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!

Today is day 1 of the Supernatural Convention. That’s Supernatural, the TV show, not Supernatural the ghostly ghoulish type of thing, although both could be related.

The schedule for today is a mix of panels, photo ops and autograph signings… and surviving what can only be described as a crazed group of screaming fangirls! The things I do for my lovely wife

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!