Chasing Wookies

We spent forever at the con on Sunday. We were up and ready early. There were lots of programs and panels that we wanted to attend. The first up, was to meet Peter Mayhew, who to Star Wars fans is Chewbacca. Casey and I were lucky. When we arrived at the booth, we were first in line. I can't remember ever being first in line for anything. It was a welcome change from the day before at registration. Anyway, the autographs were supposed to begin at 10:00, according to the program book. We waited and waited. We finally found a Con worker to confirm that Mr. Mayhew was actually scheduled to be there. She confirmed that yes, he probably was on his way. While flipping through the programming, Casey discovered he had been double booked and was busy working a children's hour. We started to wonder if he was really scheduled at all. The children's hour was schedule two hotels over, so we took off. As we got there, we passed Mr. Mayhew on his way out. We decided to go and speak to the lady in charge of the Star Wars scheduling. She told us that he was indeed scheduled to sign autographs over at the main dealer's room shortly. Casey and I took off once again, racing the two blocks back over to where we were in the first place. We did really well. Not only did we make it back, but we beat Mr. Mayhew to the booth and were once again, first in line! I got my autograph and got my picture made with him. We also got to speak with him a little. A very nice man indeed.

Peter Mayhew (Chewbacca) and me. While waiting for Mr. Mayhew, Casey and I also ran into Ray Park, who played Darth Maul in The Phantom Menace. He is such a super nice guy. He was posing for picture before he even got to his booth for free! He's very talented in martial arts. I was a bit suprised that he was shorter than I was. I guess I expected Darth Maul to be really tall. We also got to see the likes of Marina Sirtis and LeVar Burton (Diana Troy and Geordie LaForge from Star Trek: The Next Generation), Lou Ferigno, and others.

After the Star Walk in the dealer's room, we headed out to our programs. We attended an Expanded Universe discussion, a MSTK3000 style showing of The Empire Strikes Back, which was absolutely hysterical. One of the most fun sessions we attended was lightsaber dueling. The instructor was Dr. Bill Ernoehazy, Jr, who is an ER doctor and martial arts, sword fighting instructor expert. Dr. Bill was highly entertaining, and while we were only fighting with our meager lightsabers, we were learning real martial arts swordfighting techniques. It was 3 hours long and too much fun. I guess I'm just a big kid at heart, and I still love to play. Here's a group shot of our session.

Lightsaber Dueling

After we finished lightsaber dueling, we headed out for our last program of the night. It was Star Wars Fan Films. Most were spoofs and were hysterical! You can click the link above to view a few of the ones that we saw. We saw Sith Apprentice, Pink Five, Pink Five Strikes Back, and also watched the very first premier of The Return of Pink Five, and many others. By the time we finished it was almost 2 a.m.! We finally drug weary selves back to the hotel and turned in for the night. More tomorrow.....Everyone have a great day!