After yesterday being such a long day, we decided to sleep in a little. Well, the alarm went off at 8:30am, but Sam and I lazed in bed until 9:30am when we decided that rather than run ourselves ragged today we were just going to stay at the hotel, rest, catch up on the internet stuff and just recoup after the big weekend we had.

When we got dressed and headed downstairs with the intent to go to breakfast at Pine Grove, we caught up with one of the girls we’d been talking to over the weekend. She was packed and ready to go, so we stopped to say goodbye. She unwrapped a Supernatural Charm Bookmark that she bought to wear as a necklace (it’s a visual thing) and wrapped it around my neck.

“I can easily order a new one,” she said. “You can’t.” It’s adorable. One end has a pentagram and the other end has a Colt Revolver, to symbolise The Colt made by Samuel Colt in Supernatural. It was pretty amazing. Then she introduced us to Tammy, who lives in San Antonio now, and we got talking. Tammy is one of the Volunteer supervisors for Creation Conventions, and is the “handler” for Jensen and Jared. No, I don’t have any “inside gossip” to share. But I can say this – the boys were happy with Sunday, so that makes me happy.

We did end up talking to Tammy and her friend “GI” Joe for like 5 hours. It was very entertaining and we talked about conventions and the differences in Australia, New Zealand and the US. Tammy also raises snakes. I know. I’m so not a fan. In fact, snakes terrify me. But she has two baby snakes, a ball python named Bub and a dumeril’s boa named Dagan. We got to meet Bub and Dagan, as this is a pet-friendly hotel. They’re about a two feet long. Bub will grow to around 3 or 4 feet, and Dagan will grow to about 6 feet long, though he’s the smaller of the two right now. And I did the unthinkable. I touched them. I didn’t hold them, oh my goodness no. But I did touch their scales. Bub felt soft like satin, but he has bigger scales than Dagan does. So when Dagan gets to full length he’ll feel almost like velvet. It was weird. But oddly felt like an accomplishment!

Tammy also said that we should volunteer at next year’s Chicago Convention for Supernatural. It would be free entry, but we’d still have to foot the bill for flights and food and things like that. We have her phone number and we’ll talk about it between now and San Antonio. We’re going to hook up with Tammy down there and get together to do something. This has me very excited, because I thought that this would be my only convention but the thought of being able to work one really has me excited. It’ll be very, very different to being a fan in the crowd, but that’s okay. I’ve done the whole package once, I don’t need to do it again.

Anyway after Tammy and her son, who is just charming by the way, headed back to San Antonio via Kansas, and Joe was on his way home (he lives here in Chicago), Sam and I braved the very cold wind to get some food for what was now a late lunch (it was around 3:30pm). Heading back to the hotel, we went upstairs and grabbed our computer stuff and spend the rest of the afternoon and night in the lobby online, catching up on things back home, our hockey teams, fantasy leagues and researching our travel requirements for tomorrow.

Tomorrow we’re off to Toronto via Buffalo. I can’t believe it has gone so fast! We’re up at 7am, checked out by 8am and on a shuttle to O’Hare International Airport to catch another shuttle to Midway International Airport for our flight to Buffalo International Airport, where we’ll more than likely catch a cab to the Greyhound Bus Station which will take us to Toronto on a bus, then it’s another cab ride more than likely to our hotel which is by the Toronto Pearson International Airport. It’s going to be yet another long day! Our flight out is at 11.05am. We should land at 1:45pm in Buffalo. Our bus is around 4pm I think. My book of our tickets and things is upstairs.

Now I have to go up and pack! Night all!

I’m writing this up now so I don’t forget anything!

This morning was the Jensen and Jared GOLD TICKET Breakfast. We got down to the ballroom on the lower level at 8am and were ushered in to find our table. We were served (well… buffet breakfast) food and allowed to eat before the main attraction arrived for a 15 minute QnA and monologue session. Jared came in first, wearing jeans and a checked shirt, while Jensen was in jeans and a black sweater – I think it’s cashmere (it’s really soft.. I’ll get to that).

The boys were on fire this morning. They talked about filming this season, and told a story of Samantha Ferris who plays Ellen Harvelle, a now hunter, when filming the episode that airs next week. Samantha isn’t as adept at the guns as the boys are as she’s not in every episode, and as the guns are filled with blanks, in the middle of shooting a scene her gun wouldn’t work and she just stopped and started swinging it around going “Mine’s not working!” and the boys are all dodging out of the way screaming “PUT THE GUN DOWN!” It was just SO FUNNY. SERIOUSLY. HILARIOUS RE-ENACTMENT.

Jensen said he’d do season 6 if it goes ahead. He spoke about The Curious Case of Dean Winchester, saying that all he thought of when he read the script was “WOHOO! Four days off!” Jensen talked about making Lazarus Rising and how they used crushed up oreo cookie for the dirt for when he punches his way out of the coffin, and how he’d forgotten to put in his ear plugs, so he was getting crumbs out of his ears for days. Jared couldn’t stop fiddling with the microphone, which was causing static noise and annoying Jensen who smacked him.

They answered a few questions, and spoke a little themselves but it was pretty short, because we had to get ready for the Jensen solo photo ops. I had a ticket for a Jensen solo photo op and a Duo photo op with both Jensen and Jared.We were herded into the ballroom to line up for the photos in rows and I was sitting next to sisters and we just started chatting away. They were really sweet!

Finally we got called, which is when the butterflies started, and we went into the lobby to line up. The line is moving pretty fast though, so that was awesome. When I went in for Jensen, he was nice and said “Hi,” after I said “Hi Jensen, how you doing?” He read my chest – which I know sounds … sleezy but I’m wearing a Dallas Stars t-shirt, so he just started GRINNING and put his arm around me for the photo. I said thanks and he said “You’re welcome!” and I walked out.

Then we went back to the ballroom to line up for the duo photos. When we went in this time, Jensen was on the left, Jared was on the right and I was in the middle. When it was my turn, I grinned and said, “My turn with the Texas boys!” and Jared read my shirt and said, “Dallas STARRRRS!?” all Texas twang. SO GOOD!

I grinned as I put one arm around each of their waists, (Jared put his arm around my shoulders, and Jensen put his arm around my waist) and said, “Seventeen years a fan, man!”

Jensen said quietly, “Oh WOW!”

Jared said, “I’m a fan of the Stars! Have been for years. Ever since they won!”

I laughed as I moved away and turned back and said, “I’ve been one longer than that, dude!” and then the security guys were all, “You need to move along ma’am!”

I laughed again because Jared had opened his arms wide and called out, “What about the Cowboys?!” SO FUNNY. Jenen was just watching, looking between us and at Jared like “Why did I bring you?”

I didn’t answer, just walked out of the room, grinning. Now I’m looking forward to the autograph session! Jared will hopefully remember me. Jensen too, probably.

I’ll edit to add to this post later, but I just wanted to write this up before I forget it!

ETA: J&J Panel, Julie, Rob And A Crappy Lunch!

So after the photo ops, we went back into the Jensen and Jared QnA panel, which was just awesome. Again, I’m not going into a lot of details because not a lot of you on here really want a play by play. But I guess the main points were that the boys were very comfortable being up on stage together for their full allotted hour (usually they do 30 minutes solo for one, then 30 minutes together and then the other does 30 minutes solo but not this year for whatever reason – I didn’t care, as long as they were here, that’s all I cared about!). They answered questions – some of them were the same as what was discussed in the morning breakfast VIP session. They answered questions from the audience. Jared joked a lot and Jensen has a very dry and sarcastic sense of humour!

They have astronomical chemistry together. Seriously. And Jensen honestly is just amazing. He’s just … I have no words. Really. Jared is a giant goofball. I have some notes put aside that I need time to go through and really just sort through them and edit this post – more for my own memories than anything else – at later time. I’m running on 3 hours sleep and it’s been a seriously long day, so my brain isn’t working too well right now.

Anyway at the end Jared auctioned off his Season 3 watch from Supernatural to help raise money for his mother’s students in San Antonio, Texas, for them to compete in a national scholastic and theatre based competition that Jared used to participate in when he was a student at high school. Jared started off the auction but Jensen just took it over and really did a spectacular job as an auctioneer. I honestly wish I had it on video because it was just impressive. The watch was sold for $3500, and Jared not only gave the lady who bought it the watch, but also the shirt off his sweaty back too! He was just humbled and stunned at the generosity of the fans.

So then the boys did their autograph lines, everyone went to Jared first, then Jensen. Neither of the guys were personalising, because it just takes too long, and I think they had a flight to catch back to Vancouver this afternoon because they were filming tomorrow. Anyway Jared grinned when he saw me again, and signed my t-shirt at the top exactly where I wanted Jensen to sign it.

I said to him, “Sign it anywhere up here, but please leave enough room for Jensen to sign it too.”

He grinned and said, “Pffft Jensen.” And then gave me the shirt back. Then he signed our John Winchester Diary book for us and we thanked him and headed over to join the end of Jensen’s queue which was going a lot slower. When we got there, we said hi to Jensen and he smiled and signed the shirt with the largest autograph on it.

I giggled and said, “Nice, that’s the biggest autograph on there! Awesome! Thanks!” and he looked up and grinned at me, giving me a wink before he signed my book for Sam. We said thanks again and then moved away from the desk.

We then decided to go for lunch. Big mistake. We were shown to Maxie’s the sports bar and grill of the hotel and suggested to try the Jared Burger or the Jensen Penne Pasta – a special they were putting on because of the Con. Anyway it took at least TEN MINUTES for us to be seated. Then our waiter either didn’t understand English or didn’t speak it – I’m guessing BOTH. We ordered drinks. Sam ordered a Sam Adams beer. I asked for a scotch & coke. Simple right? Apparently not. We also ordered two Jared Burgers.

Fifteen minutes later, a barman came over and asked how I wanted my scotch. Frowning, I replied, “In a glass?” The girls at our table said maybe he wanted to know if I wanted ice or something. I told the barman I wanted scotch, then coke, and on the rocks. Sounds easy, right?

I got scotch. On the rocks. I looked at it. And then I asked, “Where’s the coke?” There was no coke. Cynthia ended up buying me a coke to go with it and I mixed it myself because I didn’t trust them to get it right.

Thirty minutes after we ordered our meal, we still didn’t have it. They didn’t ask us how we wanted our meat cooked. We had to go back to the Con because Julie’s panel was starting, so Cynthia went up to cancel our order, and it was then that it arrived. The waiter had “medium well done burgers”. We said, no thanks, no one asked us how we wanted our meat, which was well done not medium well done, and we had to go and our order had been canceled. We ended up having our drinks given to us complimentary because the order was wrong, and we were given a voucher for 2 more complimentary drinks and a complimentary appetizer meal.

So, lunchless, we went to Julie’s panel, which had already started by that time, and made our way to our seats. Thankfully the ballroom was half empty. We didn’t get a lot of Julie’s panel and she had such a soft voice that we didn’t hear the other half so it was a little bit of a shambles really. But she seemed really sweet and beautiful. Someone did ask her if she could rate Jensen’s kissing ability out of 10, and she replied that it was rather technical because there were 30 people in the room when you’re half naked, it’s awkward and completely unromantic and just really not … it was like asking her to rate the entrance for scene 4. She couldn’t do it. That made me laugh that people just don’t get it. It’s not fun. It’s not really hot. It’s only supposed to LOOK that way.

Between Julie’s panel and the next one, we ducked outside while the last no-minimum bid auction was on, and took a look at the merchandise. As we didn’t overspend yesterday and infact under spent, we had enough money to buy a t-shirt each! So we did. Sam got a white long sleeved one with skulls and crosses and SUPERNATURAL written on it, and I got a black long sleeved one with Dean and Sam on the front, and SUPERNATURAL on the sleeve. AWESOME!

Rob Benedict was next, and his panel was really interesting because it was just like watching the Prophet Chuck at the Supernatural Convention on The Real Ghostbusters. It was Rob’s first convention and he was a little nervous at first. Actually it was kind of EXACTLY like watching it happen. But he was great! He talked about his other acting roles, most of which he couldn’t remember but the audience could, and his band, and answered some questions about Supernatural and said he didn’t know the answer to others.

But it was great. Once his panel was over, it was time for the photo ops and the autographs for both of them, which we didn’t have because you had to buy them separately. So that was it. The convention came to the end.

It was a very long day. Once the Con ended. We walked down to Pine Grove for dinner, came back to the hotel and got our complimentary drinks (Sam got a purple nurple as seen in the Tall Tales episode of Supernatural in season 2, which was the first episode to feature Richard Speight Jr, and I got a Dean-a-rita – GO TEQUILA!). Sam went upstairs to get the computers, but I stayed down to find my photo ops for Jensen and the Duo.

They are just MAGNIFICENT!! I can’t scan them in until I get to Bella’s place in Saskatoon, but Sam photographed them with one of the cameras we have and he’s placed that on the gallery. They’re not great, but they give you an idea of how they look, which is just AWESOME by the way!!

Anyway it’s now 12:30am and I’m running on fumes so I’ll sign off now and go to bed!

We apologise for the delay.  Day 12′s content will be coming in the next few hours, as we were up late last night partying with the celebrities. – Sam

Today was JAM-PACKED! First off the mark was Richard Speight Jr, who played (sorry for the spoiler) what we thought was a demi-god trickster, but it turns out he’s the Archangel Gabriel. He was just wonderful. He was funny and energetic and told this fantastic story about how he thought he was being pranked but it turned out to be a mistake. It involved Misha Collins’ (Castiel/Jimmy Novak) pumpkin coloured bikini underwear. It turned into a running gag throughout the day. There was a lot more but at this time I can’t remember everything and I haven’t had a chance to go over everything yet but he was just so enjoyable to watch and listen to. He did talk about different roles he’s had, and doing theatre and how his last job was playing a bad actor in a bad play wearing a unitard. He said it was his best work ever. But yeah he was a lot of fun!

Then Aldis Hodge came on stage. Aldis played Jake Talley, who killed Sam Winchester in All Hell Breaks Loose Part 1, which was Season 2, Episode 21 and caused Dean to make a deal with the crossroads demon – Sam is resurrected and Dean has 1 year to live. Aldis also plays Alec Hardison on Leverage, which is another show that Sam and I are big fans of. It was a real treat to listen to him talk. He was very easy going and laid back. He did call his girlfriend on stage and it was just so adorable.

After Aldis we had a QnA session with Steve Carlson who talked mostly about his music and acting and his work with the band Kane, who Sam and I listen to as well. He was really chill and relaxed and great to listen to.

Lunch break happened next, and then it was time for Bobby. Jim Beaver is one of the most loved actors on the show, and his character Bobby Singer is so popular with the fans. Jim was just awesome and gregarious and happy to answer questions. He talked about acting and his experiences in the industry, he talked about his book Life’s That Way which is a memoir of the nightly emails he sent to family and friends about the year that his family struggled with his wife passing away from lung cancer. He was just an absolute joy.

And then it was Misha Collins. Misha is the angel Castiel (and his “meat suit” Jimmy Novak). Misha has a strange relationship with the fans and likes to play it up to them. He was asked about his experiences with the Australian Convention “All Hell Breaks Loose” that was held earlier in the year in Sydney and jokingly he said he hated it and the people were awful and it was just terrible, he didn’t see any kangaroos and generally was just mean about the whole thing. In an amusing way. Anyway he told some great stories and was miffed about Richard telling the underwear story – which is funny because Castiel and Gabriel are brothers, and so there’s this brotherly banter happening. Richard crashed Misha’s QnA which was so funny.

After that it was time for the autograph lines. They went for AGESSSSSSSS. We saw Jim Beaver first, who was just amazing. He was so nice and very interested in us “Aussies”. We had a lovely little chat before we were herded over to the line for Aldis, Misha and Richard. We told Aldis we were big huge Leverage fans, which he appreciated. When we got to Misha…

I said “Hey, how you doing?” and Misha said great and asked how our weekend was going, and I replied, “It was great until you insulted my country!” and he looked up, grinned and said, “Ahhh there’s the accent!” And then he wrote on my t-shirt “To Wendy, Sorry for insulting your people. Misha Collins”. I told him, “Apology accepted.” And he grinned. Then we moved on to Richard, who then disappeared on a break. It was rather amusing when Aldis followed and Misha was left there to entertain us all. So he started a competition on who had travelled the furtherest. People were saying they had driven 6 hours and 10 hours and Sam piped up, “We flew for 13 hours just to get to LA!” And Misha replied, “See, this is why we hate Australians! They win at everything!”

Misha had said to Sam that he had no beef with the Kiwis and he was fine!

Richard came back and read what Misha had written and asked what it meant. I said “Well, I’m Australian!” And Richard wrote on my shirt, “To Wendy, I *HEART* Australia! Richard Spieght Jr”. It was so funny.

By that stage there was just enough time to get changed and head to the Dessert Party. They didn’t have enough tables set out, which was a gross miscalculation on Creation Entertainment’s part but at least they discovered this now instead of when letting everyone inside for the Breakfast tomorrow morning.

We had an awesome table. There was myself, Sam, Emma from WA (!), Cynthia from California but living in Chicago, Jessie from Michigan, Anne, Sandy and a very nice guy who I can’t remember his name (I’m so embarrassed). We all had such a good time trading stories and laughing while we waited for the celebrities to show up. We had plenty of sugar in our dessert (we were naughty, but since we didn’t have dinner, we figured we needed the boost!), and coffee to keep us warm in the freezing cold ballroom.

Our first celebrity was Misha Collins, who remembered Sam and I. It was amusing! But he was charming and delightful and then left his empty coffee cup behind on our table. We joked that it was the cup of an angel, so we all touched it and joked around that we’d been touched by an angel! Our next celebrity was Aldis Hodge who we talked to about music, different types, who he listens to and things like that. He is one smooth guy. Seriously. And his teeth are so white they’re blinding! He’s just charming! The next celebrity was Traci Dinwiddie who let us take a photograph of her “Castiel” t-shirt which she had cut up and modified and crossed out CASTIEL and wrote “PAMELA RULES” and then she drew breasts on Castiel’s picture on the shirt. It was AWESOME! They are going to auction off both items for charity at the J&J Breakfast tomorrow.

Then we had Richard come over and he was talking to us about his play and acting in the unitard. Richard was great though and we told him to touch the cup that Misha had left behind, because while Misha plays an angel, Richard played an ARCHANGEL, and therefore he can one up him! So he did! And then he left his beer bottle behind.

It was like 2am by that time and all the celebrities that had come along were taken out by their handlers. Half the room had left and we were all going to leave too, and so we all stood up. Then Jim Beaver walked in (he’d just finished all the autographs!) and so we all sat straight back down again! Jim reached our table by 2.20am. Cynthia, on our table, her friend had made her a hat that read THE BOBBY SINGER LIBRARY SCHOOL on the top and in latin it said “In front of us wall, behind us wolves” – which is meant to mean between a rock and a hard place. It was so neat. Anyway when Jim sat down, we all asked him if he’d wear the hat and he DID, so we took a photo of it – the whole table got their cameras out and snapped away even though no photos were allowed HEHEE!

Then Jim told us the story of how he and Cecily got together – such a sweet story that I’m not going to repeat. When he finished the story, Sam said to him, “You know, it’s funny that we were reading your book, and on page 30… how do you explain it?” Sam asked me, and I said, “The way that you describe what Cecily means to you, is exactly what Sam would say about me.”

Sam agreed, “Nearly word for word.”

Jim asked us how long we’d been together and I said, “11 years, and we’ve only been apart for 1 of them, and that was the night Sam was in hospital for an operation.”

Jim asked me, “And what did you do that night?” as he got to his feet to move on to the next table.

I answered, “I cried. I cried.” And he patted my shoulder, smiling as he left the table.

After Jim left our table, we all left the party and headed to our rooms. It was 3am by the time Sam and I crawled into bed and passed out. The alarm was set for 6:45am to get up and get read for J2 day!!!!!! OMG SO EXCITED!!!

Our alarm was set to go off at 9:30am.

The maid woke us up at 8:30am, by knocking on the door to clean our room. We went back to bed and got up an hour later. After showers we headed down to Pine Grove Family Dining for some breakfast .. well.. brunch, before the Convention started. We were walking in the hotel’s parking lot and the first thing we saw is a Rosemont Police Car. Welcome to Chicago people, welcome to Chicago.

We walked in and found our seats just before the con started. They’re not bad seats, but we do have to zoom right in to get any close shots. Still I think we got some really great photos.

The first guest was Alona Tal. Alona played Jo Harvelle in seasons 2, 3 and 5 for so far a total of 5 episodes. She’s just precious. She’s petite and bright and has a sunny disposition. She was adorable just to watch and she was so happy just to be there.  I’m not going to do a word by word description of the day because that would be long, tedious and no one is really that interested. But Alona was really interesting to listen to. She’s glad to be back on Supernatural again, which is good. I like Jo. I didn’t like her much in the beginning because she came off as whiney and bratty but as she’s progressed and matured, she’s become an awesome character that I wouldn’t mind seeing more of. So I’m happy she’s back a little more in Season 5.

She talked about being in the military straight out of high school in Israel, and moving to LA when she first moved to the US. She talked about theatre and the difference between it and television/movies. She answered the audiences questions and she was just lovely.

Next was supposed to be Julie McNiven, but due to filming commitments she’s had to reschedule until Sunday.

The Supernatural Trivia comp was interesting to watch – turns out Sam’s more of a fan than either of us realised! He didn’t get on stage though. Sook. Then it was an auction of Supernatural merchandise and photo/autograph ops.

Then it was Traci Dinwiddie’s panel. Traci played Pamela Barnes, a psychic friend of Bobby Singers in Season 4. Unfortunately for the fans and for Traci, Pamela was killed off at the end of Season 4, which was  a real shame because Pamela was awesome. And Traci is just as awesome as Pamela. She’s very … bohemian I guess. At least that’s the impression I got. She’s very into art and theatre and music and very artistic and creative. She’s positive and loves to laugh. She was a joy to listen to and a really good story-teller. She was thrilled there were some males in the group and even happier when one asked a question. She was happy to talk about how she got into acting and tell some tales of things that had happened along the way.

After Traci’s panel they did the photo ops for Alona and Traci, and then the girls came back on stage for the duel photo ops from our seats. Got some great shots. Then Traci called her Mum while on stage. VERY FUNNY. Her Mum’s nickname for her is “Little Shit”! From there, it was the autographs. We had to wait 2 hours before our row was called and we were row 9!! There were heaps of rows to go behind us too! We finally got into line and it was moving pretty quickly by that stage. I got a white Supernatural t-shirt for everyone to sign, so Traci did a personalised autograph on the shirt for me, which was sweet. She noticed we were Australian straight away from my accent. Sam hasn’t been bothering to correct people that he’s from NZ. People get confused. Anyway she was very very sweet.

We went to Pine Grove for dinner, and got back to the hotel with 30 minutes to spare before the Steve Carlson concert. This is what I’d been looking forward to all day! We got down there and then realised that I’d left the spare battery for my camera upstairs. Sam ran back up and got it and on the way back in he bought me one of Steve’s CDs!! I was stoked. And surprised. The concert was just GREAT. I’ve been listening to Steve’s music for about 3 or 4 years now and I never thought I’d ever get to see him in concert because he’s relatively unknown – though big among the Supernatural fans due to his connection to Jensen Ackles. But his music is just awesome and I’m so happy I got to see him live. We got some great shots and just enjoyed ourselves a lot. It was just brilliant. And Steve looked good! He did forget some lyrics and chords but it just made the crowd laugh. He has a QnA panel tomorrow so that should be interesting, and his music has been featured in Supernatural episodes – that’s another connection to the show.

After Steve’s concert, Sam bought me the other CD – they were only $10 each. We went upstairs and cleaned off the camera from the videos and photos that we hadn’t taken off from Vancouver as well! Once we did that we headed down to the Karaoke party but by then it was so packed out that we just got one drink, stayed near the door and then left and came into the lobby to use the laptops. It was just too crowded in there for me. I freak out in large crowds because I get claustrophobic and feel like I can’t breathe.

It’s been really cold sitting in front of the fire though because the doors to the lobby are stuck open with just the outer doors open. But it’s now 1:30am and I really need to get some sleep because we have to be up at around 8:30-9am!

This morning we woke up at 8am, after Sam spent until 12:30am down in the lobby accessing the free internet (YAY FOR FREE WI-FI!!). Getting up and having showers, we then went to the front desk and found out the best way to get downtown was to catch the free shuttle from the hotel to O’Hare International Airport, then catch the Blue Line train/subway to Jackson Station. $2.25 per person will get you anywhere on the train in Chicago on one line, and $0.50 for a transfer. We had to work out how to use the ticket machines but once we did, we were on our way downtown. It takes about 40-50 minutes by train to get downtown – and that was an experience. Seeing Chicago by day was like stepping into Save The Last Dance!

Eventually we got to Jackson Station and we got off the train – along with nearly everyone else because it was a transfer station. Finding our way upstairs, we were on the corner of Jackson Blvd and Dearborne Street. We were only 4 blocks or so from what was Sears Tower, but is now Willis Tower. Finding our way to the Skydeck Entrance, we had our first experience of going through the revolving doors. Yeah, I don’t like those. It’s kind of a race to see if the door can squash you before you get to the other side! Not a fan! But we made it through and were ushered into the lifts to go down, yes, down, to the ticket counter for the Skydeck. Once we paid, we went through the little display on how awesome Chicago was (basketball, baseball, Chicago Blackhawks – now we’re talking! - Oprah, etc) before we got to the lift that goes to the top.

Now, if you’re wondering, Willis Tower is the tallest building in the Western World, and is 103 storeys high. It takes less than a minute to get to the 103rd floor, and to give you an example of how tall this building is, it’s 262 times the height of Michael Jordan! I’m 5’6″ tall, so it’s around 280 x my height. Before I go on to talk about the view, I have to make mention of a sign we saw when we paid for the tickets to go up. On the counter there is a sign that says “NO REFUNDS DUE TO NO VISIBILITY FROM INCUMBENT WEATHER” – yes they tell you if there’s no visibility that day and some people don’t believe them so they buy a ticket up anyway and then get mad when they can’t see anything and want a refund. Can you believe it?! I couldn’t!!

Anyway the view was just spectacular. It just went for miles! We got a TON of photos, which Sam will upload the best later on and edit the post with a few. Once you go around, there’s the glass floor side of the Skydeck, where you step out onto this glass floor and it’s just glass all around you. You kind of feel like you’re in Willy Wonka’s Great Glass Elevator, to be honest! Sam is terrified of heights – it’s one of the reasons he doesn’t like flying, but he went out on it first – at my insistence – and we got some awesome photos. It was interesting watching people’s reactions to the glass floor too because a lot of people who are terrified of heights just refused to get on it, or they were shaking when they stepped out there.

A few kids were doing jumps while their parents photographed them, and one kid did a handstand, while his 3 yr old sister got in there behind him so he looked like he had pink sneakers coming out of his head. It was kind of neat. There were this group of four guys, and three were fine with it but one was just terrified. After about 10 mins of pushing and prodding and finally lifting him up and getting him out there, he finally relaxed enough to pose for a couple of photos, but it was just brilliant the way that his friends wouldn’t let him miss out on the experience just because of his fear. It was great to watch – and they were quite entertaining too!

From there, we then walked from Willis Tower down Jackson Blvd to find something for lunch. We didn’t even have breakfast, so we were hungry. There was this pizza place we passed on the way to Willis Tower, so we stopped in there and had a slice of pepperoni pizza and a small coke each. It was only a total of $8.65! But the slice of pizza was the size of three of ours back home, and it was more than enough. I couldn’t have eaten any more if I tried. It was good, so so good.

Looking at the shops as we passed, I nearly jumped for joy when I found Barnes & Noble, a large bookstore chain here in the US. We went inside and looked around for a book I’ve been looking for for ages – Life’s That Way by Jim Beaver. Jim plays Bobby Singer on Supernatural and his wife Cecily passed away from cancer a year or two ago. The book is a memoir of the emails Jim would send out to his mailing list of family and friends to let them know how the family was doing. It’s had rave reviews, and of course, since Jim will be at the convention on Saturday and our tickets have complimentary autographs for Jim included – so I’m going to get him to sign my copy of his book! I was very, very happy to find it!

From there, we walked down Jackson Blvd all the way down to the Chicago Institute of Art, and then past that to the park on Lake Shore Drive. There were squirrels everywhere. And they were fast little buggers too! They were grey, unlike the black or brown ones in Canada. But they were everywhere. As we walked through the park, with the barren trees and the yellow and orange trees all over the ground, it was just beautiful. we walked the 10 blocks (felt like it anyway!) to the Museum Campus and headed to where Sam wanted to go the most on this leg of the trip: The Field Museum!

No doubt he’ll edit this post to put in a touch of Dresden Fandom (I’ll let him explain that), but it was 2.15pm by the time we made it to the Field Museum, so we were thankful it was Free Admission Day! We saw SUE the T-Rex, which is a female T-Rex that was discovered (skeleton complete) in South Dakota. Then we went into the Americas exhibit, the Ancient Egyptians exhibit and then the gift shop. We didn’t spent more than an hour and a half there, because we had to walk back to the blue line station before it got dark so we could catch our train back to the hotel.

Edit by Sam: Yes indeed, I will be adding a few things here. The Field Museum is mentioned a few times in the Harry Dresden novels, but the main one fans of the books will remember is book 7 “Dead beat”, where Harry brings Sue the T-Rex to life and rides her to take on a group of Zombies. My description isn’t really all that good, but the book is killer, and seeing Sue in person was outstanding! The Dresden Chronicles is to me what Supernatural is to Wendy. The books are set in Chicago, so naturally, there are a lot of locations around the city that are mentioned in the novels, including the Shedd Aquarium, which we will be visiting on Monday.

We walked back downtown and were looking for a place that sold DVDs, but didn’t find one. We did manage to find a store that sold t-shirts and hats of all the sporting teams of Chicago, inluding the Blackhawks. They had a special on so we got 2 Blackhawks t-shirts for $27. Not bad!

Then we caught the train home and the shuttle back to the hotel. We walked down to the Pine Grove Family Restaurant for dinner again, and now we’re in the lobby using the free wi-fi and watching all the other fans of Supernatural check in for the convention. It’s eye-opening! Pre-registration for Gold tickets (us) starts at 8pm and people are already lining up. Supernatural airs at 8pm so we’re watching it now.

ETA: We watched Supernatural in Maxie’s Bar & Grill, where they put the show up on all the televisions except one right on the bar. It was kind of awesome to watch it in a room full of fan girls! And a guy or two (not including Sam, who we all know is here for Jared! P) Sam realised when we were watching the show that the Impala we saw in Vancouver was THE Impala! He recognised the license plate! So not only did I miss it… I MISSED THE REAL ONE! I did see the tail-lights and heard the rumble so it’s okay! Once the episode was over, I suggested we go straight to registration and get our stuff sorted for the weekend. We picked up our tickets, our lanyons, our gifts (Supernatural Shot Glasses! YAY! More to add to our collection!), and of course my photo op tickets. The schedule looks jammed, but it shouldn’t be too bad. We’re in row 9, so our wait for autographs and photo ops shouldnt’ be too long at all. And there should be enough time between the Jensen & Jared Duo photo op and the J&J QNA for us to duck out and get some lunch. We were trying to think of what we could get the actors to sign because we have 7 autograph tickets each:

Tracie Dunwoodie – played Pamela Barnes in Season 4 (autograph is on Friday)
Aldis Hodge – played Jake Talley in Season 2 (autograph is Saturday)
Jake Able – played Adam Milligan, Sam and Dean’s half brother, in Season 4 (autograph is Saturday)
Misha Collins – plays the angel, Castiel in Season 4 and 5, and Jimmy Novak, Castiel’s “meat suit” in Season 4 (autograph is Saturday)
Jim Beaver – plays Bobby Singer in all Seasons and is a recurring character (autograph is Saturday)
Jensen Ackles – plays Dean Winchester (autograph is Sunday)
Jared Padalecki – plays Sam Winchester (autograph is Sunday)

What we’ve decided to do is get everyone to sign a white t-shirt that I’ve purchased, and with the second autograph ticket, get everyone to sign the back of one of our GOLD TICKET VIP PASS so that I can get it framed along with the t-shirt! All except Jim. Jim I’ll ask him to sign the t-shirt and also to sign his book for me, like I said above. I looked at the prices of everything and we decided not to buy any other merchandise. The photos for autographs were ranging from $6-$20, and the t-shirts were $5-$25 each but there weren’t any of just Dean that I liked. I decided that I’d skip the merchandise in favour of the autographed t-shirt which I can treasure forever, and get framed when we get home along with the autographed ticket.

Anyway after registration, we came out to find a line of fangirls waiting for registration that went all the way from the ballroom back to the lobby! Sam said to me that I was a genius for doing registration when we did because there was no one there and if he had to wait in line with all those people he would have killed me! I told him to suck it up and admit I rock. Which he then did. We did, however, bump into Sue in line and stopped to say hello! We were happy to see she had landed here safe and sound.

Now we’re in the lobby using the WI-FI again and listening to the chatter of fangirls around us. It’s pretty phenomenal watching the amount of stuff people are purchasing. I mean someone walked away with like 20 pictures, all in plastic sleeves which are an extra $3 on top. Just amazing.

We were hoping to catch the Stars game on the net, but it looks like that’s a no-go. But that’s okay. There’s plenty of other things to do and if nothing else, Yahoo can give us a score update! Day 10 is done. Bring on the Con!

Today was our last day in the beautiful city of Vancouver. We got up early – 6am! – and we were out the door by 7:30am. As we had to return the car this morning, we drove out early to try to find Cleveland Dam again. This time, we were successful! Cleveland Dam is on the Capilano River and was a Supernatural location for Season 2, Episode 7, “Simon Said”. It’s a great episode where we meet Andy (played by Gabriel Tigerman, who is just so adorable it’s not even funny. Seriously, I want to put him in my pocket and take him home!), who is a “special child” like Sam. It has some of the best Star Wars quotes ever in the episode, like Dean’s “He full on Obi-Wan’ed me!” and Andy’s “These aren’t the droids you’re looking for!”

Cleveland Dam is at the end of the episode, and if you haven’t watched it I won’t give away the ending, but when you walk up across the top of the Dam, you can really just picture it in the show. It’s just amazing, and the Dam itself is huge. Just massive. Sam got some video footage of the Dam because the waterfall it creates is just… there are no words really. It’s like 3 times bigger than Huka Falls in New Zealand.

It was raining pretty hard, and the rain was ice cold too. There was a film crew up there as well, though we’re not sure if they were taking down or setting up. It was for, once again, Human Target, who we saw them filming at St Andrews on our second day here. We got photos of the sign the location manager had put up but we didn’t take photos of the set or scaffolding. Besides, it was too cold and wet to hang around!

Then we had an adventure in locating a petrol station to fill the car up with petrol to return it. We finally found a gas station that accepted overseas credit cards (FYI, Shell in Canada doesn’t!). Once we were full again, we got lost (again) on our way to Pacific Central, which is the Bus/Train station – kind of their transit centre. We had to pick up our bus tickets to Seattle for tomorrow morning, since our bus leaves at 5:55am. We’re catching a cab at 5am, and checking out of the hotel at 4.45am. Lucky us!

From there, we had to return the car to Budget. We were on our way in about half an hour, due to some nugget doing his na-na in the office because they wouldn’t rent him a car when his license name doesn’t match his credit card name. It was… interesting to watch! From there, we headed down to West Georgia St for Subway and Timmy Hos for breakfast! From there, we headed to the Vancouver Lookout at the Skytower. It is 84 Ft in the air and quite impressive. The view is 360 degrees, so we got a HEAP of photos. The great thing about the tickets to Vancouver Lookout is that once you have them, you can use them as many times as you like that day. So after we went up this morning, we went back down to the ground floor and then while Sam was finding out where the nearest Boston Pizza was (too far to walk unfortunately!), I went into the gift shop next door for a look-see. We exited with a $4 shot glass as a momento!

On the next block to the right on the corner of West Hastings is the big RBC where they filmed Supernatural‘s episode “Nightshifter”. We’d already taken photos on the outside but we went inside to use the ATM. It is just beautiful inside. Marble everywhere. Gorgeous. I didn’t want to risk security so I didn’t ask if we could photograph inside.

From there, we headed up into downtown to Chapters, the 3 level bookstore. I managed to get book 2 of the Supernatural series, Bone Key. There’s only one more that’s been published that I don’t have, but hopefully I can either pick that up in Chicago or Toronto, or even in Saskatoon. Sam got a Jim Butcher novel that he’d been wanting. From there, it was a long hike up Howe to Davie Street and then up Davie to the Timmy Hos. On the way, being the little penguin that I am in my beanie and then the hood of my jacket, I can barely hear anything, so I completely missed the BLACK CHEVY IMPALA that drove up Davie Street when we were waiting to cross the road! Sam saw it and pointed it out when all I could see were the tail-lights, and when I yanked off my hood and beanie I could hear the distinct rumble of the engine. Now, I’m not saying either of the Js were driving it, or that it was the Impala (well, one of the 4 they have), but it was a Black Chevy Impala, around ’67, and I MISSED IT.

*SIGH*

Anyway after lunch, we headed back to the motel. It was just too wet, too miserable and cold to do anything and too far to walk to anywhere of interest to us. Once back at the hotel, we caught up on internet stuff, before watching a movie on TV (a chick flick Sam won’t admit to watching) and then the Penguins Vs Bruins NHL game on TV. Man, I’m going to miss that about Vancouver! After the game, and Sam talking to a couple of people online, we headed back down to The Vancouver Lookout for some night-time shots, including the Olympic Rings on the barge in Coal Harbour. We even did a video of the whole 360 degree view, complete with running commentary!

When we were done there, we headed back up Seymour Street to the Japanese restaurant we had dinner with Paola and Sue last night and had dinner there. It was such good food and Sam suggested we go there again, so we did. We even grabbed a takeout menu on the way out so we can show people the prices when we get home – they won’t believe us! SO CHEAP!

The walk home was wet – as usual – and now it’s just doing some laundry and getting all packed up for the early morning tomorrow. Up at 4am for the last pack and get downstairs to checkout. Showers tonight, bed early (around 11) and then lack of sleep before we get on the bus to go back to the US and head to The Windy City!

We will definitely miss Vancouver – a lot! Thanks everyone who we got to spend time with and catch up – it really has been a special treat to meet up with you guys (Matt, Esther, Rod, Sue and of course Paola!). There were a couple of people we didn’t get a chance to see which was a shame, and a few things we missed out on due to time constraints (Museum, Art Gallery, Zoo etc) but we did get to see a lot of Vancouver we wouldn’t normally so that was a treat. And it will give us an incentive to come back!

We’ll more than likely post on Facebook as soon as we’re in the hotel and have the internet set up in Chicago. We land around 7.55pm, and it’s about a 40 minute cab ride from Midway to O’Hare. Sam’ll no doubt update this post with a pic or two as well as update the gallery.

So see you all in Chicago!

Suprisingly, no hockey game today!

We got up at 7am this morning and were out the door by 8:30am, which I think was a record for us! I got a good 9 hours sleep last night, having fallen asleep on the very comfy couch in our hotel apartment, but Sam the poor thing was doing some work last night and didn’t get to bed until 1:30am. Still, he managed to drive us through the most challenging day yet: Supernatural Filming Tour Day. This was the big one. The big circular tour around town.

And boy did we go in circles!

We started out looking for Heritage Hall, which was used in Season 1, Episode 17, “Hell House” which is one of my favourite episodes. The building was used as the town’s Records Hall I guess, and was seen when Sam exits the building and meets up with Dean, and together they walk to the Impala – I think where Sam proceeds to play a prank on Dean by turning up his car stereo on music he’d never listen to. The Heritage Hall is actually on a busy street of Vancouver, so we just parked across the street and Sam jumped out and took the shots from across the street.

The next location on the list caused us to get lost in suburbia hell, and we got so frustrated we gave up. We were looking for Cenacle Convent but unfortunately I think my google maps request didn’t give me the correct address or location. Anyway we found some lovely homes but not the one we were looking for. After going around in circles for about 20 minutes, we decided to just move on to the next item on the list: The Winchester Family Home.

We thought we had found it on the trip, but looking at the small photos we have has a guide, if the house number in the photo is the correct one we were off by about 300 houses hee! And just checking my Ipod, which has every episode of Supernatural on it, it’s not the right house. Which kind of sucks. But that’s okay!

We moved on from there to head south into Delta, and located Kirkland House, which we know is definitely correct! It was used in Season 3, Episode 1, “The Magnificent Seven” where the boys and Bobby taken on the seven deadly sins! This house is just gorgeous and has been restored with the help of the community. It really is just beautiful.

From there, it was just a short drive to Ladner, to find Clair’s Bed & Breakfast and the Ladner Anglican Church, both used in Season 1, Episode 3, “Dead In The Water”. The church is the one that Lucas draws and gives to Dean, to try in his own way to tell Dean what’s going on, what has scared him so much. It’s just amazing being in the location and seeing the proximity!

We got very,  very familiar with Ladner, and especially Ladner Trunk Road as we went around and around in circles for about 30 minutes, trying to find our way to 72nd Street. Can I just preface this with a disclaimer that I suck at directions at the best of times, but put me in a city where I don’t know my way around, and then put me in a country where there’s more east than west instead of the other way around and we were all in trouble! After going in circles for so long, we stopped at Subway for food and Starbucks for coffee, since Ladner don’t have a Timmy Hos (how dare they not have a Timmys I ask you!?), before we collected our wits and got lost yet again. Finally though, we worked out where we were going and found where we needed to go!

The next locations we tried to find, we couldn’t because they were gated off. Turns out you can’t get to private property owned by Boundary Bay Airport! Shame, we missed out on seeing the Crossroads from Season 2, Episode 8, “Crossroad Blues”, the gas station that Dean walks to in Season 4, Episode 1 “Lazarus Rising”, or The Roadhouse from Season 2, Episodes 2 (“Everybody Loves A Clown”), 6 (“No Exit”) and the remains in episode 21 (“All Hell Breaks Loose Part 1″). We did however get to drive up the deserted road, from Season 2, Episode 2, so I took a photo of that.

Next we headed south to Surrey to what we call “The Scary House”, after once again I got us lost about 3 times! But ignoring that, this house is owned, it seems, by the City Of Surrey and is hired out by the city to film crews as a location. The house was gated too, but we got photos of it from the gate on the driveway. This one was a special house for us, because not only was it used as Reverand Le’Grange’s house in Season 1, Episode 12, “Faith”, and the house that the family move into that everyone thinks is haunted in Season 4, Episode 11, “Family Remains”, it was also used in other shows like Fringe, which Sam and I also love to watch. This one we really got a kick out of seeing.

After The Scary House, we had to get some petrol, so we put some gas in the car – which was an adventure in itself – and then went in search of the Reverend Sorensen’s House from Season 1, Episode 7, “Hookman”. We got some great shots of the Church and the Reverend’s House, which is currently a real church and the church runs a daycare in the house that was the Rev’s house in the show.

Then… we got lost. Again! After a minor meltdown, Sam found our way, and we went in search of The Old Terminus Pub. We found it – and found they’re renovating the pub. We got some photos anyway, and then headed up Queens Ave and found the houses that were used in Season 3, Episode 8, “A Very Supernatural Christmas”. They were pretty awesome, actually and we had to do a stealth mission to make sure people didn’t think we were casing the joint!

Then we tried to find our way to Port Coquitlam… and yes, you guessed it. We got lost. Again! We ended up back over the other side of the river we’d just crossed. So we stopped at Maccas for lunch and rested while we figured out where to go from there. We eventually found where we were going, but couldn’t find the Riverview Hospital when we got there. By this time it was nearly 3:30pm and we still had The Burnaby Village Museum and Kitsilano Beach still to go, so we opted not to turn back and search and just head straight for the Burnaby Village Museum. We found it – and it was closed. So we took some pics from the outside and went back to the car and headed to Kitsilano Beach.

It was dusk turning to night when we finally got to Kits Beach but man oh man, it was worth going there. Kits Beach is a place I’d been hearing about for years and as Sam said, if we’d come all the way to Vancouver and didn’t go to Kits Beach, I’d regret it. The beach isn’t like those we have back home but the scenery, the peace on the place is just … tranquil. And cold. But it was worth it. We got some photos but nothing like we could have if the sun was shining. Which it hasn’t since Wednesday last week! But that’s okay!

Now we’re heading down to meet Paola for dinner! I’ll update when we get home!

ETA: Took us half an hour to walk down to where we were meeting Paola, which was a great walk, and it was mostly not raining which was nice! It was cold though – I was rugged up in my five layers of clothes! Paola is just the most awesome person ever! She’s beautiful inside and out and I love that she’s just honest and up front and what you see is what you get. She’s strong and independent and she doesn’t hold back – I love that in people. A lot of my close friends are like that!

Anyway the three of us then walked up to the Japanese restaurant where we were meeting up with Paola’s friend Sue, who is just amazing too, and the four of us had the most wonderful dinner! Sam and I shared a noodle box, which had noodles and chicken, salad, dragon roll, prawn skewers and these little baked dim sum type things. And soup! It was so delicious. I’d forgotten how much I love Japanese food! It’s been a good … what, 17 years since I’ve had real Japanese and sushi?! So good!

What was better than the food, was the company! The four of us just laughed and talked and got along so well, it truly was the most awesome dinner. And the most multicultural one we’ve had! We had an Australian, a Kiwi, a Pom and an Italian all at one table in a Japanese restaurant. If that’s not cultural diversity at it’s best, I don’t know what is!

I know I’ve said that about all the people we’ve met up with but I guess everyone is different and special in their own right. And I think it helps in this instance, that not only do I get along with Paola so well, but Sue will be in Chicago for the Supernatural Convention we’re going to as well! So we now have a friend there that we can say hello to!  Sam’ll no doubt add the photos once he jumps online! They turned out brilliantly and I can’t wait to get them home and get them printed and framed! Just awesome!

We walked Sue and Paola down to the skytrain and then walked back to our hotel. It was raining pretty steadily but unfortunately neither Sam nor I shrunk. We did, however, dropped into – you guessed it – Timmy Ho’s on the way home and got a hot chocolate, on Sue’s suggestion. They really are like crack! Addictive! The amusing part was behind us in line was a couple of police officers, lining up for their nightly doughnuts! LOVE IT!!

~*~

I must make mention here the sad news we received upon our return to our hotel. The father of a dear friend of ours passed away today. The whole Martin family is in our thoughts at this time, and we send our condolences. Mr Martin was just so lovely and it’s very sad that his time has now passed.

Today was attempt #2 at getting to Buntzen Lake. We were going on Friday but it rained so much and it was definitely too cold to go looking for the lake – plus it was getting dark really quick. Today, however, we got up at 8am, and were out the door by 9:30am to find Buntzen Lake.

For those who haven’t heard about it, Buntzen Lake is in Anmore, which is in the northern part of the Greater Vancouver area. It’s a massive lake – 4.8Km long – and the trails around the lake is used for hiking, mountain biking and equestrian riders. It’s a really beautiful area, with plenty of picnic benches, and is up in a forest setting, with massive pine trees surrounding the area. Buntzen Lake has been used in a number of movies, including Jensen Ackles’ movie, Devour, as well as Lake Placid, The Highlander, Freddy Vs Jason and The X-Files. It’s tv credits include Smallville, Pathfinder, 4400, and the two shows I care about: Dark Angel (starring Jensen Ackles) and Supernatural (of course).

It was used in Supernatural‘s season 1, episode 3, “Dead In The Water”, and was prominent in the episode. Rumour has it that most of the lake scenes were filmed on the north side of the lake, but due to the rain, even if the trails were open we weren’t going to walk them anyway. However, I have a feeling that the picnic area we were able to get to was used in Supernatural for the jetty that was used in the opening sequence but I haven’t checked the episode yet though so I can’t be sure. Either way, it was wet, cold and windy there. We did get some photos taken – Sam protected the camera with his hat! Standing on the jetty though, it was just such an impressive location. The surrounding pine trees are SO tall, and the air is crisp and clean. It’s a shame it was wet, because it would have been even more beautiful with the sun shining. We took a morning tea snack and at our rolls under the covered picnic area and enjoyed the scenery.

From there, we went hunting for Bordertown, which is located at the very end of 224th Street in Maple Ridge. When you get to the very end of the road, you turn left and just follow it around. If we weren’t afraid of being arrested and deported, we would have climbed the fence and gone exploring but alas we are so we didn’t. So I got photos of the tresspassing sign! Bordertown is Supernatural filming location #2 for the day, and was where they filmed Season 2, Episode 21, “All Hell Breaks Loose Part 1″. It was the deserted town where the special children were taken – and we see Andy and Ava again, and meet Jake for the first time. We get more of a glimpse into what Azazel, the Yellow-Eyed Demon, wants with Sam Winchester.

Since we were in Maple Ridge, and our friend Rod – who I’ve known since about 1997/98 through the internet! – was in town from Vancouver Island (where he lives) and was staying in Maple Ridge for a day or two, we organised to meet up at Supernatual filming location #3, The Billy Miner Pub! Billy Miner Pub is located on River Road, Maple Ridge, on Port Haney. It was used in season 2, episode 3, “Bloodlust”. The Pub’s interior was used for the bar scenes where Sam and Dean meet Gordon Walker, a fellow hunter with a specialty for vampires, for the first time. Sam, Rod and I had lunch together at this dank, dark and a truly comfortable pub. It’s small, and since it’s Heritage Listed, there can’t be any changes to the building. It was actually freezing inside the pub too – I was wearing 5 layers of clothing and I was still shivering! But it was great!! I looked around the room and I could just see in my memory Dean and Gordon sharing bourbons and bonding over hunting. It was just surreal. And to be there with Sam and Rod… it was the best 3 hours I’ve had in a long time. We talked about work, about Canada, America, Australia, Mexico, family, travelling, HOCKEY, and generally catching up. It was just brilliant!

We were headed to Kitsilano Beach after we left the Billy Miner Pub. To get there, we had to go back downtown and then over the Granville Bridge. Since we were so close to home and it was getting dark, we decided to stop at the motel first and grab the game tickets for that night so we could go straight to the Vancouver Giants Vs Edmonton Oil Kings game. It’s a good thing we did because when I got the tickets I discovered the game started at 5pm not 7pm like we thought! It was already 5pm! So we rushed down to the Pacific Colosseum, paid the $8 for parking and rushed inside. We missed the first 15 mins of the game, but the score was still 0-0 when we got there so it was okay. First stop was the merchandise store though! We got a Vancouver Giants puck to add to our collection and I couldn’t resist a Giants’ Moose called “Monty” – he even has a Giants’ hoodie on! So cute! (Those who know me well, know I can’t resist a fluffy, furry stuffed toy!) We were a little disappointed with the clothing choices so we didn’t get any shirts and I couldn’t find any scarfs for the Giants, so we just took our two selections and headed for the food concession stand. It was the end of the period, so we got some dinner (burgers and fries with skins on them – I’m so over burgers!) and then headed to our seats – Section T, row 4, seats 5 & 6. We were to the right of the penalty box, and below the glass line, which was great! Sam got some fantastic shots in the last 2 periods of the game. The Giants won the game 4-2. Sam was going for the Oil Kings – he has some sort of skewered loyalty to the Bruins because they were his first WHL game! I, on the other hand, was going for the home team, since I didn’t really care either way. Thomas Vincour, the Stars prospect on the Oil Kings, was scratched again, so it didn’t matter to me who was playing.

Once the game was over, we headed back to the hotel where it is nice and warm! We have some laundry to do tonight because we’re out of clothes again (I love Worldmark having a washer and dryer in the hotel room! So convenient!) and it’ll be good to get to bed before 12, because we’re up again tomorrow by 7am and out the door by 8am! Tomorrow is our last Supernatural filming location tour – and it’s the big one. A four-five hour driving tour with about 15-20 locations listed in one big giant loop. We’ll take a detour to Kits Beach on this tour to get some snaps. And then tomorrow night, we’re meeting up with my friend Paola and a friend of hers for dinner. I’m very excited about dinner!

Sam will update the photos from today when he gets the chance, but for me? It’s time to settle back on the couch and watch some CSI Vegas, since TSN is on football. BLEH.

Due to an issue with roaming on our Blackberry’s, we will be out of contact on them until we hit Chicago (Wednesday) and get a US SIM Card. If you need us, drop us an email or facebook message, or call us at Worldmark’s “The Canadian” on Hornby Street (Vancouver).

Chilliwack Day dawned wet and cloudy. We set the alarm for the ungodly hour of 7am, so we could be out the door by 9am. First stop was Fort Langley. To get there, we had to go east on West Hastings St, which changes into East Hastings St. We’d been warned that was an area to avoid on foot, as this is where all the vagrants have been moved to in preparation for the Olympics in February. It’s an old part of Vancouver, with a lot of run down and decripit buildings that have most likely been condemed, and bars on all doors and windows. It reminds me a lot of the ghetto areas of New York on all the cop shows on TV. Its okay to drive through but I wouldn’t feel safe outside the car.

But to get to Highway 1, you have to go down E Hastings St. On E Hastings Street is a Supernatural filming location, which Sam was adament we were not going to, only driving past. That was fine with me, assuming I could get a photo. I missed it yesterday as we headed to Port Moody but thankfully this morning I got a photo of the outside of “Sparticus Books” where Supernatural Season 4, Episode 18 “The Monster At The End Of This Book” was filmed. The scene was where Sam and Dean find out their lives have been turned into a book series, with a disturbed fanbase of girls who are a little too into their “characters”. The photo was taken with the camera though, so it will have to wait until we’ve updated the photo gallery to be added.

Once we were on Highway 1 though, it was smooth driving to the township of Langley, apparently where the province of British Columbia was founded. It was in Fort Langley that our next stop on the Supernautal filming location tour was located. It was pretty easy to find, to be honest, and again, I didn’t think to take any photos with my blackberry! They’re on the camera too. But the park was the location for the end scene of Supernatual Season 2, Episode 9 “Croatoan”, where Dean admits to Sam what their father, John, had whispered in his ear before John exchanged his life for Dean’s… That if Dean couldn’t save Sam, he would have to kill him. Yet another emotionally charged scene for Jensen. The park is beautiful and yet I can’t help but wonder if they drove the Impala onto the grass or used movie magic for it!

After Fort Langley, our next stop was Abbotsford. The Matsqui Lutheran Church is located in a northern part of Abbotsford and was our last Supernatural filming location for today. This one I do have a couple of BB photos of! This area was the location for Season 5, Episode 2 “Good God, Y’all”. The intersection by the church is the main intersection in town in the episode where the whole town has gone mad and turned on each other, everyone thinking everyone else is a demon. For those who watch the show, you’ll recognise these:

It was really cold in Abbotsford too. The mountains had low cloud cover and it looked likely to snow up there as the day wore on, which would account for the temperature. Still, wasn’t as cold as Port Moody!

We headed into Chilliwack for lunch, where we found a Timmy Hos of course. We got a soup and sandwich combo and a doughnut for desert – blueberry doughnut. OH. MY. GOD! So good!!

After lunch we headed out to find Bridal Veil Falls, the 6th largest waterfall in Canada. Unfortunately, they’ve already closed the walking tracks for winter as there are landslides in the snow and rain. But we managed to get some on the camera from the side of the road. Considering how well the photos came out, I can only imagine just how big that waterfall is in person!

Since we couldn’t hike to the falls, we turned back to Chilliwack and went to the mall on the outskirts of town. After wandring through a couple of stores we went into Sportchek, and I made a beeline directly for the NHL gear! I got a black long sleeved TEAM CANADA t-shirt (on special for $25 CAD) and Sam chose to forgo his Texas Stars jersey and got an authentic Team Canada jersey for the 2010 Vancouver Olympic Games in February. These jerseys are only available in Canada – no store in Australia will import them – we know friends who have tried! It’s a really pretty jersey actually! And on special for $135 CAD. Most authentics cost over $250 CAD/USD.

Right now, we’re sitting in Wendy’s, a burger chain in North America, and waiting for time to slowly drag by until we get to go watch the WHL’s Chilliwack Bruins Vs Edmonton Oil Kings at the Prospera Centre here in Chilliwack. We’re also hoping to catch up with Rob and Matt after the game. Rob’s playing hockey tonight against SFU in Burnaby, so we’ll have to see. Either way, Sam and I have to figure out what to get for dinner ince neither of us want junk food. We are junked out already!!

Cross your fingers we find something and I’ll ETA the post later the game with the rest of the night!

ETA:

The game in Chilliwack was awesome! We got there early and ended up talking to some Canadians who picked that Sam was a Kiwi from his accent – a first! It was around 5 degrees or less because we had steam coming out of our mouths as we talked. Once they opened the doors we went right to find our seats: section R, row 6, seats 7 & 8. Centre Ice.

Sam needed to find a bathroom, and I spied merchandise so we headed back upstairs to see what wares they had to offer for a junior league team. For those who don’t know hockey – which is probably at least half the people reading this blog, let me take a moment to explain the game we were at. The Chilliwack Bruins, and their opposition the Edmonton Oil Kings, are in the Western Hockey League (WHL). These guys are like 15-18 years of age and they are all playing to get noticed by the NHL scouts for the chance to get drafted into the NHL to play hockey professionally. My favourite player, Mike Modano, played in the WHL from 15-18 years of age with the Prince Albert Raiders, which is north of Saskatoon, in Saskatchewan, Canada. He was drafted 1st overall in the 1988 draft by the Minnesota Northstars. So these kids are playing for the love of hockey, the dream of making it in the NHL to play professionally. They want it so bad they can taste it every game.

Anyway, we were really impressed with the range of merchandise available. And The saleslady was just so lovely and helpful. We had a lovely chat to her about our trip, the WHL and our love of hockey. There were about 10 different t-shirts for women, 5 for men, long sleeve shirts, hoodies, jackets, 5 or 6 different hats, 4 different beanies (or toques as they call them here), jerseys, jackets, pucks, bags, keyrings, stickers, temporary tattoos, pens, umbrellas… You name it they probably had it. They even had post-it notes with their logo on it. Sam selected a long-sleeved shirt (on sale for $20 down from $30), I picked up a Chilliwack Bruins scarf ($11!), and we got a Bruins puck to add to our growing puck collection!

Heading back to our seats after Sam took his detour, we settled in to watch a great and exciting game of hockey. There were 3300 fans there – probably about half the capacity but they sure made a lot of noise! The boys were really fired up. You could see they weren’t as polished as the NHL guys – their positioning and puck handling no where near the NHL level, but what they lacked in that extremely high level in skill they made up for in passion, creativity and sheer fearlessness. The game went to Overtime (OT) in the end. I was giving a running score update on my facebook status update – not that anyone really cared, but it’s my status I’ll do what I want with it!

I must make mention of this, as we were really impressed with it. When the lady sang the national anthem, 90% of the crowd sang along with her. It gave me goosebumps. I don’t know all the words to “Oh Canada” just yet, but I’m getting the hang of it! But yeah, that just really impressed us. It reminded me of the Newcastle Roadtrip earlier this year when the microphone stopped working on for the girl singing the Australian National Anthem, and the crowd took up singing where she left off. It was just a moving thing to watch.

The really amusing thing about our time in Canada is a lot of people have heard our accents, and either stop and stare or they whisper amongst themselves asking each other where we’re from. No one has really asked! It’s a little weird actually. The kids sitting behind us at the game tonight were asking each other if we were from Australia – at least they got the country right! Others just look at us like we stepped off a spaceship!

After the game, we stopped in at Timmy Hos for a coffee for the road, since it’s an hour and a half drive from Chilliwack to Vancouver downtown. We left around 10pm and got home at 11:30pm. On the way home, we saw the Canadian Police doing a drug bust on East Hastings St, and got diverted due to a car accident that had cops, fireys and ambos there. Thank goodness for GPS on the BBs!

And now it’s off to bed, since we’re going to attempt to go to Buntzen Lake tomorrow morning, then we’re off to Billy Minor Pub in Maple Ridge to meet up with my friend Rod, who I’ve known online for 11 years! I can’t believe I finally get to meet him! I’m so excited! Tomorrow night, it’s the Vancouver Giants WHL team taking on the Edmonton Oil Kings here in Vancouver. Once again, a jam-packed day!

Today we were supposed to go to Buntzen Lake, but by the time we’d managed to get up, have breakfast, get ready and head out downtown to get some more cash out of the bank – and while I’m on this topic, can I just warn everyone how Visa unfriendly Canada is?? OH MY GOD! Only 2 banks that we have found will accept Visa – RBC (Royal Bank of Canada) and Scotiabank.  Everywhere else is Mastercard! Very uncool. Especially since the Winter Olympics in Vancouver 2010? SPONSORED BY VISA! Anyway, the nearest RBC is in the same building as Timmy Hos, so it’s not that much of a hardship to walk down to West Georgia St. We got coffee too! No doughnuts though – we were good. We’ve had our one doughnut for the trip – and BOY WAS IT GOOD!

Once we had coffee and money, we walked back to the hotel stopping at the hockey shirts and clothing store – OMG THE WALL OF JERSEYS! We walked in and I just stood there and breathed in the smell of NHL merchandise from all 30 teams. It was a special moment for me. In 1998 a friend of mine from Vancouver, who is a Canucks fan, sent me a Vancouver Canucks t-shirt in an effort to get me to switch from Dallas to Vancouver. It didn’t work – but I did wear the t-shirt. A lot. I still have it, though it’s very worn. So, while we are here, I wanted to replace my shirt with a replica. Thing is, you can’t get that shirt any longer because they’ve changed the colour blue they use for their uniforms. Back in 1998, the Canucks were more of a navy blue. Now they’re more electric blue. Anyway, I got the closest thing to what I had given to me 11 years ago! BUT the best thing is, it’s an incentive t-shirt. It’s a size L. In order to wear it, I have to lose another 10 kilos! WIN-WIN!

After the hockey shirt store, we went to the local IGA for milk and rolls for lunch for the weekend (35c each!!), and headed back to the hotel. We made some rolls for lunch, and gathered our belongings and headed out with the intention of going to Buntzen Lake. The Lake is a commonly used area as a filming location, as well as a popular hiking and picnic destination. Supernatural has used Buntzen Lake in season 1, episode 3, “Dead In The Water”. Not only that, but it was also used in a relatively unknown C-grade independent horror movie called Devour, that Jensen Ackles starred in. Incidentally, Jensen’s the best part of the movie. I know. I have it on DVD. Anyway, the aim was to head out to Buntzen Lake, and since we were going past Port Moody, we decided to stop at Rockey Point Pier, which is another Supernatural filming location. This particular location is where Dean (Jensen Ackles) finally admits to his brother Sam (Jared Padalecki) that he remembers what happened in Hell. It’s a significant moment for the brothers in Season 4. It was at the end of episode 8, “Wishful Thinking”.

Sam took this awesome picture of us on his blackberry – those of you on our facebook flists may have already seen it. There’ll be more in the photo gallery as soon as Sam gets control of the laptop and is able to upload them. And if we look cold? That’s because we are! It was freezing!! I’m not kidding. I was wearing a lycra singlet, a long sleeved shirt, a t-shirt, my Dallas Stars All-Star Game hoodie and my waterproof NZ windbreaker jacket. And I was still cold! With the wind-chill factor over Port Moody, it had to be below 0 degrees Celsius. Easily. We estimated about -3 to -5. I haven’t felt that cold since I felt the winds off the snow capped Mt Ngongotaha in Rotorua ten years ago!!

But it was amazing to walk the pier. I remember the scene vividly. It was such a powerful scene for Jensen – opening up as Dean to admit his painful experience to his little brother, someone he never wants to show any weakness to. And standing there, where they had filmed it… it was just surreal. It was really, really amazing. And cold. Did I mention that?! It had been raining on the way over, and it stopped as we pulled into the car park of the pier. The rain held off until we made it back to the car, only starting to rain again as we opened the car doors. The timing was just impeccable.

By then the rain started coming down hard, and since where we need to go at Buntzen Lake is on the north side and you have to hike there, we think, we ended up heading into Burnaby and checking out the stores. First stop was Best Buy, to see if they had Supernatural on DVD. I need to replace my Seasons 1, 2 and purchase 4 for the first time. Rhonda, my darling lovely Rhonda, has Season 3 waiting for me in Dallas! As Best Buy had them for sale at $45 CAD, we left them there! But across the road was the biggest shopping mall I have ever seen! It had to be as big floor wise as Stonebriar in Dallas (next door to the Frisco Dr Pepper StarCentre, home of the Dallas Stars), but instead of 2 levels, this one had 3. OMG. We didn’t find DVDs, but we did go into Chapters, which is a bookstore here in Canada. Much like Dymocks back home. When I found the hockey books, I looked at Sam and declared I didn’t want to leave!

OMG. Hockey books! Books on hockey! I had heard such a thing existed, but to see it first hand?? A very emotional moment for me. There were books on the Canadians, and books on why the Maple Leafs suck – I’m not kidding. TWO OF THEM. I wanted to buy them just for the laughs. But alas, we don’t have the dosh to throw around until the end of our Saskatoon leg. Plus, we need spending money at the Hockey Hall Of Fame in Toronto. So, unfortunately, the hockey books stayed in the safe hands of Chapters. What I did get, was the first Supernatural novel, “Nevermore”, which I have been hoping and dreaming and wishing I could get my hands on. And the best part? It was $8.99 + tax! CHEAP AS CHIPS! The bookstore’s computer catalogue said there was a copy of the second book, “Bone Key” but we couldn’t find it. I swear we spent 30 minutes checking the 4 shelves of Sci-Fi/Fantasy to find them. Speaking of Sci-Fi/Fantasy, Dianne and Chuck would have loved the Stargate and Star Trek section! It was impressive. And this was a relatively small Chapters store. There’s one here in downtown that’s a half city block and 2 levels. I can’t wait to check it out on Tuesday! When Sam went to the checkout to get my book, he spotted The Hockey News Collector’s edition of the best hockey jerseys magazine and picked that up too. If you’re lucky enough to find The Hockey News in Australia, you’ll know that each edition is like $30 AUD. So we thought $7.99 + tax CAD was a bargin for this one.

Once we were finished there, we headed back to the car, stopping at Blendz for a skinny cappuccino. We’ve now tried the three prominent coffee stores in Vancouver – Timmy Hos, Starbucks and Blendz. Sam has declared Timmy Hos the winner. By a foot. Anyway, we then headed back to the car and drove home to get ready to meet up with Matt and Esther at a pub downtown to catch up and watch some hockey!

Matt is a great guy we met in 2006 when we really got to know the import players of the Brisbane Blue Tongues. Matt was a friend of player Rob Vos, and was in Australia on holidays at the same time as Vossy being there to play for the BTs. When the Canadian imports came to the Supports Club events, Matt and Rob’s girlfriend Sandra came along and were integrated into the Supports Club as honorary members. Matt and I have been friends on facebook since the 206 season ended, and when he heard we were coming over to their neck of the woods, he was the first to say, “Hey! Let’s get together and catch up!” So that’s what we did! Matt and Vossy now live about 45 mins to an hour east of Vancouver, and since Matt and his beautiful and lovely girlfriend Esther were coming downtown for a friend’s birthday dinner anyway, they came in early and we met up at Doolin’s Pub on Nelson Street to watch the Dallas Vs Vancouver game and get a beer.

Well, the boys got a beer. I had coke and Esther was on water. It was awesome to catch up and talk hockey and Canada and Australia and just talk to people who know us. We had such an awesome time! After they left, Sam and I stayed to watch the rest of the game. Sam was drinking Guinness, of course, being an Irish pub. When they brought out his last one, the froth had an irish clover indented on the top – it was really impressive. I think he managed to get a photo of it, but you could only see it in certain light, so I’m not sure. Either way it was awesome. The Stars even managed to win, 2-1 in regulation! I know, I’m stunned too! Turco had a great game, and it was awesome to see Modano and Lehtinen out on the ice again this season. It was great to watch, even if we were getting glares left, right and centre from the Canucks fans around us in the bar! We even got booed at the end because we won! Awesome.

Tomorrow we’re heading out early and going to Chilliwack! There’s a hockey game on tomorrow night there, the local WHL team, the Chilliwack Bruins are playing the Edmonton Oil Kings – which is one of the Dallas Stars’ junior farm teams. So, we’re making a day of it. Just east of Chilliwack is the 6th largest waterfall in Canada, Bridal Veil Falls. We’re going to try to find it. We also have 2-3 Supernatural filming locations on the way there, and we want to check out the town. Then the hockey game. Since Matt and Vossy live out that way, we’re hoping to catch up with them after the game too, if we can. That would be awesome!

But it also means an early night, since we have to be up at 7am! So this is me signing off!