On the road again: Sasquan, Spokane, day 1

After working until the wee hours, I enjoyed a full night of rest and finally got out of bed feeling decent--not fully rested, but not exhausted, either.  That was a nice change and a reasonable way to begin the first real day of the WorldCon.

For reasons I do not know, my hotel has this room.

Click an image to see a larger version.

Part of me wants to see inside this room, to learn exactly what makes it a circus room.  Another part of me would rather leave the answer to my imagination.  To date, the latter part is winning, but that could change.

Along the rather long walk to the convention center, we stopped for a delicious lunch at Sante.

Maple pancakes with caramelized peaches, house-made bacon, and two fried eggs.  Yum.

After registering for the con, we headed to the opening ceremonies, which were SRO and unpleasantly hot--but worth the time.

The best part was this long bit at the beginning, in which a native-American storyteller beautifully shared with us some interesting stories.  He was very good at the nearly lost art of oral storytelling, and I quite enjoyed his presentation.

After a walk through the dealers' room, we headed out to the First Night events at a park adjoining the river.  Behind a fence there, some people were working on the construction of a new addition to the park.

The look of these fake flowers made me regret not getting to see the finished park.

If you haven't heard the news, wildfires are a problem right now in this part of the country.  Spokane is both quite hot and, because of the fires, very polluted.  The sky constantly looks dense and unpleasant, and after walking outside for even a short while, you need to bathe.

Weirder than the sky is the sun, which should not appear this cherry-red in the late afternoon.   (You'll have to blow up the image to see the sun clearly.  It really was that color; I made no changes to the photo.)

Why am I showing you this parking structure?

Because how cool is "PARKADE"?

Dinner was a nice meal with friends at Mizuna, where the food was locally sourced and tasty, though not remarkable.

After some non-PT work, I crawled parties with friends, and now I must crash.

Tomorrow, my con activities commence.