Figured I could bump that journal from the beginning of this pandemic off my user page. This past weekend, I flew to Ottawa for a downtown furry con with an attendance cap of 500 (imposed before the province started lifting restrictions to allow for larger events). What followed was a weekend that, to be honest, I kinda needed: fun, friends & fursuits.

Thursday

With the first of my vacation days, and travel plans later in the afternoon, I finished packing and had a breakfast poutine from a local restaurant, before heading down to the airport. After checking in and dropping off my fursuit case, I lined up for security, and an hour later I was at my departure gate. The flight was pretty short (30 minutes in the air), and after grabbing my luggage I went out to catch the bus.

Only problem? The bus had just pulled away as I stepped outside. Not in a position to chase it down and not wanting to wait another 30 minutes, I quickly made alternate travel arrangements and arrived at the hotel half an hour later. Check in was uneventful, and I went to the elevators to head to my sixth floor room. Two of the elevators were down, and with staff and volunteers moving a lot of equipment with the remainder, it took a while to get up. Once I returned back down, I volunteered to help before picking up my badge that evening.

I joined up with SizzlinSparky and grabbed supper at a nearby pub that was offering half-price wings before returning and getting into fursuit to welcome other early arrivals to the hotel. Eventually, however, the heat got the better of me and I went up to my room to de-suit, check the schedule and look up the weekend's weather.

Unfortunately, my planned Saturday walk was at risk of not happening due to rain, but there was no consensus between forecasts, so I added them to my phone to continue monitoring and went to bed.

Friday

Waking up early, I decided to hit the pool once it opened, before showering and heading to Tim's for breakfast, sitting with some friends to chat as we waited for the convention to officially start. Some furs passed by to ask where registration was, so they could line up for one of the few remaining slots the con was offering. By the time reg had openned, both sides of the hallway were filled up.

I got together a group and managed to get a few games of Growl in before suiting up to head to opening ceremonies. Once the ceremony had ended, attendees began to line up for the Artisans' Alcove (CanFURence's term for the dealers' den), but with the lineup quickly coming to a halt as the room hit capacity, I went to run around other areas and didn't come back until much later.

After the morning rain let up, I got out of suit and met up with ForrestTheBoar to walk around downtown and find somewhere to eat. Once we returned to the hotel, I realized it was getting drier outside, and with Saturday's walk still in jeopardy, I tweeted out asking if anyone was interested in a night walk. Getting some interest and discussing with friends and staff, I made plans for 6:30 that evening (to give people time to get ready) and collected my con shirt, before heading upstairs to get back in fursuit.

It was around this time that the convention hit its capacity limit, and the two remaining elevators became a significant bottleneck for travel. While the lower three levels of con space were all accessible via the hotel's main staircase, it took a while to travel to and from the guest rooms. I budgeted extra time to head down for a break before the evening walk, but by the time I was ready to go the elevators had become an issue.

Another attendee staying on the sixth floor was at the elevators, and revealed she had been waiting for half an hour, so a bunch of us quickly gave up and went to the north exit stairs. We eventually found a route to the mezzanine, and from there could use the main stairs to the lobby, where I joined everyone waiting to walk downtown. Most of the participants were waiting in the cooler weather outside, so after waiting for stragglers and directing them through the revolving doors, I joined and started the walk.

Being two hours after sunset, it was already dark by the time we started, but fortunately I already knew where to go from the earlier walk, and we had fun visiting the well-lit sections of the Sparks St pedestrian mall, getting fursuiters plenty of photo opportunities (as a group and individuals) with the army of photographers that came along. Halfway through the walk, I tripped on a bench and took a fall, but was able to continue. After 90 minutes running around, we returned and got out of suit to grab supper.

I spent the rest of the evening in the games room, playing more Growl, before eventually heading upstairs for the night.

Saturday

Morning routine had me take another swim, before I decided to grab breakfast from the hotel restaurant, and check the forecast for the last time. After discussing with programming, we decided to cancel the afternoon walk and replace it with a short parade in the con space, and I went to tweet it out and hang with friends before suiting up. As the morning continued we began to learn that the hotel had organized some responses to the previous day's elevator issues: They had ordered some of the parts for the elevator to get lifted up to the roof that day, and opened up the service elevators for guests, effectively doubling their capacity.

The parade took a bit of time to start, but after 15 minutes we were already done, and I decided to visit Uranium's inflatables panel in the penthouse. After a few pics with the pooltoys, I took a look outside and saw the rain had stopped and the ground was starting to dry. With some encouragement from others, I organized another 6:30 walk.

This time around, the group had changed, and we were able to follow the previous night's route that much faster. Getting to the corner of Sparks St and Metcalfe, I looked at the time and decided we could visit one more location: parliament hill. I wasn't expecting the PPS to let us, but were allowed right up into the plaza in front of the peace tower to take photos around the flame in front. With the extra stop, we still returned to the hotel in 85 minutes.

I de-suited and met up with a few friends to head out for supper at a Japanese restaurant on Bank St. I spent the rest of the evening visiting the games room and dances.

Sunday

Swim, shower, hotel breakfast. I looked outside and saw it was sunny, with the weather holding until sunset. Would anyone be interested in a day walk? After some interest, I started to organize the third walk of the convention (fourth if you counted the parade on Saturday) We had a smaller group, but with better lighting and more people around we were able to do everything faster, and even return to the original route I had planned for Saturday's walk. This time, when we got to parliament hill, we took a group photo with the backdrop of the centre block and peace tower, before heading back.

A few attendees began to leave, and by sunset the lobby felt empty. I began making dinner plans with the goal of eating after closing ceremonies, and soon after I was having pizza in my room with :ForrestTheBoar, RudyShepherd8 and FloofyJack. After we wrapped up, I got back in suit one last time and went down to the dead dog, to socialize and dance to exhaustion.

Monday

I finished packing up, and went down to the lobby to grab breakfast at Tim's. With one last meal with other attendees, I hung out a bit in the lobby, before grabbing all my luggage, heading back down, saying a few more goodbyes, and heading home. This time, I took the LRT and bus to get to the airport, and breezed through security, leaving me with tons of free time. The plane left late, and it took a long time to get my luggage at the other end, but I made it in time for the express bus home.

Wrap up

Seriously, the weekend was a blast, if a bit of a blur in spots. While the elevators were an issue early on, they seemed to clear up more and more as the weekend continued, and as the inside temps dropped to make fursuiting that much more comfortable. And thanks to the 2+ years since I had seen most of the attendees, everyone was extra friendly.

While it would've been nice to not have to worry about the rain for my event/panel, the alternatives I was able to come up with in conjunction with programming made up for that by quadrupling the amount I had, and gave me ideas for future cons. Even if my feet were sore by the end of the last walk, and even though I was feeling the effects of that first fall all weekend.

Since we were still in a pandemic, masks and double vaccinations were mandatory, and the hotel enforced the latter rule before we could even pick up our badges or get keycards to access the pool.

The event space featured a 3-storey atrium where the con managed to turn the middle story into its "zoo", with plenty of light and lighting that allowed for fun nighttime shots. In to this space, some of the rooms had an additional foyer area that was treated as con space (subject to badge checks).

CanFURence 2022 will return the final week of July, to the same hotel. By then, I expect to have a new fursuit ton show off.. I can't wait to go back!