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Virginia and Surroundings
August 2018 - July 2019
August 2018 - July 2019
| Virginia Travelogue 2 |
This was Otakon's second year in Washington DC after moving from its long time home in Baltimore. While they handled the move pretty well last year, they smoothed out a few kinks this time around (faster bag check, for instance) for an all around solid experience. As usual, there were lots of panels and videos. Though Connie and I didn't get go to much in that regard. Last year, Zack wasn't doing much besides eating and sleeping. This year, he's down to one nap a day and doesn't like to sit still for too long, which limited our options a bit (that should change in a year or two). He did like looking at the cosplayers and playing with the escalators. Of course, we also spent some time in the dealers' hall and artist alley. So we were able to have some fun with him.
The video game hall was pretty great this year, with a lot of cool Japanese import arcade games. I went by myself Saturday night, so I had time to play around a bit and watch some AMVs.
The big highlight of this year though, was the concerts. I've been wanting to see an official Final Fantasy concert ever since I knew they existed (probably around 10 years or so), but I never managed to be in the right place at the right time. So I was thrilled to hear that Distant Worlds was coming to Otakon this year. And not just with one concert, but two. I would have been willing to spend half the day waiting in line, but fortunately they offered a limited number of VIP tickets a while back which, for a reasonable price, guaranteed a seat. They sold out in less than a day, but I grabbed mine the moment they went on sale so I was good. Connie isn't as into Final Fantasy as I am, and we weren't too sure Zack would sit through a concert, so she graciously offered to do other stuff with him when I went.
Friday's concert was the normal Distant Worlds show, which featured a full orchestra playing a diverse collection of music from Final Fantasy I - XV, along with full video accompaniment. It was amazing with a great set list. It didn't have all my favorites, of course, but I really don't have any complaints about the music selection or arrangements. It helps that Nobuo Uematsu is fairly heavily involved. In fact, here was there! He mainly just popped onto the stage a couple times to say hi, rather than playing any instruments himself, though he did join the orchestra at the end for One Winded Angel. Really, my only complaint about the concert was that, at one hour and fifteen minutes, I wish it were longer. It was awesome and very much worth it for any Final Fantasy fan, or anyone who enjoys good music for that matter.
Sunday's concert was titled A New World. Billed as a more intimate experience, it had only a handful of musicians, no video, and a smaller audience. It also had a mostly different set list (including a Tactics song). As such, it was a much different experience, but still excellent. The string quartet arrangements, for example, really stood out. While not quite as epic as Distant Worlds, I enjoyed it just as much and highly recommend it as well.
The VIP tickets actually offered more perks than a good seat and avoiding hours in line. After each concert, VIP ticket holders got a meet and great with Uematsu and the conductor (Arnie Roth for Distant Worlds and his son Eric for A New World). Basically, we got to say hi, get a photo, and an autograph. So that was pretty awesome as well. Now I've got my copy of Final Fantasy VII signed by both him and Sakaguchi, and I've got an art book signed by Amano. If I could just get Nomura's signature...
Anyway, while Zack kept Connie and I from getting quite as much out of Otakon as before, it was still fun and the concerts were fantastic. As always, I'm looking forward to next year.
After letting Zack play around for a couple of hours, we finally headed into the maze. This year's theme was board games and, to better fit, they swapped the usual crossword puzzle with some mini-games (dice, spinners, etc.), which made for an interesting twist. As usual, I made a point of fully clearing the maze and finding all the hidden map pieces. It was a pretty good design and a lot of fun to navigate. It took us around 1 hour and 45 minutes to finish, though we had a pretty good run in terms of choosing the correct paths and such so I probably could have knocked 20 - 30 minutes off that time on my own.
We finished a little before the park was slated to close for the day so we drove over to Hershey Farm to let Zack play around a little more and then hit up the buffet, like we've done the past couple of years.
Cherry Crest Farm is always a fun outting and I'm looking forward to next year's maze.
Anyway, we ended up going on Labor Day, pretty early on (the Festival started late August and goes through mid October). The most impressive Renaissance Festival I've been to in the past is the one in Phoenix. A big advantage the Phoenix Festival has over many others is that is has a large dedicated space, meaning that there's not only plenty of room, but that they can build permanent buildings, rather than having to put up tents and booths every year. Turns out that Maryland has a similar setup. It's also in a forest, which not only offers some shade, but also enhances the whole medieval fantasy feel a bit. It's probably not quite as big as Phoenix, but it's still the size of a small theme park and certainly has enough stuff to keep you busy for a few hours to a full day.
Since Connie and I had Zack with us, we didn't spend a lot of time watching shows (though it looked like they had a good variety, including a joust), but we did really appreciate that they had a playground in the back. There was also the usual selection of neat handmade crafts and medieval stuff, along with turkey legs, steaks on a stake, soup in a bread bowl, and a few more "exotic" foods as well (like Japanese). While I wish we could have stayed a bit longer, and watched a few more shows, we still had a fun several hours and Zack really enjoyed the playground and the bubble wand booth. I wasn't expecting to find a Renaissance Festival that could give Phoenix a run for its money, but I'm pretty happy to have one nearby and we'll certainly be going back next year.
Most of the Museums in DC are part of the Smithsonian and, as such, always free. But DC has its share of private museums as well and one of the most popular is the Newseum. In case the name didn't clue you in, it's about the news. Specifically, the history of the news and some especially newsworthy events throughout history. Following the recommended route I started in the basement, watched an intro video, and then took a look at an exhibit about the Berlin Wall, complete with an actual section of the wall. I remember studying about it in history class, of course, but I had forgotten that it really didn't fall all that long ago. Next up was a really interesting exhibit about the FBI, including details about some of their most famous cases and the ways they're adapting to deal with terrorism, cyber attacks, and other modern threats. There was also a small exhibit about newspaper comics. I ended up right near the cafeteria and I hadn't eaten much, so I decided to grab an early lunch before continuing on. Not bad, though there are certainly better places to eat in the area. Anyway, from there I took an elevator to the top floor which featured a nice view of Pennsylvania Avenue, a collection of award winning photos, and a set of current front pages from newspapers from all 50 states and a few different countries. It was kinda of interesting to see how the tone varied between them, even when reporting on the same stories. The next floor was focused on the history of news reporting in the US, from the early days of the country up through modern times, along with a collection of newspapers and the like from the entire period. One thing I appreciated was how balanced it was, pointing out some of the news media's greatest triumphs and biggest mistakes. That applied to the rest of the museum as well...mostly. All the info in the exhibits was very fair and balanced...up until you got to things from the last five or ten years (and especially the last two) and which point the information presented all had a very clear political slant to it. That was annoying, but at least it was only a very small part of the museum. Anyway, other notable exhibits included one on the history of different media used to report the news (radio, TV, and the internet), a section on journalistic freedom around the world, and a section where you could do a faux news report on a greenscreen, to name a few. In the end, it took me about four hours to do a pretty thorough tour of the museum (though I didn't watch all the videos). I can see why the Newseum is popular. It has a number of fascinating (and mostly fair and balanced) exhibits. It's not really good for kids, or anyone who doesn't want to read a lot (though there are a bunch of photos and videos as well), but if you don't mind spending some money to go to a museum in DC, it's certainly worth a look.
I left the museum around 3 and figured that, as long as I was in the area, I might as well go somewhere else for a couple of hours until things started to close. While I was thinking about what museum to visit next, I noticed a building next to the National Gallery that I didn't recognize. Turns out, the Gallery, which I thought Connie and I had explored pretty thoroughly before, has an entire Eastern building that we totally missed so I went in there. If you read my travelogue entry about the National Gallery, you might remember that I really appreciated the fact that it was focused entirely on old classics, without any modern art. Well, turns out that all the modern art is in the East Building. So yeah, looks like Connie and I didn't miss much of anything after all. Anyway, it didn't do anything to change my opinion of modern art. I mean, the giant blue chicken was kind of cool, as were the plaster casts of things you really shouldn't be able to make plaster casts of. And there were works by guys like Picasso where I can appreciate the work involved, even if it isn't my style. Most of the artwork though wasn't just bad, it felt to me like it was both lazy and lacking in creativity. For example, blank canvases with a border, a fiberglass board, and what looked like some props from a toy store. Many of the pieces didn't even have titles, which felt to me like the artist not only couldn't be bothered to put any effort or creativity into their "art", but they didn't even feel like putting in the effort to come up with a name. It was close competition, but I think this one was the worst. It's literally an empty room with a piece of string stretched from one corner to the other. Sometimes I wonder if some of these artists like to get together and laugh about how people spend massive amounts of money on these things, not to mention hours upon hours contemplating them and writing about them. Anyway, the best part of the East Building was the underground passage to the Main (West) Gallery. Not only is it cool and sparkly, but it takes you to where all the good art is. There's a nice cafe down there too.
It didn't take me too long to finish up there, but I wasn't sure if there was really enough time left before closing to go anywhere else. That said, I didn't want to go home yet so I started walking around the National Mall and noticed that I still had a bit over an hour before the Museum of the Native American closed, so I decided to go in and see the exhibits I didn't get to last time such as the exhibits on Pocahontas, the Trail of Tears, and American Indians in pop-culture.
By the time I finished, the museums were all closing and I didn't really feel like staying until supper so I headed home. It was a fun and interesting day, though it reminded me just how many museums and other attractions in DC I still haven't seen yet. But hey, that just means I've got more to look forward to.
Today though, we went to a familiar place but for something new. Zoolights is an annual event held at the National Zoo in D.C. where, for a month or so, they keep the zoo open late and fill it with lights and light art. I wanted to go in the past, but the timing never worked out. This year, we decided to finally go and meet up with some friends there. Unfortunately, the only day that worked for everyone was a Sunday, which meant extra crowds. The main issue being the traffic and parking situation around the zoo. If I go again next year, I'd ideally want to go earlier in the day (before all the parking lots fill up), spend some time in the zoo when it's light, and just stay there when the lights switch on. Unfortunately, that's not what we did. We got to the zoo area easily enough but by the time we arrived they had closed off all the official lots and trying to find other parking within walking distance was tough, especially with so many other people trying to do the same thing, slowing traffic on the nearby roads to a crawl. Poor signage didn't help. We did eventually find parking and make it to the zoo. The majority of the lights run along the main path through the zoo, though there are some side paths to special areas (such as the gingerbread village). There's also some food and souvenir stands and, on certain days, live music. The one thing you won't see is animals, since most of the zoo is closed off so as not to disturb their sleep patterns. Besides, it'd be pretty tough to see most of them in the dark anyway. Since we got there so late due to the traffic and parking, we didn't end up seeing all of Zoolights but the part we did was nice and it made for a fun after dark stroll. Definitely need to plan better next time though.
So off we went to Monster Jam. Which, surprisingly enough, was being held in a stadium in the middle of D.C. Off the top of my head, I would have thought D.C. would be too "high class" for something like that. But the stadium was pretty full so I guess it has plenty of fans in the area. Another surprise was the number of women in the audience (several of the drivers were female as well).
Anyway, Monster Jam isn't exactly what I expected. From my extremely limited knowledge of monster trucks, I expected lots of big crashes and smashed cars. Actually, it was more of a driving and stunt competition. There weren't any crashes and only one car got smashed (and even that was more of an afterthought than anything else). Basically, the roughly two hour show was broken up into several different competitions, with each driver earning points that would be added up at the end to their standings for the season. The opening event was a a time trial, with each truck trying to complete a simple course as quickly as possible. After that, they moved onto some ATV races and then it was back to the monster trucks for the two wheel trick competition. Some of those were pretty impressive. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to take many photos or videos of that, or any of the events for that matter, since I was keeping Zack under control. Actually, when the trucks were moving he would settle down and really focus on them (he started getting really into toy cars back in Hawaii). The problem was that he refused to wear the ear protectors we'd gotten him so I had to keep my hands pressed over his ears most of the time. On that note, I'd say that, for adults, it's not really necessary (it was loud, but not as loud as I expected). For kids though, probably a good idea. I did manage to get one video from the two wheel competition. Not the best performance, but I'm pretty happy that this is the one I recorded. The next round, after an intermission, was focused on doing fancy donut spins. Kinda neat, but we didn't stay for the whole thing. I would have, but Zack had been having trouble sleeping the last couple of nights and refused to nap earlier in the day as well so, as much as he was entranced by the trucks, he was starting to nod off so Connie and I figured that we should head home.
In the end, Monster Jam wasn't really what I was expecting, though I did find it moderately entertaining. I wouldn't watch it on TV, or make a point of going again in the future but, if Zack's current love of cars persists, I could see taking him again sometime in the future.
If you're a long time reader, you might have read my travelogue entries about Busch Gardens Tampa back in Florida. Well, this Busch Gardens is in Williamsburg, Virginia. And, unlike Tampa's, which is animal themed, BGW is themed around Europe, kind of like a mini Epcot, with most parts of the park based on different European countries. I don't think the theme runs quite as deeply as in Epcot, but each area has appropriate architecture (more or less), food, and shops. Though I didn't take as close of a look at a lot of the various shops and attractions as I normally would have since a big focus of our day was making sure Zack had fun.
On that note, we decided to start off by taking in a couple of animal shows. On the way though, I did stop to try out a VR ride in Ireland (a typical moving chair ride, but with VR goggles instead of a screen, which made it a bit more immersive). We also grabbed a couple things from the food booths. Speaking of which, the Food and Wine Festival is a very clear rip-off of the one in Epcot, with the exact same format and booth design. Not that there's anything wrong with that. Basically, you have a bunch of booths set up throughout the park, each based on a particular country or theme, each with a small selection of food and drinks (mostly, but not entirely, alcoholic). Everything is relatively cheap and tasting sized, encouraging you to snack your way around the park. As a note, unless you want a bunch of non-frozen alcoholic drinks, the deluxe pass (which gives you 10 or 15 festival items for a flat price) isn't worth it. Anyway, while there were only half as many booths as Epcot's festival, it was still a fun addition to the park. My favorites included the chimchurri beef (Brazil), tofu lettuce wraps (Japan, though honestly they were more Chinese), and ginger limeade (Jamaica).
But back to the rest of the park... While not on the level of Tampa, BGW does have some animals so we first took Zack to see the pet show, which featured a lot of dogs, cats, and other small animals doing tricks. It was moderately amusing, and he seemed to like it. Next up was the wolf show, which included some other predatory animals as well. After the shows, we continued through the park, spent a bit too long waiting in line for a fairly standard log ride, before eventually reaching Germany, which featured one of the park's two main kids areas, The Land of Dragons. Zack loved it. He spent quite a while in the water area before eventually climbing way up into the trees to make his way across the various rope bridges. He followed it up with a few rounds all by himself on some kiddie rides. He probably could have stayed there even longer, but we decided to head over to the other kids area so he could see the Sesame Street show. Unfortunately, he fall asleep when passing through Italy so we ended up splitting up for a bit. I went off for a ride on what I believe was the biggest roller coaster in the park, which was good, though it didn't have any real unique elements. We met up again in the Sesame Street area to see a later showing though Zack was still groggy from his nap so he didn't really enjoy it as much as he otherwise would have. We looked around the Sesame Street area after that and took Zack on one more kiddie ride but he was still groggy and we had a long drive back home, so we started making our way out.
It was a fun day and I'd like to revisit Busch Gardens sometime to take a closer look around and try the rest of the rides (expect another travelogue entry when that happens). Compared to Hershey Park, which is a similar distance from us, I'd say Busch Gardens has better food (probably even without the festival) and more stuff for young kids. Though I like Hershey better overall (bigger and more roller coasters). Either way though, they're both a lot of fun.
Volta is the story of a guy who is embarrassed by his weird hair (which is honestly rather tame by anime/manga/video game standards). But then he meets a girl on roller-skates, reminisces about his past, and...learns not to be embarrassed? Cirque stories are always pretty vague but this one seemed to lack any sort of concluding scene, which hurt it a little. Though the costumes, music, and dreamlike atmosphere were excellent as always. Anyway, it's the performances that matter the most and in that regard Volta doesn't disappoint with a wide variety of top quality acts. I especially liked the bike and trampoline parts, and the woman hanging by her hair was really unique. I wouldn't put Volta in my top three Cirque shows, but it's still amazing in its own right and very much worth seeing. It's actually going to be at Tyson's for another month so, if you're in the DC area, you've still got time to catch it before it moves on.