Star Trek Convention AAR -- Sunday

Sunday was the last day of the convention, and we managed to pack plenty of fun into it.

To begin with, we dressed in our costumes again.  DKoren did my hair in a different way this time, with a braid on either side that went up and around a ponytail.  I thought it was way more impressive and interesting than Saturday's hair, but I got way fewer people saying, "Wow, cool hair!" about it -- only one that I can recall, and Saturday I got at least a dozen.  But there were fewer people around on Sunday, so maybe that was it.

Anyway, we crammed our feet back into our boots and went to get our photos taken with Jonathan Frakes.  Of course, he is most famous for playing Riker on Star Trek:  The Next Generation, but several years earlier, he appeared in one episode of the Disney TV show Five Mile Creek, where he played Adam Scott, husband to series regular Maggie Scott (Louise Caire Clark).

My family discovered Five Mile Creek on VHS when I was in single digits, and for years, we would rent one video tape (which contained two episodes) every Friday night and watch both eps while eating pizza -- it was a huge tradition.  I still count Five Mile Creek as one of my absolute favorite TV shows, as one of my top ten favorite western shows.  So, long before I ever saw an episode of TNG, I had seen the FMC episode "Gold Fever" multiple times.  To me, Jonathan Frakes is first Adam Scott, then William Riker second.

So anyway, last Sunday, we waited in line to get our photos taken with Jonathan Frakes, nursing sore feet, but feeling pretty chill nonetheless.  I wasn't really nervous at all, unlike the day before, and we had a lot of fun waiting in line.  Helped that the line was a lot shorter too, as Frakes had done previous shoots already.

He arrived a few minutes before his shoot was scheduled to start, photo bombed someone else's shoot with another Trek actor, and then sort of rambled around the room, checking out peoples' photos from other sessions that hadn't been picked up yet, taking selfies with people, chatting, generally being very approachable and affable.

So when it came time to get our photos taken, DKoren and L went first, since I'd gone first the day before.  And when it was my turn, I didn't really say anything when I walked up, just kind of stood next to him and smiled, and he put his arm around me, and that was nice.  But then after they snapped the shot, I said, "Thanks," he probably said, "You're welcome" or something, and as I walked off, I turned a little and said, "I've always liked you on Five Mile Creek."  And he said, "Wow!  Really?  Man, that takes me WAY back!  You've seen that?  Cool!"  And I just grinned and said, "Yup!" and walked off to join DKoren and L, who were probably grinning and giving me thumbs up or something for talking to him, but I was busy making sure I didn't trip over my own feet and don't remember what their reaction was.

And I had come to regret not sitting in the captain's chair the day before when we visited the little photo op place, so we went back there and I got to sit in it after all, which has been a dream of mine for decades, really.  It was a very comfy chair, made me feel very commanding.

I will admit that, ever since becoming a Captain Kirk fan and deciding I really just needed a captaincy of my own, I have made it a habit to sit in any chair with arms just the way Kirk sits in his, arms on the chair, shoulders back, head high, ready for anything.  So it felt deliciously natural to take that seat and make it my own.  For a minute or two, anyway.

I didn't realize it at the time, but you could actually push the buttons, and they would make noise.  Some people asked us to take their pictures in it right after me, and they tried all the buttons out.  The hailing button made the little whistle noise, and the red alert button made the siren noise -- it was cool!  I made sure to get a close-up of the right instrument panel just because it plays such a pivotal role in my favorite episode, Shore Leave:

We also spent a bunch of time just standing around by a wall in our costumes, just chilling, absorbing a few more convention vibes.

(Photo courtesy of DKoren)

I do not know why -- maybe it's because there were a lot fewer people in costume that day.  Or maybe because there were a lot of people there on Sunday who hadn't been able to get tickets for the rest of the weekend, so they were all excited by people in costume because they hadn't been seeing costumed people for days on end.  Or maybe it's because there didn't seem to be a lot of groups of women in costume together, and here were three of us together.  Or maybe it's because we clearly weren't doing anything important, so it was easy to interrupt us.  Or maybe it's because DKoren and L in particular looked very foxy in those uniforms.  But for whatever reason, we had loads and loads of people stop and ask to take our picture!  Random people!  Sometimes just one, and then sometimes, when one person was taking a picture of us, several more people would stop and ask if they could as well.  It was hilarious!  We stood there for like an hour, texting family, checking email, chatting with each other, and at least twenty people stopped and got our picture.  After the first few, we would kind of bust up every time someone would ask to take a photo, and I'm sure they wondered what the joke was, hee.

Anyway, we eventually went back to our room to change, chilled in the pool area a while, where we got a wee widdle bit sunburned (WHY was there no clock in the pool area???).

That day, we ate an early supper.  Really early.  Like, at 3pm.  Then L stayed in the room and had some quiet time while DKoren and I went to get a box for me to mail a bunch of stuff home in, since I bought some souvenirs for myself, my kids, my brother, and a friend, and there was no way everything was fitting in my luggage.  We also took one last spin through the convention center, where they were packing things up.  It was quiet, but still had such a happy vibe that we weren't saddened at all by seeing it all packed up.  One thing I forgot to post about earlier was the cool poster they had in memory of Anton Yelchin.  You could write a personal message on it, which we did, along with thousands upon thousands of others.  Here's what it looked like:

(Photo courtesy of DKoren)

That night, we watched our last Pushing Daisies episode early, then went back down to our favorite restaurant (the only one we ate at all weekend) for dessert.  We'd wanted their chocolate lava cake as a special way to sort of cap off our incredible time together, but they were out of it :-b  So we ordered apple pie instead, and um... they brought us this:

It was like apple pie stuff fried on a skillet, with ice cream on top, and then after they brought it to the table, they poured caramel sauce over it, which then caramelized on the skillet and became basically inedible because it was so chewy.  And the pie crust kind of burned.  But the ice cream was yummy.

We hit our beds early that night and slept for a good ten hours, so exhausted by the incredible weekend.  The next day, DKoren and L dropped me off at the airport, I flew home, and that was the end of the adventure.

DKoren and L, thank you both so, so much for inviting me to attend with you this year!  You've given me countless wonderful memories, and I really hope we can do this again sometime soon.  It was beyond fun.  I miss you both.