11/12/10 - The first batch of AnimeUSA 2010 photos, and I finish my touristy tour of DC: even the White House!

I made the airport bus!

On the plane!

Night flights don't offer as many sight seeing opportunities, but the lights are cool!

I'm not sure what city this is, but it sure looks cool from the air!

So much light pollution

The exposed elevators at the Hyatt in Crystal City!

The neat lights on the roof

People signing up early to get their badges

This door kept breaking all weekend

It's only Thursday and there's already a line

Anime USA!

Is that all we are to these people? Anime Convention?

Our hotel room!

Bryce checks out the program

Brian and his girlfriend Kitty

Bryce is already tired and we haven't even started yet

Nice hat, Brian

Ready to rock!

Flashes are bright

The flash put Bryce into zombie mode

Bryce brought his Persona hat

Getting decorations set up

Jefferson was working Registration!

Brian and Alan

"Sign this"

The Anime USA mascot

Brian is a puffer fish

It's Mckeed!

Ah, yes, that's the Mckeed I know.

Looking for t-shirts

Joanna!

Bryce and Mckeed wait around for the Vicmobile to show up

Alan always makes the same face when he spots a camera

"Put the damn camera down and help me move the server!"

Waiting around in the lobby with a pile of stuff

Amanda carrying some stuff

Nice pillow, Mckeed

Mckeed sets up the screen

Getting the VAT ready

Alan brought juice boxes!

Bryce marvels over the amazing prizes we'll be giving out.. namely the ones that last year's winner didn't want

Vic gets the server ready

There's that look again!

Getting the VAT set up doesn't take too long

Rinny stopped by to say hi!

Joy works on some last minute alterations to her Error-chan costume

Hey Amanda

Bryce basically just wandered around

Vic sets up some connections in the server

I can never resist a closeup of a mixer

Mckeed and Joanna

Jeff plays with his trusty iPhone

Mckeed and Joanna investigate my G2

It was too late to use this for my picture of the day, but I still liked it

I found this thing in the staff hallway. Looks like a timebomb

Wii time!

Bryce recreates the logo to his website

What's up, Rinny?

Mckeed gets the playlist for his panel together

If we don't do it ahead of time, it's usually a disaster

Whoa, hey Jeff

The control booth. Well.. really more like, the control corner

Jeff and Joy hanging out in the control booth

I imagine this is how Vic edits his videos at home.. two computers, orange soda.. tupperware..

The view of the Hyatt lobby roof as seen from above

The Hyatt lobby!

The cosplayers are out today!

Metro stations continue to be neat

Slipping away from the con for a few hours, I spent a few hours checking out the city!

I missed my stop, so got off at Archives, which is the stop I used to get to the Rally

Playing frisbee on the Mall

Hey, where did the Rally go?? This picture was taken from approximately the same place I stood for the Rally

The Capitol! Today, this was the closest I got

My first target for the day.. the Washington Monument

I was going to say hi to the spacecraft in the main room at the Air and Space museum.. but the line was out the door and I'm on a schedule!

A merry-go-round on the Mall

I just took this for James

Some neat looking church

What the hell is going on here?

It's some crazy group shooting promotional photos for pneumonia awareness or something

Other people got in on the action

Walking along the mall

The Monument is a destination for a lot of people

I almost took a ride in one of these, but decided it was too goofy

That second to last point is a little broad..

I'm almost there!

Closer..

Closer still!

Too close

It's so surreal to see sights like this in person after seeing them on TV for my whole life

The White House peeping over the trees!

Neat flags around the monument

I asked a person to take my picture!

I asked a wall to take my picture!

Coming up on the World War II monument

Interesting fountain

The walls had artwork depicting the events of the war

Battlefield medicine sure has come a long way

Nice fountain

Fountain!

I really liked the light specks on this one

Someone left this wreath here. Remember that yesterday was Veteran's Day

Famous names

More interesting fountains

Franklin Roosevelt gives the women of the war the credit they deserve

If the Atlantic is here then..

There's the Pacific over there!

Interesting sculpture

I like the deail on the feathers

Looking back at the fountain

I found Massachusetts!

More fountains

I was drawn over to this, but wasn't quite sure what it was..

Flowers left at the wall

Lots of flowers. The words say "Here we mark the price of freedom"

I asked someone and my suspicions were unfortunately confirmed.. each star represents 100 American lives

There are 4,000 stars here. It's simply overwhelming

I finally made it to the famous reflecting pool!

I'd heard the water was gross, but yikes!

The Lincoln Memorial awaits

Of course, I walked along the wall

When I first rotated this picture, I did it the upside down and was totally confused

The woman with the bike here was doing some kind of photo shoot

I pose in front of the Washington Monument again

We're pretty close to the airport

Almost at the Lincoln Memorial!

It's one of those crazy pneumonia people!

He's doing flips now!

Mr. Lincoln himself!

It was bigger than I realized

Interesting inscription

Slightly closer view

Proof I was here!

The view from the top of the steps was pretty impressive

Amazing view of the reflecting pool, even if it is a little gross

I liked the Capitol peeking out from behind the monument

Airplane!

A really cool statue near the Vietnam War memorial

After running into the pneumonia guy again, I had to get a picture with him

Just the beginning..

So many names

It was almost more overwhelming than the WWI memorial

The reflections make for some interesting photos

I tried to find my dad's friend who died, but couldn't remember his name. Next time.

Lots of people left flowers

The stuff people left behind was almost too much. I didn't look at it long

The last name on a wall that should never have had to exist

The book that helps you locate names is enormous

Changing leaves!

The Washington Monument peeking up above the trees

The moon was out!

Not sure what this is all about, but the flaming sword was cool

This famous elipse!

The Christmas trees were already being set up

This guy was on a Razor scooter!

Tourists gather in front of the White House while police watch them

It's the White House! Again, it's very strange to actually see it in person after seeing it on tv so often

The rainbows were installed after Obama took office.

Beeeess!!

I asked someone to take my picture

Even deadly guard dogs need to be walked

The treasury building!

I took these pictures for Brett

The north side of the White House

The fountain really adds to the view

And why not, I got my picture taken on this side too

Pennsylvania Ave!

The street is actually shut down. Cars can get on it, but only by passing a pretty intense barricade

This sign seemed needlessly verbose..

This was the station I was originally trying to get to

Already went!

This walking distance sign seemed a little ominous considering the setting

I already saw it!

I was back with plenty of time before it was time to help Bryce with his panel

This kid was really into the AMVs Bryce plaed

Brakus thought she was funny

She kept dancing around. Little did she know she was forcing Bryce to move all the violent videos further down the queue

Bryce listens to a voicemail from a recruiter. Exciting!

My favorite thing about cons again. Cosplayers out in the wild

I got Bryce to pose with the chili again

That's an.. interesting.. font choice. Down the harr!

We always grab the best seats

Mckeed didn't even try to be sneaky. Note the color of the liquid in his sprite bottle

Our AMV Singalong panel was a smashing success!

This poor Sakura cosplayer had to wait almost half an hour to get in to see some AMVs.

Omar finally tracked down his pizzas

This Okami cosplay was absoutley amazing

She managed to move in a thoroughly unhuman, and deeply alarming, way. My lower brain just flipped out.. until she gave me a hug

Easily the most impressive cosplay I saw all weekend

Brian made this while sitting in the booth during AMV Hell

It didn't fly that well

I'm in the credits for AMV Hell 5!!

The rave next door to the VAT is always an interesting photographic subject

So many lights!

The people with glowsticks made a lot of interesting patterns

I realize these four pictures were more or less the same, but the shifting lights were so interesting!

This is actually a hula-hoop full of LEDs

Lights everywhere!

There wasn't a ton of dancing happening on the dance floor

This guy was flipping out

I only kept this one because I liked how the moving spotlight traced out a purple blob

Not much dancing, but lots of energy

Dance!

Spinning!

Oh anime con raves.. why is there Pokemon on the screen?

Sudden strobe lights really lit this one up

The DJ seemed to be having a fun time

What's up next?

I don't know, more dancing. What od you want from me

Give this guy some room!

Dancing Obama up on the screen!

I told Bryce he looked like a middle school woodshop teacher. He was really an Iron Editor host

Artists Alley!

This costume struck me because normally with this type of costume the head is really oversized, but not on this one

Yip yip!