I think this should work. And it won’t scroll off.
The Get-together: the official word
September 5th-8th is the date.
I’ve investigated hotels and deals.
Here’s the plan.
The Doubletree hotel downtown is the big convention hotel in Spokane. It also does a room rate that can be 149.00 for four people, two queen beds.
IF just one person shows up for those 3 days, Jane and I can be nice city hosts.
If a dozen or two dozen show up we have, around that hotel: the Loof Carousel. Duck feeding: bring your own bread. Numerous restaurants within walking distance. Numerous pubs within walking distance. The gondola over the falls. The bridge across the falls. Riverfront park. Wonders of the World inside the Old Flour Mill, which is a gew-gaw shop ranging from the extravagantly expensive to the whimsical and cheap. And various places where, in that season, we can watch the water, feed the ducks, ride the Carousel, and otherwise just sit in the hotel bar or restaurant or somebody’s room and have a good time. You will also be next to the INB, which is Spokane’s live theater: sometimes they have shows. You’re pretty well on your own for booking that, because they’re sometimes Broadway Show prices and we’re not going to try to organize anything.
We’re not doing the kayak and lake cruise this year: that’s also organization and handling money and we don’t propose to do that: we have to write. BUT we will be able to entertain you (everybody on their own ticket! We can’t afford to pay for it), talk, shoot the bull, and if we have enough people with cars or can make multiple 3-passenger trips in the Prius—we can get you to our house for a backyard barbecue in pretty temperate weather, at that time in Spokane, and that won’t cost you anything. We can come and get you at the airport [we also suspect the Doubletree has a bus], meet you at the train station/bus station, and generally use the blog to help everybody coordinate: you can put the discussion in this thread.
We’re hoping to get everyone housed for as little as 38.00 each a night—if you pair up in fours and share…or 50.00 a night if you pair up in twos for the 109.00 room. Food is, well, you can hike all over that area (including a Chili’s and an Azteca next door) and eat either more expensively or far cheaper than there. There’s a very nice sports bar about a 4 block hike away.
Nothing that I can think of will be further than a 4-5 block walk, and if that’s a trial for you, we can figure some way to get you there.
So what we’re proposing is this:
THE HOTEL
If you group up and reserve rooms now, you’ve got the option to cancel them if your plans change.
We’re setting aside those 3 days. It’s the best choice we can make for our schedule. If one person shows up, we’ll still have a good time, but we really hope a lot of you can show up. If 5000 of you show up, we’re in trouble, and we’ll be contacting the local convention-throwers for helicopter assistance…
Our focus in this is getting together with you guys, as many as can make it. We want to keep it affordable for everybody if you can just get here, we want to be in a period when we can hope for comfortable weather, we want you to have plenty available to do in the area, and we’ll be there to talk, sit about, and generally have a 3-day party.
Have to plead ignorance, I’ve looked for Regis, is it in Montana, Idaho, or Washington? Mapquest can’t find it….
Never mind, found it, it’s St. Regis, and is the place where they serve the killer huckleberry shakes called Frosty’s Drive Inn?
It’s right along the road.
Joe and Sue are in ok. We’re in the room right next door to Ready and ReadyGuy…..I think we’ll check out the shakes on the way back home…
Excellent: keep collecting people. We’ll be there about 3.
Correction: closer to 4, Everybody please party on and we’ll get there!
I’ll be thinking of you!
Just, in the last few minutes, worked through a non-surgical treatment plan for my gallstones. 🙂
Remember, everyone lucky enough to be in Spokane at the Con to enjoy yourselves mightily… and post of your pleasures. The rest of us are enjoying the Con vicariously. Party on!
I second Raesean! Hat ( and everything else!) pictures when you get a chance, please! I so long to meet or meet up with you all.
Successfully survived Shejicon IV, which was great fun, and the drive home, which was long. I can attest that though windshield comparison that the bugs in the Keremeos area are bigger and juicier than the bugs in the Columbia Gorge, but the Columbia bugs are more numerous and suicidal. I crossed the border promptly at 5, and ran into the tail end of rush hour traffic so got in the door at 6:30. Further details on the meet to follow when my brain reboots.
glad you got home safely.
Griffinmoon and I went over to the house and helped with yard work. Jane now has the lovely little arch bridge across the waterfall at the back of the yard, and we found the source of the leak. We did some pruning of the hawthorn, worked in the front yard weeding and picking up fallen pine cones, and generally got a whole 80 or 90 gallon yard waste container filled to the brim.
We were invited to stay and share in some more musical interludes, and had some good fun with those. CJ and Jane graciously sang songs for me that I didn’t know, even though they are in the FILK book they gave us at ShejiCon III. They also sang other songs that weren’t in the book, and we had a pretty good time with the guitars and the voices.
It’s now 3:47PM EDT, I pulled into my driveway a little less than 20 minutes ago. Griffinmoon and I made it to Toledo in time for her to pick up a rental car and to get home before the office at her destination closes. Hopefully, she can get a ride without having to hire a cab to get her to her house.
We had a great time while in Spokane. The only low point of the trip was driving through Chicago last night during what might have been the tag end of rush hour, but was still crowded enough on the roads, and of course, I had accidentally left the GPS programmed to avoid toll roads…..there aren’t any other kinds of expressways around Chicago EXCEPT toll roads, unless you go way out west. We did spend a decent night in Portage, Indiana, and got a good night’s sleep before the final push.
My cats remember me, they’re looking at me suspiciously, but it appears they’re glad to see me, if only so their litter boxes get cleaned.
Yay!
And the Whitehouses have made it home safely! Just got word–despite snowmageddon and floods.
I found Jordin’s YouTube video of “Speed of Light”, and decided to see if I could follow along with it using the sheet music you gave me. I found that using the capo on the first fret made all the difference.
Thank you for sharing it with me.
sorry, it’s Julia Ecklar and Ann Prather singing “Speed of Light”…..Jordin is the author.
Alas, a search for The Westerfilk Collection (Vol I & II) reveals that they are no longer in print, and are probably not going to be in print anytime soon……sigh…..
I don’t even know how I came across “Speed of Light” looking through the book, it just seemed kind of interesting when I saw it. I don’t know what other songs in there might strike my fancy.
Our thanks go out to Warrior of Worry for helping make ShejiCon such an intimate success. We wish WoW and Votary had been able to attend, but life has a way of overcoming plans.
Teegan won the Pride of Chanur print from Michael Whelan, and has received it.
Now is the time to start planning on attending WorldCon/Sasquan in Spokane, WA next summer. Is there anyone willing to set up a Shejidan Bu’Javid at WorldCon where Shejidanis could meet and mingle?
I agree on the thanks to WoW, and regret that she and Votary were unable to attend.
Congratulations to Teegan, and glad to hear the print arrived safely.
While the idea of coming out to Spokane next summer is appealing, attending another WorldCon is not. This is a direct result of a very bad experience at WorldCon in Chicago in 2012. If my finances and my schedule allow me, I would be willing to come out, but would not be attending any of the events directly connected to the WorldCon. I think in this case, I might end up subjecting myself to the physical torture known as commercial air travel, although again, that will depend on schedule/finances. Otherwise, I’ll use my POV.
This might not affect anyone else who was at ShejiCon IV, but my credit card got hacked. I found around $1,300 in charges were posted to it yesterday. Since the trip was the most extensive use of that card, my suspicions are that someone along the way got the numbers. All of the other charges that I’ve seen appear to be legitimately my purchases. My credit union cancelled my card and will be initiating an investigation. Fortunately, this was caught in very good time, but I’m concerned that of the four companies who are listed, only one of them refused to honor the card. The hacker bought shoes from Rockport, Famous Footwear, and put $25.00 into their Yahoo! Wallet account (as if they won’t get caught), but only Dell refused to honor the card on a $750 purchase. Yay, Dell…..So, hopefully, my credit union’s security department will be able to find the person or persons responsible and bring them some grief of their own.
OMG, Joe. Thank goodness for your credit union—and Dell.
We have real good service from Cap One, who have saved our bacon on one occasion.
So far, I’ve seen about $290 post to my card….It seems that the purchase from Famous Footwear, as well as two other purchases from Rockport were returned, but a third purchase from Rockport was posted to my card. I’ve contacted them, as well as Yahoo, and found an email address for the person who used the Yahoo Wallet. I’m sure it’s a fake email address, but I’ve notified my credit union with those details, too.
This is a case for public flogging…..but it’ll never get that far, I’m sure….
All of the charges to my credit card have been reversed. I don’t think the credit union is going to prosecute, since it’ll probably cost more to file suit against the hackers than what was lost, although I don’t know that for sure. It’s possible that they will file a lawsuit against them, since Navy Federal Credit Union is one of the biggest credit unions in the country.
Yay! I think they should file. Sometimes these large firms keep lawyers on staff, for, as Bugs Bunny would say, just such an eventuality.
I hope everyone enjoyed the soaps I made. 🙂
I have greatly enjoyed the soap, although not perhaps as intended. “You want me to WASH with the soap and WEAR IT OUT?!” It’s a souvenir / artifact and too good to waste on my grubby person. The soap is currently improving the ambiance of the sock drawer, which sadly needed it. Your thoughtfulness was deeply appreciated.
Everyone at ShejiCon got their choice of several of the soaps. There were ten of us and their were only a handful of the soaps left over after everyone had picked out what they wanted so I guess that qualifies as a success.
It’s lovely soap. We have lime in the coconut, right by our sink.