Well, we've traveled by bus, we've traveled by car, it was time for a new method of transport: let's try Amtrak!

Oh, wow, we should have done this YEARS ago. To be fair, it's much more expensive (at least double) than taking Greyhound. And to get the cheapest tickets, you have to travel in the off-hours, so we ended up waking up far earlier than we would've liked on Friday morning. Earlier than we needed to, in fact, but we wanted to make sure all of our bags were acceptable carry-ons, and whatnot. But we were guaranteed seats, we left on time, the ride was unbelievably smooth, there was a snack car...basically, it was worth every penny.

It was SO WEIRD. Almost like being invisible. We didn't run into anybody we knew--which I wasn't too unhappy about, I didn't even have my makeup on yet...I believe I might have even been wearing my glasses (in preparation for putting in my violet contacts for Mars later that day.) Nobody stopped to look at or talk to us. We stopped a few people for pictures, and they acquiesced, but there was noticeably less small talk than taking pictures while in costume yourself. Very interesting.

After making a quick tour of the con center to refamiliarize ourselves with the layout, Louis and I decided to grab some lunch and call our families to let them know we had gotten in safely. We headed out into the streets of Baltimore, and found a Subway, which amused me because I eat Subway every weekday at 1 PM when I meet Louis for lunch at work. But the funniest part was yet to come: halfway through a sentence Louis's eyes seemed to glaze over, and he stared over my shoulder at something. The wallpaper in the fast food joint was of the subway lines of New York, and his line was right behind me! His home stop was right over my shoulder! So, of course, we had to take a picture.

By this point we had killed enough time so we'd be able to check in, so we headed back to the hotel. It was around this time that I tried to make a test phone post to my LiveJournal...and couldn't. No matter what I did, I must have my settings wrong. So none of Otakon 2007 was recorded live, unfortunately, so this con report might not be as accurate as some of the ones I've done in the past.

So, back to the hotel. Louis got dressed as Vash (you know, for a change), and I got dressed as Silver Millennium Princess Mars. I don't normally wear the same costume to the same con more than once, but I've only ever worn this costume once, and I really wanted some pretty matching photos with mah Princess, Usagi Kou. Plus, I really wanted to do a photoshoot with Pat Gavin, because I adore his photos, and had never worked with him before. Plus, I had violet eyes now!

We got to the con, went to the fountains, and found an impromptu (I think? I completely forgot to check photoshoots on Cosplay.com before leaving) Sailor Moon shoot already in progress, so I started snapping away. And handing out business cards for Sailor Moon Avatars. And soon I stopped snapping photos, because there were just so MANY Sailor Moon cosplayers, I was overwhelmed! I was really happy about that, though. I've noticed Sailor Moon cosplay has been kind of dying out the past few years, which is understandable, given how old the show is, and how many new animes are out now, but it was still sad to see it go, and I'm so happy it seems to be coming back in vogue again.

I found Usa, we hugged, she introduced me to Nick, I introduced him to Louis, hugs went all around, we caught up (we hadn't seen each other in a few months), and all the while flashes kept going off. I got to see David Ng running the photoshoot for Moonlight Illusion, with Avian Firefly, Christa, Yunie, Lady Ava, and more cosplayers I don't know but would like to. We also found some of Lou's friends, Rob and "Jailbait" and all that group, who Lou was very happy to see. (He loves being surrounded by beautiful women as much as the next straight guy, but sometimes you need some testosterone to bond with.) I also ran into my friend Kellie, who I hadn't seen since last year's Otakon, and met Caloris for the first time.

We decided to take a look at the Dealer's Room before anything else, so we headed down there...and had no trouble whatsoever getting in with our bookbags. (See my AnimeNEXT 2007 con report if you want to know why I bring this up.) As usual, the Dealer's Room was HUGE! Plenty of anime, plenty of manga, plenty of video games, plenty of statues and figurines. There were also at least two booths for Elegant Gothic Lolita wear, and there was one girl on Friday who was working one of the booths who had a royal blue EGL dress that was to DIE for...so I didn't even DARE asking her how much it cost. Really, I don't have $1000 to spend on a dress...and I could easily see this one costing that much. But it was beautiful.

So, eventually, we collected Usa, and Kayla, and Rhi, and Lauren and Pat Gavin, and made our way to the outside fountains to do our photoshoot. (And Lou ran off and did an impromptu photoshoot with Rob of his own.) We had a great time! Usa and I always have a good time just talking about whatever, and Kayla's off-the-wall antics and comments are perfect for ruining a serious mood in a picture when she makes you burst out into laughter, and Rhi just comes up with the best poses, and Lauren and her sister have the most entertaining stories, and all the while Pat is snapping away with a serious face, because cosplay is serious business and the chatter of silly girls doesn't faze him in the least. It was a lot of fun, and we got some GREAT photos.

We finished up the photoshoot both because the sun was setting, and because Louis and I had our long-standing date to keep: dinner at The Wharf Rat right across from the convention center.

As we were leaving, I ended up running into Selphy Kitty and Amanda! I was glad I got to see them, even if I didn't recognize Amanda right away--hey, cosplayers are always in costumes and wigs! Plus she had a really rocking new haircut.

So, Louis and I continued on to The Wharf Rat, and had our usual wonderful laid-back dinner, and from there went back to our hotel room and collapsed. The next morning I found out Joel and at least one other person had called me to invite me out to room parties during the night, and I had slept right through the phone! We must've been dead tired!

Louis as Vash.

A serious pose.

"And now a fun one!" (With thanks to Eddie Izzard.)