As we approached the Convention Center, we could see the people streaming in, many in costume. We've been to enough cons that no costume surprises us. We do not go in costume, but we do wear nerdy shirts. Mine was Jean-Luc's Tea Earl Grey Hot from Tee Fury. Our daughter wore the Peanuts gang doing Monty Python and my husband's shirt was from Portland 's Star Trek in the Park. We saw so many creative costumes during the course of the day. Some folks really go all out. Several times, we saw a Princess Aurora in a half-blue, half-pink dress. I saw a couple of Two Flowers from The Colour of Magic. We saw a sex-reversed Slave Leia and Han Solo. Lots of creative takes on the tardis from Dr. Who and a terrific guy as Han in the carbonite were roaming around. And I liked the public art in the convention center.
Our daughter handily led us to the floor and we soon met her friends from Fantom Comics here in DC. They have a ladies' night, which she really enjoys. We then headed for the autograph area. Even though he wasn't there yet, there was a line waiting for John Rhys Davies. Waiting gave us a chance to people watch. When it was our turn, I chose a picture from his days in Sliders, a TV series in the '90's. We had a chance to observe how kind he was to the teenagers ahead of us. We found he was equally charming to us, asking what we do and congratulating me on retiring yesterday. When I mentioned Sliders, it gave him the chance to say that the show could still be on, if they hadn't settled for simply redoing movies.
We had time for just one aisle of artists, before heading off to panels. They wanted to go to one on NASA, while I got in line in a room for Lord of the Rings. People were quite orderly and polite all day. Mr. Davies arrived first and immediately launched into answering questions. I eventually noticed a guy, who looked a lot like Sean Astin waiting at the bottom of the steps. Soon, John noticed him, too, and exclaimed, "Oh,it's you!" Sean soon informed the audience he had just done a half marathon in Annapolis! They answered questions for over an hour and Sean said they were the best and most considerate he'd had in the 4000 cons he'd been to. We learned that his daughter, who played Sam 's daughter at the end of LOTR, is graduating high school on Thursday and going on to Harvard. (John's daughter is 9 and has begun piano, he'd told us at the booth.) Sean jokingly announced his candidacy for the presidency, since O'Malley of Maryland just announced. John got his axe at the end of the movies. Sean stole his hobbit feet and was given his sword, Sam 's backpack and its contents, and his daughter 's dress, which made him cry. He loved The Hobbit book, but found LOTR hard to follow. During the filming of LOTR, he asked Peter Jackson, if he was going to do The Hobbit. Jackson replied, no, there just wasn't enough of a story there for a movie!
After the panels, we headed down to the floor to find food, which wasn't easy. We finally found pizza and, even more remarkably, seats. A four cheese pizza was $9 and the chef's special was $11. Drinks were $3.75 each. The prices were in line with other conventions and the pizzas weren't bad. 
We then went to Sean Astin 's booth. The line wasn't too bad. I asked how the marathon was and he said it was hot and difficult. When asked, he said his dad hadn't come to it, but had become more supportive of the crazy things he was doing. He also remembered that it's been several years since his dad was at Spooky Con in Orlando. I gently chided him for having no photo of himself as Two Flower and he said it was an oversight. We lamented the passing of Terry Pratchett and he saw it as a kind of cruel irony that someone with such a creative mind would be felled by such a disease (Alzheimer's). It was a nice chat. I do enjoy talking with the guests at cons!
We headed down Artists Alley to see all the amazing art and things like how many people were doing crocheted characters. I bought some cool boxes that hold electric tea lights - one for Star Wars and one for Star Trek. My husband went off to a linguistics panel, that included the author of the Klingon dictionary, and my daughter and I continued our tour. I picked up some great drawings, including one of Toothless and one of Baby Groot.
About 4:30, we joined the line in a room waiting for the 5:00 reading of Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan. My husband and some of my daughter's friends joined us. It was a real treat and quite funny. Jim Cummings did his Winnie the Pooh and Ray from The Princess and the Frog. Jess Harnell did Animaniacs, Bill Cosby and Christopher Walken. Cam Clarke, Barry Gordon, Rob Paulsen and Townsend Coleman did the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Phil Lamar did Chris Rock, Obama and others. They didn't get through the whole script, but they were obviously having a blast.
We arrived about five minutes early for our 7 pm reservation at Rosa Mexicano on 7th street. My daughter chose this place for her birthday dinner because they make guacamole at your table. 
It was really delicious and had a slight kick to it.
I had a tasty frozen mango margarita that was a bit smaller than I've usually had in restaurants. I also had one of their specialties, Budin de Pollo, which had tender chicken and lots of cheese in a pool of green sauce.
They brought rice and soupy beans for the table,which was a good side dish. I also ordered plantains,because we love them. My daughter ordered Tampiquena de Carne, which featured flavorful skirt steak.
My husband had a Negra Modello, which was a dark beer. His food was Camarones Tacos, which featured three shrimp tacos with purple cabbage and street corn, which looked very interesting covered with cheese and grilled.
We were stuffed and had a bit for our daughter to take home for her dinner on Tuesday. As we went to the subway platform, we saw more folks dressed for the con, including a great Cecil and Carlos with Khoshekh the cat on a stick from Welcome to Night Vale.
Back at the hotel, my daughter got to open the birthday gifts we'd brought with us. ( It had been tricky to get it all in our two carry-on suitcases along with our clothes.) she decided a taxi was the easiest way to get herself, her purchases and gifts home.
I need to let my aching back rest to be ready to do it all again tomorrow!
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