Convergence 2013

So my convergence experience began with a four hour drive up to Minnesota. This went rather well though traffic and forgetting my inhaler meant I didn't get to eat lunch until after I checked into the hotel around 2pm. Once I'd scarfed down my food, I headed over to the Mall of America to meet an old friend. We hung out until my mother and brother arrived and I met them at the hotel. Once they were ready, I drove us over to the convention since I figured there would still be parking on a Thursday (despite it being the 4th of July) and I wasn't planning on drinking that night. By then, it was later in the afternoon, which turned out to be a good thing since the line for getting your badge was insanely long. We made it in about 45 min, but the wait time was up to 3-4hrs earlier in the afternoon. We found out later that the number of people registered for the con had once again doubled (something like a 120% increase to 7000 or so people), and since it was a day off for most people many more than usual decided to get their badges that day. Still, what a mess. Once we had our badges, we attended the Dr. Horrible Sing-a-long Blog showing - there was an entire room full of people singing along:D. It was then time for a free, con provided dinner of rice with various furikake, soup, popcorn, pizza, smoothies, and fruit. We wandered around, enjoying the cosplays and checking out the various room parties. I introduced them to the toast party and had a really delicious cashew butter, nutella, chocolate pudding toast. My bro chose more poorly (eel...). None of us really wanted to bother going to any panels so we eventually just headed back to the hotel to relax and get ready for a full two days of con.
( Pics and more under the cut )