For the weekend of August 8th-10th I made my return to Baltimore for Otakon 2014! After almost 2 months of preparing, it was finally time to go full on nerd. And it was amazing!
We landed on Thursday morning around 9 a.m. after a crazy plane ride. It’s been a while since I’ve felt sick during a landing. This pilot was so crazy he got us to Baltimore 15 minutes early!! We were greeted right away in the airport with signs for Otakon.
After a stop over at our hotel to drop off our things we were out and about Baltimore’s Inner Harbor. We visited the giant Barnes and Noble again. We traveled the back roads of Baltimore to find our destination for lunch: Sticky Rice– a vegetarian/vegan friendly sushi place. I saw this on the internet a few weeks before and knew I had to try it.
It was worth the walk:
The two rolls to the very left were both vegetarian. The roll on the far left had tofu and was vegan. Everything was spicy and super delicious. I even tried a “Dirty Sanchez Roll”:
I highly recommend this restaurant if you enjoy sushi and you are in the Baltimore Inner Harbor area. The service was great, the food delicious, and prices very reasonable. They also have other Japanese and Thai dishes as well. We wanted to go back to try out more things but didn’t make it that way. We’ll have to remember this for next year!
After lunch we wandered around and eventually ended up back at the hotel to add the finishing touches to our costumes. We cooked dinner in the hotel again this year too using my handy little 3 in 1 pot. That really saved us a lot of money this trip! Around 7 we realized that we should probably get in line for our passes. Last year we went around 2 p.m. We figured the line should be better later in the day, right?
WRONG.
The convention center was only a few minutes from our hotel this year. We wandered over and were faced with a HUGE line wrapping several times around the convention center. Uh.. what? It took us probably 15 minutes to figure out where exactly the line started. We almost walked away to come back the next day. It was a split second decision that we hopped in the line and I’m really glad we did. Our vacation would have been ruined if we didn’t get in the line at that moment.
For hours we followed the line as it wrapped around and around and around. I was strong for the first hour or two. We got stuck in front of this group of what I call “Yelly Nerds”. You’ll know the type once I describe them. They are the type of people who are super socially awkward, and they feel the need to yell out every thought that crosses their minds no matter how weird or stupid it is. They did this to us for THREE hours. And every time we rounded a corner of the building they would “Woo”. Yes that’s right, I met the very first ever “WOO BOYS”! I fantasized about smashing their heads into the concrete walls of the convention center.
But even they couldn’t hold out for all the hours we stood in that line. After three hours they got quiet. We started to lose hope once rumors of the convention center closing started to go around. Supposedly the doors into the convention center were going to close at 10:30. Once inside- MORE LINES AWAITED. I’m not sure how I didn’t lose my shit at any point during that night.
As 10:30 crept closer, we made a slow progression to the door. Yes we could see it! It was within our reach! It was just about 10:30 and we were right at the door… and we took off running once we got to it. We made it inside by less than a minute. A few people behind us and they closed the doors! We were in! We were going to get our badges that night!
Another hour passed by… and it was becoming apparent that we were not going to get our badges. The convention center itself was going to close. I was being so stubborn I was just going to stand in that damn line until someone gave me a badge. However the people working and yelling wouldn’t let us stay. We were defeated 😦
We were lucky enough to get passes to skip the line the next day though. That’s why I say I’m so glad that we got into the line when we did that night. Otherwise we would have been passless, standing on the street angry. The next morning we got up some what early and ran over to get our badges. The line was wrapped around the building 5 times more than it was the night before! If we didn’t get in line we would have wasted half of Friday in line waiting to get in. We were able to skip the line and get our badges quickly. All I wanted to do once I got my badge was flip it off and show the world:
So that’s exactly what I did. We were exhausted, my feet hurt, and I was angry. But as soon as that badge was in my hands all of that went away. I wasn’t tired. My feet didn’t hurt. I wasn’t angry.
IT WAS CON TIME!
We did pretty much the same thing we did last year- run around and take pictures with people, check out the dealers room, and have our photos professionally taken. Here are some highlights of the awesome cosplays we saw:
Stay tuned for more pictures of our Chrono Trigger cosplay! We’ve got professional photos, our photos, a group photoshoot, and even a video! I’m so excited to share all of this with you!
Until next time! ❤
Evolution of Jill 
OMG HOW COULD YOU NOT TELL ME YOU SAW MRS FRIZZLE!!!!!!!
This is going to sound terrible, but I don’t really know who she is 🙂