It's probably going to hit me in a week or so just how expensive the past few days have been, but for now I'm on the proverbial Cloud Nine and there's no way to put a price on that.

So Gem and Paul, Marina and her boyfriend, Amethyst and Seaweed (I think that was everyone we got to meet, I know Kenny Kitsune had come and went before we arrive), joined the three of us for three awesome days in Atlanta.

The only thing to really mar the experience for me was my failure to pack a charging cable for my iPhone. This led me to roaming the streets of midtown in a futile search for a replacement, in the vain hope of being able to revive its spent battery. That experience was topped off by a CVS that was fresh out of the necessary cable, and a T-Mobile store that had them in stock… but for some reason their sale system would not accept the scan code, and so incredibly they could not sell me one.

This was quite a pity as it left me camera-less during our trip to the Georgia Aquarium, an absolutely breathtaking collection of sea life. From the collection of jack fish that seemed to be going nowhere in a big hurry, to the inherently awesome otters, to the albino alligators that seemed to give Gem quite a fright, to the massive whale sharks, to nearly as massive manta rays that gave me flashbacks to a certain level of Mario Sunshine, it was an experience and a half. The only problem besides the lack of camera was the lengthy foot trip in search of a cable had left my back and legs in quite a bit of pain, so after several hours of tromping around the exhibits I just had nothing left for the dolphin show, and we had to regretfully bow out of that.

Friday saw Marina and Gem and cohorts head off to Babyland General Hospital in northeastern Georgia, which from reports a) turned out to be quite a bit further out there than it looks on the map, and b) is really quite a creepy place, and when you consider this is in the words of a certified babyfur that is saying something.

While they were away the three of us toured the World of Coca-Cola, which seems to want covet Disneyworld's title of the World's Happiest Place. I'm not 100% sure they got there, but it was quite an affordable way spend the afternoon (certainly relative to the aquarium next door), and an easy way to get an inadvertent sugar rush from the tasting room, just from taking small samples of everything they had to offer.

After that we spent the evening at Dave and Buster's, a place we DESPERATELY need one of here in Birmingham. Bland food but who cares because that's not what you go there for.

We spent both Wednesday and Thursday nights in a pub along the well-named Ponce De Leon Avenue, where I discovered there's a sharp divide between drinkers and non-drinkers in the cub community. At least it got the conversation flowing a bit better, and I discovered a brew called Dragon's Milk that I need to acquire more of soon.

It was late Friday night when we finally had the key experience that finally put it all over the top, as Gem and Paul made their way up to our room and we finally had the little intimate group we'd wanted for so long. I'd like to think we made the most of it, though there were a few things I regretted leaving behind. At least Gem got to squeeze my tail :D. Finally Paul started in on a bedtime story and even I couldn't help but slip into kid mode for that. Though after the fact it did occur that the author's decision to include a Kafka reference was a bit unusual.

It was exhilarating, it was painful, it was emotional, it was exhausting, and I wouldn't trade the whole experience for anything. 15 years ago I took a trip to London with my mom, and now I have incentive to return someday.

Thank you, Gem and Paul, for arranging this gathering. You are incredible people I can only hope to be able to pull off anything like this someday.