Sunday got off to a bit of a rocky start, as possibly due to the over-caffination of Starbucks beverages, Val developed a wicked headache during the night that my travel ibuprofen couldn't touch. He got up to take a shower because that has often helped his headaches in the past, but didn't realize that the way the Henley Park's shower curtains hang, a great deal of the water flowed out of the shower onto the floor, completely flooding the bathroom and some of the bedroom, including my makeup trunk which I had left open in the bathroom. He finally had to call me for help once he realized the flooding had gone past his efforts to contain it. On the down side, this cost me a little bit of sleep. On the plus side, the inside of my makeup trunk had never been cleaner! We got back to sleep and by the time we got up in the morning, Val's headache had broken. Thank goodness for small favors. Unfortunately, this meant we slpet a little later, and it took a little longer to get packed and dressed, so we didn't get to check out until 11:30, and we didn't make it to the convention until noon.

After Fory had left, Val and I met up with the girls--Lady Somairot was dressed as Yor from Spy x Family, which I still really really need to see, and Lauren and Stevie were dressed as Marle and Lucca from Chrono Trigger, which I still need to finish one of these days. Alyce and Beth were dressed as femme versions of Crowley and Aziraphale from Good Omens, which I technically saw but still need to finish, and now you know just how out of date I am. We took a few pictures of each other, and then Lady Terentia offered to take pictures of Val and I as Ryu and Chun Li in front of the bamboo planters on the upper floor, since that seemed like an appropriate backdrop for the two of them. Despite having dated for a while now, I think I took Val by surprise with just how high I could kick, and just how willing I was to kick high. But we got some great photos thanks to Teren.

Alania had checked out of her hotel but wasn't quite ready to go home yet, so we took a chance to see if the Marriott would be willing to check her bags--and they were! So we were blessed with some extra time together. Lady Terentia and I's first order of business was to finish the stamp rally! We had learned that they were out of prizes by pretty much the first day, but we wanted to continue playing anyway--the game is really worth more than the prize. We also thanked the staff for putting on the rally, and told them how much we enjoyed being informed of or reminded of parts of the con we never or rarely go to. It really was a neat idea.

We decided to do a last tour of the Dealer's Room to do our final shopping. I really wanted to get my hands on a 30th Anniversary Crabby pin, so Val, Alania and I got on line for the official merch booth. Sadly almost all of the 30th anniversary pins, including the Crabby, were sold out, and I couldn't bear to have stood in that line so long and walk away with nothing...so I ended up buying Crabby his own, smaller Crabby, who at Beth's suggestion we have named Krebschen. There are now fierce arguments being waged among my friends and family over who is cuter, Crabby or Krebschen, but really I am the winner because they are both cute. (And then it turned out Aki Reinii had bought us all pins, and had originally intended the 30th Anniversary Crabby pin to go to Lady Terentia, but Teren wanted me to have it for my Crabby Ita bag more than she wanted to have it, so THANK YOU TEREN! I really should get you a pin in return.)

We found Doc, and then looked for the rest of the girl to finish out Artist's Alley. I had never been in the Dealer's Room at closing time before, and it was interesting to watch vendors start to pack up their wares and break down their booths. I know one of the last places we went was some Lord of the Rings related booth, and they were urging us to take as much free swag as we could carry, so they wouldn't have to schlep it home.

One happy bonus: Val was surprised just how many people recognized him as Ryu and asked him for a picture. He had put his costume together himself, ordering his own karate uniform, black belt, and red headband off of Amazon, and then tearing the sleeves of the uniform and sawing at the armholes with a kitchen knife to give them the perfect ragged look. He didn't think it was anything special, but I think the nostalgia people feel for Street Fighter more than makes up for not having a 100% screen accurate costume. Besides, I thought he looked good.

Due to our late start it was already time to think about heading home, so Val and I said goodbye to everyone else, and Lady Terentia accompanied us back to the Henley Park Hotel so I could change, we could collect our bags and my car, and hit the road. The trip back took a bit longer than the trip down had, but it was relatively uneventful and really, having company for the drive really makes a big difference. Considering it was his very first convention and Val is something of an introvert, I thought he did very well--in fact, before we were home, he was even asking when we could see the girls again. Because honestly, that's the part that mattered to him the most. Well, that's true for me, too.

Because that's really why we go. I started writing convention reports 23 years ago, when I went to my first anime convention BAAF 2001, before I had a website for my cosplay. (In those days, the con reports resided on my now inactive Sailor Moon cosplay site, Sailor Moon Avatars.) Why did I write them? Because that's what everybody else did, I suppose. Partly it was because you went to these conventions, and you saw all of these cool costumes that made you want to take a picture, and then what did you do with those pictures back in the days before ubiquitous social media? Put them in an album to be forgotten about? No, you shared them, because half the fun of having your picture taken, was finding it online afterwards.

But the other reason was to let people know what the convention was like, ostensibly to help them decide whether or not they would like to attend that convention next year. Did they have good panels? Did they have good guests? Did they have a good time? And in fact, my first convention report attempts to touch on that: I mentioned prices in the Dealer's Room, what I watched (I actually went to a viewing), and the cosplay contest (which I even entered.) But already by my second report, I started writing about what I was doing with who, because who I was with was determining what I was doing. Because for me personally, the reason to attend Otakon year after year isn't because of the musical guests, or the anime debuts, or the panels--although don't get me wrong, those are all *amazing*. And if I were there by myself, I might check out more of them. But for me, Otakon is a really a costuming vacation with my friends. That means everything to me.