Nickel City Con and Niagra Falls

                                                                                                                                                 8/23/16

Buffalo, NY     

Meeting Sean Astin 

Since going to Philadelphia Comic Con in June and meeting Billy Boyd, I've desperately been trying to find ways to meet as many actors from the Lord of the Rings as possible.
I'm in love with the books and movies and I'm currently planning to go to New Zealand in May with Joey to see all the filming locations. When I found out that there was a chance I would be able to meet Sean Astin at the first ever Nickel City Con I begged Joey to drive with me to Buffalo which is 6 hours away from us and stay the weekend with me. I bought a VIP package and everything, which I don't do very often. 

I got to talk to Sean the most when I was at the signing because it was still early in the morning and not very many people were there. He was super sweet and was very surprised that we would come so far to meet him. He seemed really down to Earth which was really cool and made the experience a million times better. I told him I was going to New Zealand and he told me that the best place to go was Queenstown which is exciting because if all goes as currently planned I will be in Queenstown on my birthday. Overall, he was a really cool dude. His panel was hilarious and he was great about everything, even the little kid who just stood there and told him the whole plot of the Goonies like he had no idea what it was about. My picture with him was pretty good, too and I'll post pictures from the convention eventually. 

Other fun things about the Con, I got to meet Neil Adams and he signed a Superman poster for me. I also found the Pirates from the Ren Faire! They had a booth selling swords at the Con and we talked to the about the Faire for a while. We didnt get any really good information about why they arent at the Faire anymore but we did find out that there is a shop near the Ren Faire that they own and sell swords and other replica weapons. So, since I didnt get to buy a sword at the Faire I got one at the Con. I got Arwen's sword and it is beautiful. Joey did hurt himself with it though. 

Niagra Falls, Canada 

The falls were beautiful and we took a lot of amazing pictures. When I was 12 I went to Niagra Falls with my dad and my sister and coming back was really interesting. Not a lot changed but it was Joey's first time seeing everything. This was also the first time we ever went to a different country together which I think is pretty cute. We went to a wax museum that I went to the last time I was there, but I recognized a lot more of the movies now than I did then. I took a ton of pictures, especially with the Star Wars and Lord of the Rings figures, and pictures to that will be posted eventually but its a challenge getting them off my phone. Other than getting stuck in Canada because of a closed bridge and a ton of traffic, it was a very well worth it trip. My favorite part was the maple fudge we got, it is probably the best thing I have ever tasted in my life and I will be ordering more online in the future, I'm sure. 

This post is officially super long so I'm gonna end it here by saying it was an amazing trip and we plan on going back in the future and doing Maid of the Mist and probably zip lining and other stuff there was there that we didn't have time for.