Supernatural Convention #DallasCon

The weekend of September 20th hubby and I attended a convention for our favorite show: Supernatural!  I know I’ve blogged about how amazing this show is multiple times, so it should be no surprise that we finally decided to go to a con.

The convention was in Dallas, which is about a 4 hour drive from Houston. We drove up Friday evening and I only bought us general admission for Saturday and Sunday. The con really started on Friday, and there were plenty of people who shelled out all the money to get the Gold seats. Sure, the Gold package sounds awesome – great seats, extra autographs, and a special more intimate panel. What I really wanted was a photo with the boys, especially with my boyfriend Jensen Ackles. I mean seriously, that man is gorgeous, and is my #1 celeb crush. So way back when I first found out about these conventions put on by Creation Entertainment and learned of the scheduled dates for the con in Dallas, I went ahead and bought a duo photo opp with Jared and Jensen (Sam and Dean from the show). I bought this while hubby was still on deployment, ages ago it seems now. This was before we moved, before I got pregnant, before everything got a little more complicated. So as the timing worked out, I got to take the photo while 7 months pregnant. No big deal, just a little extra bump in the photo heh. I bought the general admission passes when they started selling them and reserved our hotel rooms at the Westin, but this was at a much later time than when the photo opp first started selling. I wasn’t about to let the photo sell out and miss our chance. Much much later Creation added a Houston stop on the convention tour, for the first time in 10 years! I had already bought the Dallas con, and we decided it still made more sense to go up to Dallas in September while 7 months pregnant, than to try to sell our tickets and buy the Houston ones instead for January, when we had a 2 month old.

So we had a little Dallas weekend adventure. This was actually our very first time in Dallas, but we didn’t really explore any sights there. Another time Dallas, sorry. We got up there Friday evening, and while I really wanted to check out the Karaoke Kings since everyone says how fun it is, this prego girl just needed to go to sleep. Maybe if I wasn’t pregnant and didn’t have to work that day and then have a 4 hour drive I would have been up for it, but I could barely keep my eyes open.

We bought a few souvenirs in the vendor room prior to the panels starting. I bought a book (which I’m holding in the photo with the cardboard cut out Sam and Dean) with lots and lots of photos and tidbits about the show and the making of. Hubby bought a coffee thermos that says “Driver picks the music, shotgun shuts his cakehole.” Yea, pretty awesome. Saturday panels included some fun from the host Richard Speight, Jr. (Gabriel/Trickster) who ran up and down the audience and I got to high five him since I was sitting in an aisle seat at the time. There was a panel with Jim Beaver (Bobby) and Kim Rhodes (Sheriff Jody Mills). Osric Chau (Kevin Tran) had a panel where he was dressed normally (apparently he likes to cosplay at every convention – and he did dress up later). Then Mark Sheppard (Crowley) took the stage, and really, he didn’t stay up on the stage. His panel was probably my favorite (you know, not counting J&J) because he walked around the audience and joked and poked fun at people, especially those dressed up as Castiel. Gil McKinney (Henry Winchester) was another favorite because I didn’t realize how talented this man is. He is a great singer and even sang a song from Les Miserables, in the middle of his panel, because someone asked about it. He sang “Empty chairs at empty tables”. I’m sure if I had attended the Karaoke Kings I would have known of his singing ability, but alas, I did not. Also, this was my first con and a lot of people go every year it seems and know all about these guys. Later there was a panel with the goofy Richard Speight, Jr. (Trickster), Matt Cohen (Young John Winchester) and Rob Benedict (Chuck Shurley/Carver Edlund. That was followed by the last panel of the day, Misha Collins (Castiel). Another important character had an appearance on Saturday as well – the Impala! Yep, I took some photos with it. Sunday they actually opened up the trunk so I had to take another pic. That was awesome. Saturday was a full and fun day for sure.

This funny sign was outside the theater/panel room. Creation has a fun sense of humor. Also the stars kept commenting on how long the panel room was. I’m starting to think Dallas is their biggest turnout on this tour. Go Texas! We love to bring the boys home.

Sunday was the (THE) day. The day I finally got to (for like 15 seconds) meet the boys for our photo opp. The photo opp was first for us, then their panel was later in the day. There were private meet and greets going on too, but I didn’t shell out the bucks for those. Kinda wish I had though heh. I need a bigger budget for these things. Anyway, the line for the photo was moving so fast that it was obvious we’d only get seconds with Jensen Ackles and Jared Padalecki. When it was our turn I quickly went and hugged them both (!!! Yes I hugged them OMG!) and hubby shook their hands, then we took the fastest photo ever and it was over. $250 for 15 seconds with them. With each photo you’re allowed an additional family member with you, so this turned into a really nice family photo, bump and all. The helper in line commented on my fan in training. 🙂 I was nice and decided to allow hubby to take the photo with me lol. I had originally considered getting my sandwich photo with them hehe. Either way I told hubby to stand next to Moose (Jared, and his 6 foot infinity) and I of course stood next to Jensen – he’s mine, after all. I mean, look at that amazing photo. First of all, the photographer is amazing. One click and he captured me looking my very best and hubby too. No one blinked, smiles were awesome, and Jensen even leaned down into me. Squeeee! He’s the same height as hubby so if he stood up straight I’d be a midget in that photo with all these men over 6 foot tall. I considered asking for a chair to stand on lol. Anyway, I got my snuggle with Jensen and all is well in the world.

 

 

Then the afternoon panels got going. First we saw Tahmoh Penikett (Gadreel) and he was really cool to get to hear. I didn’t realize he played the FBI agent on Dollhouse too. Very cool. Then the headliners Jensen Ackles (Dean) and Jared Padalecki (Sam) took the stage, and that was just the most awesome thing ever. I loved hearing them joke with each other and entertain silly fan questions. At one point someone asked them what their favorite monster was and what their favorite way to kill them was – and Jared just had to be crazy sweet and said he married his favorite monster (Ruby) and his favorite way to kill was to give her children. OMG! Then he mentioned she was backstage and we all went nuts chanting her name and so she came out for like two seconds to say hi and gave Jared a kiss. So sweet. Jensen answered a question by giving a slight spoiler about the duration of Demon Dean in this upcoming season, so that was kind of cool too. The season starts Oct 7 and I can’t wait to start watching it again. Jensen and Jared must have mentioned in their special Gold panel earlier that they moved to Austin and bought neighboring houses, so now they don’t need a phone. Yes, they have become bffs because of this awesome show and their wives and babies hang out. Guess maybe I need to make more trips to Austin… and be on the lookout for sightings hehe. Jensen was asked what his first car was, since Dean has “baby” the Impala. He said it was his mom’s Nissan Pathfinder, and that is the car he packed up when he moved from Dallas to Hollywood. [And as an aside, I had to get some car repairs done and I had to get a rental. Well they were out of smaller cars that day so they gave me a Nissan Pathfinder, and for a moment I felt a special connection to Jensen.] Anyway, when the band was transitioning the end of the panel, Jensen got up and sang with the band for a moment. OMG I love his voice.  Seriously, that man is perfection. Later there was a panel with Jim Beaver (Bobby Singer), Misha Collins (Castiel) & Mark Sheppard (Crowley), but at that point everyone was just being silly and goofy and Mark just walked around the audience and ignored Misha and so Jim and Misha were answering fan questions while Mark antagonized them from the crowd. Silly guys. Right after that panel the photos were available (which was awesome, because we were told they wouldn’t be ready until 9pm, and this was only 7pm – we were prepared to wait, and get back to Houston at a ridiculous hour and then have to go to work the next day). The photo turned out amazing. Just amazing, and we paid for a JPG to be emailed to us and got on the road back home. We got in around 11pm, so not too late, but Monday morning was sleepy. What an amazing weekend though!