Having finally recovered from two weeks on the road and another week of work and moving, I think I've had time to reflect on my first Houston convention.

StratosFur was kind of hard to describe. It felt a bit spread out, with panel rooms, Artist Alley, and Dealer Den set up on one side of the Marriott and the game room and main events stage set up on the other side with the lobby in between. The Den and Alley were nicely laid out, easy enough to navigate, etc. I only attended one panel (Scritch and Bitch), but in all honesty, it didn’t feel like the staff was taking the criticism very seriously. I've heard some things about this convention and the folks who run it, and unfortunately, that did little to assuage the rumors.

All in all, though, most of my con experience had to do with the company I kept (as well as the Nintendo Switch 2 my boyfriend bought and set up right before the con ;) . I probably had more people in my hotel room at one point or another than at any other convention I've attended thus far, and honestly, it made all the other activities ten times as fun. The venue itself was pretty great and quite amenable to their furry guests (hey even made furry baseball-themed room cards!), though the hot tub left a little to be desired.

I would also add that Houston is a hotbed of culinary activity. Any kind of cuisine you can think of can be found there from Greek and Italian to Japanese and Korean and everything in between. Now, would I go back? I don’t like to rule anything out, but it was an awful long way. So, while I'd say it's about the right size at 1697 attendees, I think I'll be sticking to cons closer to home henceforth...such as Furry Siesta in Dallas, which I will be attending this August! So, to all my Dallas furry friends, I'll see you in a couple months.