PAX PRIME Seattle

PAX Prime. What is it? Well the Wikipedia definition of PAX (Penny Arcade Expo) is as follows (reworded by me). "PAX is a semi-annual gamer convention that is ususally held in Seattle and Boston. The creation of this event was by two individuals by the names of Jerry Holkins and Mike Krahulik who are authors of the Penny Arcade webcomic. They created PAX because they wanted to attend an event that gives gamer attentions to console games, computer games, and tabletop games." Definition for non-gamers, Gamer/Nerd Fest.

On Friday August 26, 
2011, at 4:30pm we set out to Seattle gamer festival. The event ran from Friday August 26 to Sunday August 28. When we arrived to Seattle, we checked into our hotel (The W hotel), unpacked our belongings got dressed and went out to dinner at Purple, which by the way was a fantastic restaurant. After dinner, it was already around 10pm but we still went to the convention hall to see what was going on. For the next 3 hours we spent the night getting toured around from one of our friends of the main places in PAX to go check out. The main exhibits were closed when we got there but our friend showed us the different areas where "Free play" was taking place. "Free play" is for gamers to play their tabletop, computer, video games in designated areas and usually lasted until 2am. We got toured around to see people playing board games, card games like Magic cards, role play games like Dungeons and Dragons, video games and computer games. 


A very interesting thing for us to see was a hall filled with  giant flat screens and people sitting around playing XBOX, PS3 and Wii. What you had to do to get your hands on one of these consoles to play your favorite games was to register at the front desk and drop off your photo ID and off you go with various new console games. There was even a hall designated for retro games like super mario brothers on old Nintendo system!. There were line ups everywhere for "Free play" There was a big hall filled with over 200 computers where you can line up and play almost any computer game you want (starcraft, Warcraft, counter strike and many others). Our intro tour lasted about 2 hours and then we got tired and went back to our hotel to get some rest for a long, long, long day Saturday.


Saturday August 27, 2011 we woke up at 7:30am to get some breakfast and head down back to the Seattle convention center. We started our day at the main exhibits where we got loads of free stuff. T-shirts, recycling bags with video game logos, lots of lanyards, spiderman disposable camera, mini-fans, glow sticks, pins, blow up swords, and even LED flashing glasses.


 There were definitely a lot of booths with new video games to be released. Gears of war 3, Assassins Creed, Batman: Arkam city, Starhawk, Fire Fall, Battlefield 3 and many more. The line ups to try out the new games were just totally insane. Some ranged from 15 minutes all the way to a 4 or even 5 hour wait. Gamers are so intense. 

Turtle and I didn't spend much time waiting in line we were more interested in seeing the different booths and getting free swag! We did however line up for almost 1 hour to play Starhawk, which by the way was semi worth it. We got free shirts but turtle sucked so bad and did not help his team at all. Around lunch time we quickly grabbed some food and  stuffed ourselves full with Thai food.All I wanted to do after was sleep. But of course that was not an option, we went back to the exhibition for more gamers' fest. 

The afternoon went by, we had bags and bags full of free stuff. We made our way back to our hotel to drop off our stuff, quick showers and headed to the Cheesecake Factory for dinner. Our night did not end there. We went back after dinner for "Free Play". Turtle and his friend rented XBOX console and played "Marvel vs Capcom" then went to the retro section and rented Mario Bros. What a long night. We ended the night at the computer hall and played 30 minutes of computer games and went back to our hotel for another long day Sunday.
Sunday August 28, 2011 was a short day because we had to make our way back to Vancouver before nightfall. We got up a little bit later that morning and went and lined up outside another building for Halo-fest.


It was worth the wait because the both of us got limited edition Halo Fest Mega Bloks UNSC Warthog. Only 5000 of these were made and were exclusive at the PAX event only. Halo fest gave out a lot of free stuff. Free bags, free halo figurines and mega bloks halo builds. Turtle wanted to line up for something but they were all gone. He did however used up 2 hours of our time building this awesome looking fighter jet using  halo themed mega bloks. 
We spent the remaining time getting more free stuff and even did a scavenger hunt with our friends.

Overall the trip was very interesting and fun. Lots of different things to see and do. Of course, free stuff. My car was packed with not only our bags but free stuff from the event. I am sure turtle will go back next year, but maybe without bunny.

Michael Buble in Kelowna

So to finish off our trip to Kelowna, our final for this chapter will end with a Michael Buble blog. As we have mentioned many times in our previous blogs in August, our reason to Kelowna was for Michael Buble.

The concert was held on Friday August 5, 2011 in Kelowna at Prospera place. The venue is much smaller compared to well known venue's he has been before, for example, Rogers Arena in Vancouver. Speaking of Rogers Arena, we actually we were there to see his concert last year in August too. But this time in Kelowna, was much much much better! We had row 3 seats so literally if Michael wanted to, he could have sweated on us.

The concert opened with Naturally 7 (american music group of 7 men playing beat boxing a capella style instruments by using their voice) with numerous songs from their album "Vocal Play". They got the crowd all heated up for Michael Buble by making the crowd jump, clap and sing. 

Michael Buble finally came out around 9pm. He started off the show with his song "Cry Me A River" from his 2009 Crazy Love Album. He was standing infront of a bluish white light, in a black suit and tie and his band. Dun, Dun dun dun dun, dun dun dun dun dun dun dun, dun. Ahhh, just listen to Cry me a river and you will know what I am trying to sing. He sang many songs, including, Crazy Love, Everything, Haven't Met you yet, Hold on, Macn the Knife etc etc and he also did a side spoof of Michael Jackson's Billie Jean. 

During the show he told the crowd to youtube "Russian Unicorn". We actually went into youtube and searched up Russian Unicorn and this is what we got. Very funny video.

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YjaZNYSt7o0

The show was a good 3 hours before it was over. During the show, a lot of seniors had to get escorted out the building. Not because they were too rowdy (lol), but because it was a very hot day evening and the venue was pretty hot when you have over 6000 people dancing and singing along with Michael. 

We think the most memorable that happened during the show was at the very end. Michael always closes his show with a music, band and mic less song " Song for you". That's not the most memorable thing. The most memorable thing was when he walked up the end of the stage (by this time turtle and I are standing front row) he waved at us to throw our shirts to get them autographed. I was actually in the middle of taking pictures for these women. When I turn around turtle is throwing his sunglasses at me and his shirt was whipped off. He threw the shirt at Michael, but missed. Luckily a stage worker walked by and passed it back to Michael and he signed it for us. He then threw it back and I literally only remember me screaming at the top of my lungs "THANK YOU MICHAEL"

Overall, this concert was awesome. Michael is always and will be a great performer live or on CD!! We are definitely looking forward to him coming back Home for more shows!

Heart Wine Country

When you travel to beautiful British Columbia, most people will visit Vancouver. You would probably go downtown, visit the sandy beaches, bike ride around the sea wall, walk through Stanley park, cross the Capilano bridge, shop at our large Metrotown shopping mall, take pictures of the Olympic torch but one thing that you must do is take a 3.5 hour drive into the Okanagan.

Fresh fruits, sunny weather, beautiful lake, nice people and most of all, the Wineries!! We take time each year in the summer for a trip into the Okanagan. Whether it's camping, cabin-ing, or just feel like driving for 3 hours to eat, we always find ourselves bringing home some wine. There are 120 wineries in the Okanagan. all ranging from luxurious establishments to small family owned wineries. There are wine routes everywhere its not easy to miss. Even though we've been to the Okanagan so many times, we still haven't visited all the wineries. We've been to Mission Hill, Quail's Gate, Jackson Triggs, Nk'Mip, Dirty Laundry, Rollingdale and Mt. Boucherie. Our most recent trip back to Kelowna as the weekend of Aug 5th. We didn't visit any new wineries, just went back to our 2 favorities; Mission Hill and Rollingdale.

Mission Hill is atop at the highest point of the Mission Hill. It is a luxurious estate winery, beautiful views and a very tall clock tower that can be seen from a far. They have a fantastic wine tour that teaches you the art of enjoying wine, the mission hill facilities and tour which includes a trip down to their wine cellars and a video about how Anthony von Mandl created this beautiful winery.

The winery also has a Terrace restaurant that looks over the beautiful Okanagan lake. Like all wineries, there is a wine shop and a private tasting room. We didn't buy any wines from Mission Hill this year, but they have a 2010 Five Vineyards Rose (70% Merlot, 20% Cabernet Franc, 10% Shiraz) that I'd like to try.

Rollingdale is a much smaller winery compared to Mission Hill. But this small winery sure stands out to us. Rollingdale is 100% family-owned and operated and is located in West Kelowna (West Bank). Unlike Mission Hill, Rollingdale does not have fancy scenery or educational tours. When you first arrive at the farm-gated winery, you walk in to a giant fridge. Inside you find the wine store manager and wines on shelves. If you are lucky, you may run into the store owner like we did 2 years ago to give us a brief history and walk around of this winery. This trip we bought a 2007 Estate Pinot Grigio and two bottles of the 2007 Pinot Noir icewines (A mix of apricots and strawberries flavours. Creamy texture with zippy acidity// Bronze Medal Winner, 2009 Grand Harvest Awards, Vineyard & Winery Management Magazine). Excellent!