vamysteryfan | Sentinel Day at Moonridge Part One (Reply)

Sentinel Day!

Saturday dawned brightly, but windy and a bit chilly. Debbie (

stoneygirl) met up with us and her family joined us for breakfast at the hotel. Then it was up to Moonridge. It opened shortly after we got there. The hot item in the gift shop was a t-shirt that had one of the new wolfpups on it. The picture captured the pup's blue eyes perfectly - maybe that's why they named it Blair? The gift shop had some cute pictures of the new wolfpups. It seemed to me that more animals were living in the gift shop - part of the process of maximizing space usage, I guess.

wee hedgies

You seek Yoda!

One of the first people I met up with was Terry (the other O'D)! She caught me up on her news and all the changes to the park. She showed me around a bit. They had to move things around quite a bit. A storm last winter made the netting on the bird center collapse and they had to move all those birds. They are really maxing out on space. I saw the pelicans. They were in a feisty mood - snapping at each other. Someone was hogging the pool I think.

I stopped at the Chinese auction, run by Rae, Tina, and Gerri, to buy a few chances.

They had nice Michael Shanks artwork, Sentinel and Moonridge notecards, handmade necklaces, carved wooden panthers and wolves, a couple of items from other fandoms, and some day passes to Comic-Con. I put a few tickets in assorted items and then walked around the park a while to see what new animals had arrived and which old friends were still there.

The volunteers are always so pleasant and eager to share what they know. I went down to where the photos were being sold and saw Lisa and picked up wolfpup photos (warning: this will be a theme). Garett had posed with the new wolfpups earlier in the week. The photos were adorable!

I saw so many longterm fans and met some newer ones. Isn't it wonderful how TS and Garett keep hooking people? I ran into MJ and JoAnn and talked for a while. I also sat down with Pam to catch up on her news and share mine. Lisa brought her Beanie Boyz - I'm hoping we'll have a new Moonridge adventure soon :)

Tammi and Nat were just down the bench from me. Kay and Diane were a couple of the newer fans I met. A few favorites were missing :( ::waves at Kat, Chris, Ande and Aly::

Some fannish friends:

Betsy was walking around talking to all the fans. She shared some news about Moonridge. The National Park Service is being a complete pain. They want a third Environmental Impact Study. Betsy thinks they might be able to move onto private land, which would keep them from having to jump through that particular hoop again. As the studies cost upwards of $100,000, that's a good thing. She said she didn't think the owners would throw them out in February, which is also a good thing.

Garett was running late but DJ Josh kept us entertained with music.

Eventually Betsy did the drawing for the Chinese auction, so as not to fall too far behind schedule. I was pouting a bit that all the winners were on the other end of the bench, but then a man next to me won an autographed shirt. The last drawing was for the Comic-Con passes and I won them! I'm thrilled to pieces about it. Now I just have to figure out how to swing it. Chelle (who donated the passes) came up to me and offered some tips. Pearl, who also works the Saturday Masquerade, had more advice. :: waves to Pearl and Chelle:: MJ and JoAnn promised me some tips on what goes on there.

The food was a little different this year. They had all kinds of hotdogs and sausages. I had a bacon-wrapped beef hotdog - delicious! And I was careful to stay hydrated this year - lots of water.

Garett finally arrived. He blamed it all on Debbie for telling him the wrong time. After a brief pit stop (for him, not me), it was on to the animal auctions!