Leviosa Con report!

[alisanne]

I always vow that I'll post as the con is going on so I won't forget anyone, and then of course I get caught up in events and it doesn't happen. *sigh*
Anyway, this is how things went down, at least as I recall them. I admit I may have been drinking, so... ;)
Oh, and if I forgot to mention you specifically, it's only because I didn't know your LJ name.

So I got there
Wednesday:
I arrived a bit late because of a mechanical plane delay. What was wrong? Well, an exit sign was missing, and it took 45 mins to arrive from the warehouse. *rolls eyes* I'm pretty sure we all could have found our way off the plane without it, and I was about to go up and offer to make one with a sharpie and some paper, but then they finally let us board.
After that the flight was pretty uneventful. and when I landed in Vegas, I found lilyseyes by the luggage carousel.
After reunion squeeing and hugs, we walked what felt like 5 miles and caught a cab to the hotel, the Green Valley Ranch and Resort (henceforth GVH), which honestly? We decided was actually Malfoy Manor West.
Here's proof:

We checked in, but unfortunately our suite wasn't ready, so we decided to go to one of the bars and sample their wares. We both had a peach drink (I forget the name) that was yummy, and then we went to the lobby to wait for dementordelta, whose plane was also delayed. While we waited we ran into drinkingcocoa and Lita Skeeter. <3
Unfortunately, Delta got a bit lost, so we had to talk her into the hotel, and by we I mean the front desk guy, who initially was giving her directions to the casino parking lot (not sure why?) but we finally managed to get her to the hotel, yay!
And then we took her up to our suite which was, well sweet
Here's the view from our window:


Y'all, it was NICE.
After unpacking, we decided to have dinner in the hotel, so we ate at the seafood place.
I had sushi

Delta had fish tacos

Lily had a lobster roll

And we all had dessert.


After which we cruised the Vegas strip and boggled at all the lights before returning to the hotel to collapse.
On our way back into the hotel we ran into several people including emmagrant01 and drinkingcocoa. :)
That night was our most restful sleep I'd say. *g*


Thursday:
We had GVR's buffet breakfast with sassy_cissa, oldenuf2nb, piratesmile331, and managed to hug noeon and femmequixotic before they had to leave and do con things.

After breakfast, we went shopping for the suite decorations and food, came back to the suite to drop them off, and then went to registration where we ran into the lovely kellychambliss as well as akatnamedeaster (who gave me gorgeous art cards and candy), mywitch (who gave me Snape buttons! Eeee!) and teddyradiator (who I got to hug).

Because Kelly was in search of writcraft, several of us went with her to find Writ and in addition to finally meeting her, also met amorette and blithelybonny. There was much squeeage! :)

Deciding to take a break from the hotel, which was a bit smoky, Lily, Delta and I went out to Red Rock Canyon, which was beautiful!

And although we didn't see any big-horned sheep or wild horses, Delta did spot a chipmunk.

Returning to the hotel, we made a trip to the fabulous vendor room, we took our treasures back to the suite and then returned for dinner.

We milled about drinking Dracos, which were delicious (of course), until the Welcome Feast where we met up with again with Kelly and found celandineb, florahart, romaine24, andreanna, samtastic4, chaeche, and of course, Vladimir Snape. *g*

We were going to go to some game shows, but we ended up chatting with people instead and then returned to the suite to decorate for visitors.

Cel came by that night and we plotted our panel, which was fun.


Friday:
This was our big panel day, so we had pastries for breakfast, stopped by the Common Room to eat (and admire the art), and then had our first panel, "Perceptions and Misconceptions in HP".
It was a really through-provoking discussion, and I think it went really well. It also spawned some ideas for future panels. :)

We had lunch in the GVR's pizza restaurant with Cel's husband, after which we went to mod our next panel, "The Past, Present, and Future of Snarry". I may have to type up a separate report on that. :)

After that we went to a talk on "Past theories in Harry Potter", which is when I finally met and glomped the adorable fantasyfiend09. *g*

Returning to the suite, we then prepped for visitors, of which we had many including arynwy, keladry_lupin, cordelia_v, geoviki, vimeslady, pir8fancier, Samtastic, Chaeche, and Writ. If I forgot anyone else, I'm sorry, I was a bit distracted since I dashed out to go to the H/D meetup, where I finally met the delightful gracerene (BTW, the way I've been saying her name in my head is completely wrong), and hugged zeitgeistic (and HCGS *g*), and dysonrules. Of course everyone was there, and I just sat in the corner and fangirled quietly. Sadly, I missed officially meeting dicta_contrition, oakstone730, and oceaxe. :(

I then ran over to the costume ball, and managed to see the end of it when everyone came out for one last display of costumes. And that was where I began chatting with profmoody, who agreed to do a rarepair panel with me at Misti. She returned with us to the suite where we chatted into the night. :)


Saturday:
After GVR breakfast, we drove out to Boulder Dam and took a bit of a tour around.

It was hot, though (took this pic specifically for enchanted_jae, LOL)

But gorgeous nonetheless:

We returned to GVR and, after having dim sum for dinner at a local dim sum place, we went back and decided to stay in the rest of the day.

After attending "Vladimir Snape, Snapecase, and Snape", we ducked into the "Hillywood Show" panel, which was fun, and then, after some rest and relaxation, we got dressed for the Ball.

I will say the Ball was a bit of a disappointment because of the lack of decorations and vittles, but the people made up for that somewhat, and the specialty drinks were yummy, if expensive. But it was nice to see everyone, like vaysh (who is adorable, you guys!), sesheta_66, cleo_jay, red_rahl, and these characters:

and, since we went back to the suite pretty early, we invited a bunch of people to stop by and several did including gatewaygirl, ravenna_c_tan, Arynwy, Trina, and Vladimir and his crew. We then proceeded to have the most hilarious time reading some ridiculous fic summaries.
Then Vladimir (pictured above) decided to stop by and having him read them as Snape... Well, I'm surprised we weren't thrown out of GVR for being too loud we were laughing so hard. *g*


Sunday:
I had to get up early, so I did *yawn* but the upside was that I made it to the "Adversarial Slash relationships" panel, which was run by Femme and bicrim amongst others, and which was great. Sadly, I missed chatting with Bicrim after because I had chores. ;)
I had to help Sassy_Cissa pick out a wand, and then we went to the Leaving feast, where we lingered for a while before taking one last stroll through the vendor room to pick up some last minute items (like Slytherin soap and some adorable Hedwig earrings).

We then went out to the Vegas strip one more time to look around. We tried to get into the Aquarium in Mandalay Bay but there was a computer conference there and the line was ridiculous, so we left, went shopping for cheap souvenirs, and then headed back to GVR for their buffet dinner, which, I must say, was delicious.

We hung in the suite and people wandered in and out. We did have some interesting conversations, and I think (hope) I talked Arynwy into writing more (Snarry).


Monday:
Sadly we just got up, packed up the last few things, and headed to the airport. Happily all our planes were on time, so we all got home when expected, I think. It was nice to sleep in my own bed, I must say.

And now I am suffering some serious con drop. I can't wait for Misti!
Also, for anyone who read all that, you deserve a reward. <3
If I forgot you, please know it wasn't deliberate, I was just a bit overwhelmed in a good way. (I just know I'll remember something as soon as I post this :P).

Anyway, I hope EVERYONE comes to Misti next May! Cons are awesome!

♥♥♥♥

Comments

[adafrog]

Very cool.

[alisanne]

♥
Thanks, dear!