I made it back from the convention in one piece.  Next time I won't dither so long in deciding whether to go or not.  I missed out on the Mt. Rainier railroad excursion, that would have been super cool.  But it was still an amazing time!

   I got to Bothell around 1:30 on Wednesday, and planned to hit an N scale layout tour, but by the time I got through traffic to the convention center and registered, the thought of driving all the way back to Olympia and then BACK to Seattle again was more than I could face.  My two brothers in law are building an N scale layout in Scott's apartment, so I decided to stick around and give them a hand.

   I was spending the week with Steve (the other brother in law), about 14 miles from the convention.  Thursday there was an accident and I was late to the clinics, but managed to the last half of the CNC modeling with John Socha-Leiahola.  Ken Larson's slideshow on Vac-U-Form model building was also very interesting, way outside anything I had ever considered.

   I ducked out on the logging history session - it was just too packed!  So i checked out the contest area and had my mind blown!  There were some really amazing models in there!  I think I ended up taking 300+ photos over the two days.  Plus a

  I also wandered around the vendor/exhibit area for a bit, then headed for some lunch and layouts!  I hit four on Thursday, and five on Friday.  Friday morning I also got in Ken Larson's tree building clinic, Charlie Getz's "Nifty Products", and Jack Burgess' "Photoshop Elements".  I was planning on staying over until Saturday and stopping at the layouts in Olympia and Tacoma on the way home, but after finishing up the day thoroughly checking out the vendors, Hangman Creek exhibition layout, and chatting with the local boys with their On30 modular setup, I was bushed and my brain was swimming.  

  Will I do it again?  Definitely!  See you all at the NMRA National in Portland in 2015!