MrAMP

Hey there all you fantastic folks. 

I do wish to apologize for not updating this sooner; however, as some of you folks may know already, I recently bought a house that has been taking up a ton of my time with cleaning, moving, and purchasing some new furniture.  As such I had to wait until I got some free time to go ahead and post this up for your reading pleasures.

I was on vacation from July 1, 2018, through July 11, 2018.  My dad and I took the trip together in car rather than on an airplane.  Here’s a summary as to what transpired during that time.    

Day 1:  July 1, 2018

On the drive up to Pennsylvania, we went ahead and stopped at the Fantastic Caverns in Missouri as we always drove by there during our trips up to Pennsylvania.  It was quite the fantastic expedition as it was so cool down there in both temperature and rock formation there.

After the Fantastic Caverns, we made it to St. Louis and stopped on the good side for the night.

Day 2:  July 2, 2018

The night before, I bought the tickets to go up into the Arch.  That morning, we went to the actual Arch.  I took a ton of photographs of the Arch itself, me touching the Arch, the new museum underneath it, the courthouse, and so much more.  My dad and I even went up into the Arch; however, and I’m not proud to admit it, I got super sick up there.  It turns out that, while it does withstand about 150 miles per hour wind, a slight breeze does make it shake.  So I got a little motion sickness up there.  After that, we went to the Old Spaghetti Factory and ate.

We made it to somewhere in Indiana.

Day 3:  July 3, 2018

The drive was relatively uneventful that day.  We stopped in the Heart of Ohio Antique store and bought a few things here and there.  We actually made it to Pennsylvania that day ahead of schedule.  We had dinner with the only aunt that we still talk to.

Day 4:  July 4, 2018

I actually planned this out and wanted to get here on this day as I knew this would be the day to do all the stuff that we wanted.  The first place we went to was the old Hot Dog Shoppe for some delicious hotdogs for breakfast.  After that, we went to the Aviary to explore the zoo and buy some nice goodies.  Man…the birds were simply amazing, especially the penguins when we actually fed them for 30 minutes.  After that, I went on both Inclines.  For those unaware, the Incline was an old pulley train like system used back in the old days.  I spent a ton of time with my aunt again and then head back to Maples for a nice, warm, and tasty signature roast beef sandwich.  I followed that buy a delicious cluster ice cream from Hanks.  It really changed, especially with the new, paved parking lot.  Same great tasting ice cream though.  The fireworks were amazing too.

Day 5:  July 5, 2018

This was the first day of the convention; however, this was also pretty much the badge pick up day.  So before I did that, I wanted to go ahead and take a detour to a graveyard.  I haven’t been up to Pennsylvania for well over a decade and wanted to pay my respects to my grandma and grandpa.  I talked to them for over an hour. 

Getting the badge for Anthrocon was relatively easy if you signed up for it in advance unlike the 1,000 people waiting in line.  XD

Day 6 through Day 8:  July 6, 2018 through July 8, 2018

HOLY CRAP!  Anthrocon was freaking amazing!  I had such a blast hanging around Mastergodai, Chalo, Nekonny, and Tom Fischbach.  That’s just a few to name as I also met up with Libra-11, Jaeh the Bird, Max the Rabbit, Liz, ShoNUFF44, N8Dogg5k, and Dreamkeepers.  I also had a blast taking so many pictures of fur suits.  Seriously, these outfits were much better than all the anime conventions I’ve been to in the past decade.  I went to dance competitions, video tapped the parade for over an hour and a half, chatted with Slaughts and Mislakane, met up with Bone and his mom, saw those two creepy guys and so much more.  Seriously, Anthrocon had to be the best con ever.

The panels were the only thing I didn’t like as three of the five I went to were cancelled and the other two were cut in half due to overscheduling. 

I had so many hot dogs that it’s not even funny in addition to ice cream.  I spent a ton of time with my aunt. 

Day 9 through Day 11:  July 9,2018 through July 11, 2018

We left Pennsylvania Monday morning after buying $100 worth of pepperoni and cheese popcorn.  The first day was pretty much just driving to St. Louis.  The next day, we tried to take the helicopter ride around St. Louis; however, it was cancelled due to helicopter failure.  Instead, we stopped at the Meramec Caverns.  The last day was nothing but driving and heading home.

Breakout of Expenses:

Money Spent at the convention  $1,458.89

Money spent on Food                    558.71

Money Spent on Hotel Rooms     1,249.58

Money spent on Entertainment      789.58

Total Expense                           $4,056.86