Apparently I only post journals once a year these days, seeing how the last one is FWA 2014!

Last weekend was Furry Weekend Atlanta. This is the fifth time I've gone, and the thrid different hotel. It's pretty astounding how much the con has grown in that time, necessitating the change in hotels.
This year took place at the Marriot Marquis, and was a much better setting than last year. The Westin previously had the con spread out over several floors and a lot of horizontal distance. Lots of escalators made it a challenge for fursuiters, and it was easy to get lost in general. The Marriot on the other hand was much more centralized. All panels and events took place on one floor, with artist alley and dealers den the floor below.
Elevators were a challenge, as always, but greatly helped by the con being on the bottom, so for the most part people were all getting on at the same point. The amount of people going down to go up decreased steadily over the weekend.
Another advantage of this hotel is that it was connected by skybridge to the Peachtree Center, basically a huge mall foodcourt. This was nice as it rained several days of the weekend.

I arrived Wednesday and met up with  kamatz, who was staffing the board game room this year. I hung out with him until  sunstreak,  mehndi, and  dinobutt arrived, who we were sharing a room with. We went to dinner at a local Indian place, (I think it was Havalli or something like that) a few blocks away. We always have had good food and service there. Especially this year, as we didn't arrive until nearly close, but they were still happy to serve us.

Thursday, Kam had to work the BGR, but the rest of us took a walk to the Aquarium. It was a lot more crowded than last year, but not bad. We spent a lot of time watching Whale Sharks and sea otters. Mehndi and Ash wanted to steal a whale shark, but we didn't think it would fit in the hotel bath tub. Headed back and waited in line to register which took forever, then went to dinner at a Mexican place.

Friday was the first day of con proper. I hit up Rukis and Gideon in the dealers den, and browsed around other places. I also played in the charity Poker tournament, but lost the two satellites I entered. The first one was on the very second hand. Trip Kings turned into a flush...and I lost to a full house against a guy with the fourth king. The second time was less exciting, though at the end I went All In and got refunded $10 in chips because I had more than the other guy that went All In. The blinds at the time were $50. We were going to join friends for dinner at the Meat Faucet, but couldn't get reservations and ended up at the food court instead.

Saturday I played in the X-wing tournament, which wasn't quite what I was expecting. Half the people there had not played before, so it was a very late start as things were explained and lists made. We got one round in, then stopped because it was Saturday night and everyone had better things to do. For dinner, Kam drove us out to the Marrieta diner, which was pretty cool.

Sunday we resumed the X-wing tournament, which was won (unsurprisingly) by  sablegryphon who is a very talented player. I lost to him, but I think I was the only one that managed to destroy any ships of his. Cleanup took forever as the con was closing down and we needed to pick up all the X-wing stuff as well as the board games. Then it was time to go to the Metro Diner, a nearby place with good food and great cake.

Monday sadly it was time to clean up the hotel room and pack up the vehicles. I made sure to book a later flight this year, so I was able to see everyone off instead of having to sneak out in the morning while everyone slept.

Once again we had a great room this year. Highlights include jelly beans, blood orphans (don't ask), round plush sharks, albino corgis, and secret art.
I'm already looking forward to next year.