Well, FC is finally over and all in all, I had a wonderful 5 nights in San Jose.
It was my second visit to this con, the first being four years ago, and despite the exhaustion of such a long trip to get there, I still enjoyed every minute of it.

Well, almost every minute...

I had a bit of a disaster with my camera on the first night - a broken lens that resulted in a trip to a local camera store for a pretty expensive replacement. No idea how it happened, but it taught me a valuable lesson - always bring two lenses!
Also, on the same night and while wearing a suit I wasn't familiar with, a silly bit of play acting resulted in me accidentally hurting a friend. It was my own stupidity, really, and it taught me another valuable lesson - always be very careful in suit.
Sincere apologies to  deezlberries for hurting his neck that night. I felt like a right idiot afterwards, and rightfully so.

But after the negatives of Thursday night, things very quickly perked up. I found the energy to fursuit every night and even got to borrow a couple of other suits. For a while I was both a bird and a hyena, which was an experience in itself. I also picked up a nice new outfit for Peaches - a blue flapper dress, and it seems to have been quite popular.

Special thanks go out to

 seneca - It was wonderful finally meeting you properly and well worth the long wait. You were great fun to be around and a definite highlight of the trip. Extra special thanks for letting me borrow Rio and Meat! It was a LOT of fun being both of those critters.

 duino - You were fantastic, duckie. Was really great getting to meet you and you certainly lived up to my expectations. Glad we got a chance to chat a couple of times, especially on that last night. Extra points for not brutally injuring me with a mallet! Really hope to see you again at a future con - you fit in just fine with us weirdos. :)

 zarafa - Many thanks for all the chats during the con, plus for meeting up with me in San Francisco. You were a great guy, and your suit is amazing and quite unique.

 yippee - Was very nice seeing you again, and great that we finally got some time to chat properly. Was great seeing you out and about in Twilight, Frazzle and others, and many thanks for the bunny cuddles! Always a genuine pleasure to see you.

 hegdish &  drake - Again, was a pleasure to meet you two again. I really don't see you guys often enough, so it was great to have a little fun this past weekend. Rochester Rooster was amazing and I loved playing around in fursuit with Sat Rat and Bosco. Also, was great to just chill in the headless lounge.

 baccala30 - You know, I think this was the first time we've both been at a US con together. Thanks for hanging out from time to time and I hope we meet again soon. Was a pleasure seeing you again.

Additional thanks go out to  camelia,  bradhound,  yonoa,  orzel,  trail_horse,  reveille,  fluffdance,  sera &  rahne

Regardless of whether we chatted for just a few mins in the headless lounge or hung around a bit, I appreciated the company, You're all great people.

Will I do FC again?
Sadly, the distance involved makes it unlikely it'll ever become a regular con for me. I loved it, but it's just a bit TOO far from home. It's been four years since my last visit and may be just as long again before I return. However, never say never.