of photos, of course. After that, we returned to Gastown to that Hill’s Native store and bought several souvenirs for my siblings and their significant others. I could have bought dozens of things there but much of it was on the pricier end and we couldn’t afford to buy too much.
Once we got back to our hotel, we decided to order the movie “Knowing” because all we wanted to do at that point was relax. I fell asleep a little more than halfway through it since I was getting tired again, but then our room phone rang and my mom was too slow to pick it up in time. The only person we knew of that would be calling would be Garry, so we assumed it was him. I called his cell phone about a half an hour later to see if he had been trying to get a hold of us. He said he didn’t and that he was eating dinner with his friends. I apologized for bothering him and he said it was nothing to worry about. Oh well. He said he’d call back later when he was done with his dinner. Thirty minutes probably went by when my mom said she was going to check out the Sandman’s bar and grill and print our airline tickets. Garry called me back about five or ten minutes later saying he was still at dinner but he was taking a break and thought he’d call. He asked how I was, what I was doing, what my mom was doing, and said he really wanted to come to our neck of the woods sometime. I told him that would be great if he did, and he said he might take a road trip if things don’t pick up. He wished us a safe flight, said he’d e-mail me on Monday about his wife’s commission and to make sure we got back safely. He’s such a sweetheart. I thanked him for everything, and right when I got off the phone with him, my mom came in extremely irritated. Evidently she couldn’t get the computer to print our airline tickets, so we’d have to try it again before we went out for dinner. We got down to the front desk and must have stood there for twenty minutes or so before the person trying to help us got her manager who finally had everything printed that we needed. She was obviously upset and it didn’t help that my mom was getting snappy. There were several people in line waiting for their turn and I just wanted to walk away. When we finally had everything under control, we went up the street to the library block and checked out the bar and grill there for dinner. Both of us ordered some beef sandwiches with mashed potatoes, which were really good, but we couldn’t finish them. We took them in a doggy bag and since we weren’t really planning on eating the rest of the sandwiches, we quietly dropped off the doggy bag under a homeless man’s cart whom was sleeping there, and then returned to our hotel room. I worked on my report the rest of the night and didn’t go to bed until 12:30am.
A Jedi:
A little bit of a panel I caught while waiting to find out where Lee Tockar was doing autographs. From left to right Vincent Tong, Mark Hildreth (Heero Yuy from Gundam Wing), Aidan Drummond, Brian Drummond (Jetstorm from Beast Machines, Vegeta from Dragonball Z, Zechs from Gundam Wing), and Brad Swaile (Trowa from Gundam Wing):
Me with Brian Drummond after I gave him his drawing of Jetstorm:
Another ReBoot panel. From left to right Scott McNeil, Garry Chalk, Gavin Blair, Michael Donovan and Sharon Alexander, and also with Michael Benyaer on the screen again:
I found G.I.R.!:
Me with Lee Tockar (Ravage from Beast Wars) after I gave him his drawing of Ravage:
Me with Richard Ian Cox (Inuyasha from Inuyasha):
Another cosplayer playing the violin:
And after the convention, my mom and I checked out the Classical Chinese Garden while it was open:
Monday, June 15th, 2009
The alarm clock and my cell phone’s alarm (as back up) went off at 3:30am. It was time for us to get up, grab our luggage, get to the lobby and check out. William called us in our room just to make sure we were up. It was a little early, so we didn’t rush, but we got down there and met him and he helped putting our luggage into his car. Off we went to the airport, and I was sad that we were leaving so soon. Next time it will be a full week long vacation there because there’s just so much to do! Well, anyway, after chatting outside with William for a while, we finally exchanged hugs and said our goodbyes. Once we walked into the airport, we found our airline check in and discovered that everything we went through on Sunday evening before our dinner trying to get our airline tickets at our hotel was a complete waste of time. At the airport, all we had to do was slide our passports through the computer and it easily, hassle-free, printed our tickets. Un-be-lievable. I just shook my head and tried to forget all the frustration I had endured at the hotel for those same tickets. After we checked in, we stood in line until Customs opened and then effortlessly made it through. Passing a Timmy’s on our way to our terminal (breakfast, thank God!), we grabbed some food. I bought a nice big bagel with cream cheese and a small carton of milk. It was perfect before our flight.
There was a little overcast when we left the Vancouver airport but clear skies on our way back to Chicago. It actually felt strange to leave so soon but I also missed my pets a LOT and couldn’t wait to show my siblings my photos and videos and give them their gifts. We had about an hour overlay once we landed in Chicago, so we bought some candy; a Snickers bar for me, Raisinettes for both of us, a pretzel for my mom, and soda. I checked my voice mail since I remembered I could access it now that we were back in the States and smiled at Garry’s message he had left since Thursday evening. My mom and I boarded our flight to Pennsylvania and we were homeward bound. It was a good flight, although we seemed to be a lot further north than we should’ve been. In any case, we landed around 5:00pm EST right after a storm system had blown through; talk about timing! I later learned that it had brought a lot of hail where I work but at home it was only rain. It was sunny by the time we pulled out of the airport parking lot and headed home in my mom’s Jeep.
More photos on our flight from Vancouver to Chicago:
Leaving from Chicago to Pennsylvania:
Yah have fun?
we gotta work on that OOP. lol! So wait, do you talk to Garry on the phone and stuff? 
