Pyrotechnics and Ponies

LIGHT UP THE NIGHT:   We spent the evening of the Fourth of July on Lake Union, home to Seattle's official fireworks display.

We happened to have a family member who was captaining a yacht parked on the lake, and he invited us down for the show. We happily accepted the generous offer.

The show didn't start until about 10:15, but to beat traffic, we headed down to the lake at about 7 p.m. Already, Gas Works Park (in the distance) was filled with Fourth of July revelers. 

Pre fireworks, the kids and Christian took a little spin around the lake on the 'skiff.'  Little did they know, the lake shuts down to any traffic at 9 p.m. They were stopped by three patrol boats on their way back to the 'mothership.' :0

The fireworks were dazzling, as always. 

As the grand finale was fading to smoke, we were hot-footing it for the parking lot to try to beat the crowd out. Happily, our plan worked. We were home in no time (and then got to listen to stupid neighbors shoot off illegal fireworks until about 2:30 a.m.).

PONYCON:  Nothing like being awake all night and then starting the Fifth of July by standing in line in a hotel lobby in Seatac starting at 8 a.m. and then being barked at by a 'pony' named Star Song, telling you to stand in said line for an HOUR, waiting to gain access to "Everfree Northwest," a convention for fans of My Little Pony. Good times. ... 

It was our first 'con,' and it was, um, let's see how to describe it in a "Friendship is Magic" kind of way  ... it was an experience. I think that part of the problem with anything like this is it's largely (perhaps wholly) run by volunteers who don't have a lot (or perhaps ANY) event planning experience. 

It was supposed to open at 8, with a full day of all sorts of scheduled activities in various rooms throughout the Seatac Hilton convention center. Well, we spent an HOUR on line and then in the registration antechamber, just trying to gain access. Once we did, our first stop was a big room where Saturday morning (pony, of course) cartoons were being shown and there was supposed to be a free breakfast. OMG, I wish I'd taken a picture of the scene. First, we had to wait in another line to gain access to the room, and then once we got in, there were no seats and what apparently used to be the breakfast table looked like it had been ravaged by starving people post some kind of natural disaster. A few random Froot Loops on the table, but that was it. Have I mentioned it cost us $75 to go to this event? 

We spent about 10 minutes in that room, and did see a couple of cute videos we could have stayed home and watched for free on YouTube, including one about Pinkie Pie, to the tune "Giggles & Gumdrops" http://youtu.be/LfJIggIySiM


After the videos, we wandered to a couple of other rooms. One was the craft room, where a 'foal' (for kids) face painter was supposed to be on duty starting at 8:30. Well, it was 9:45, and no sign of the face painter. Annabelle did draw a pony (something she does at home for free, daily). People were invited to hang their completed artwork on this fancy display .... 

Meanwhile, CJ was in the gaming room, where the played Super Smash Brothers Brawl with some fellow bronies. 

About quarter after 10, we explored some more and saw hordes of people milling about, looking and lined up for the autograph room, which was supposed to open at 9.  We heard one of the PIC (ponies in charge) informing people the 'talent' wasn't actually expected to be there until 11:30 or so - a mere 2.5 hours late. We didn't stick around. Meanwhile, by 10, ponies were already lining up for the 11:30 Meet the Voice Actors panel. Not feeling like being in yet another line for 90 minutes, we wandered around and eventually wound up  in the tabletop gaming room. There, ponies were running stations teaching others how to play the new-ish My Little Pony card game. 

CJ, Christian and Annabelle all sat in on a tutorial and I listened in. Let me tell you, this is no game for little kids. It's complicated - like Magic or Dungeons and Dragons complicated. 

Annabelle picked it up lickety split. I could tell the tutor was impressed - especially she she started suggesting plays that were better than the scripted/suggested ones for the tutorial.

We learned there would be a 'foals' card tournament at 11:30 and the kids decided to sign up. We had about 45 minutes to kill, so we decided to go look at the vendors' hall. Approaching it, we saw there was a line out the hotel's door full of ponies waiting to get in. We walked outside to see where the line ended and ... we couldn't see the end. It stretched all along the front of the Hilton and wrapped around the building. We decided we were not waiting an hour plus in line (again) to see MLP merchandise, so we walked back in the lobby. Soon, someone informed us that 'foals' (children) had a special line. That one was only 6 people deep. So we got in it and got into the room almost immediately. I was happy for us, of course, but felt super guilty cutting in front of all of those dozens and dozens (hundreds?) of people waiting. 

We looked at an impressive array of MLP merch, but bought nothing.  Out in the lobby, we stood in line for about 20 minutes to give the kids a chance to check out some amazing virtual reality gaming gear - Oculus Rift.

 Players donned huge goggles that let them explore a 3-D My Little Pony world. 

The kids thought it was REALLY cool!

Soon, we ventured back to the card room, and we spent the next 1.75 hours there, because the tournament was three rounds, each of 30 or so minutes. 

Annabelle won her first game and found herself at the head board against a seasoned player who had her own, specially assembled deck of cards (as opposed to Annabelle, who was using a starter deck, and had learned to play an hour before).  Annabelle was pretty proud to play the girl to a draw. 

In the end, Annabelle won one, tied one and lost one. CJ was 1 and 2. I was proud of him for hanging in there. He really didn't even want to be in the tournament to begin with!

It's also worth noting that the people running that room and helping the kids during the tournament were great. By far, the best part of our "Everfree" experience.

After the card tourney, we were ponied out and headed back for our stable in Seattle. 

FIRED UP: The hits just keep on coming from the team who is trying to commandeer an ancient (in relative terms) NASA space probe. 

On July 2, for the first time in a generation (!), a private team manged to fire thrusters on ISEE 3,  which was, once upon a time, NASA's International Sun-Earth Explorer 3.

Launched in August of 1987, and retired in 1997, it took several attempts for the team to get ISEE-3's thrusters to go. When it finally worked, reboot project co-Keith Cowling called it "a very good day" on the project blog: http://spacecollege.org/isee3/. The team hopes to move ISEE-3 into an advantageous position to communicate with Earth.