Tony
Alligator Snapping Turtle/Past Pres
My first ACA Convention 
Allright.... I've been totally slammed at work the last few days, but wanted to get a quick story together and throw it out there for those who couldn't make it this year or had never been to an ACA before. This was written over a couple of days and started getting long, so I sort of edited it to make sure folks weren't falling asleep.
I figure I'll throw in a basic "Cliff Notes" version of events that stuck out in my mind and other attendees can jump in if they'd like to throw in the details and add pictures if they'd like.
Getting There
On Thursday evening, Jim, Richard, Kevin and Jumbie all met at my place in Gaithersburg around 8:30PM or so. With Kevin riding shotgun in the Equinox and Richard and Jumbie rolling with Jim in his Honda, we drove all night and arrived at the Shedd Aquarium at 8:00 AM Chicago time. Not sure about the other car, but between the excitement and not wanting the other person to fall asleep and wreck, Kevin and I got about an hour of sleep combined on the way there. Good stuff. XM Classic Rewind and 5-Hour Energy FTW.
The Shedd
We hit up the Shedd right when it was opening up and boy, was it worth it. Great place, but honestly, this part of the story would be much better with pics. Kev and I both took a bunch, so I'll post more later with descriptions.
Highlights for me included the new Amazonia section, the large central reef tank and the show... gotta love beluga whales.
Around noon, it started to get crowded and we were just about done seeing everything. We split and saw an absolutely absurd line coming out the front door, down the steps, down through the park and around the corner. Think I overheard that it was over 2 hours to get in and I don't think they had one of those "come back at 3:30 and we'll let you in then" policies. Glad we got there early, lol.
Getting to the Convention
Chicago traffic at lunchtime sucks. Like really sucks. Like Manhattan suckage. We were going to hit up some deep-dish action, but after total immersion in the suckage, we decided to abort and stopped in a no-parking lane for 20 minute while my man, Jumbie hit up Wendy's for us. It was good.
The convention was at the Olympia Spa and Resort about 40 minutes SW of Milwaukee proper. It was a very nice hotel with plenty of space for both the convention activities as well as after-hours activities (which there was an abundance of).
I checked in, showered and crashed for an hour.... probably the best hour of sleep ever.
Thursday Night - Aquarium Beautiful and Stormage
Walking down to the hall was very exciting for me. I was like a kid in a candy store. The tank rental room was nuts and the show room was even better. I'll save the description though for when I have my pics to post. Beyond those two rooms, there were aquariums spread throughout the main level of the hotel... seriously nice ($$$) ones that eventually got some seriously nice fish. The star attraction was definitely the 300 gallon (6'L x 3'W x 24"(?)T) Tang community tank... trophs, altos, cyps, gobies, julies, lamps, callochromis, the whole 9 yards. Simply stunning.
On the way there and in front of our tank, we ran into the whole crew...Jumbie, Kev, Richard, George, Jim, Alesia, Amanda, Pat and Tracy. We drew numbers for which tank (and fish already in the tank) we would get and pulled a ~40 gallon cube with some tetras in it. yeah. lol.
But we certainly made the best of our pick. We set it up with a couple pieces of large wood and a bunch of plants, both real and plastic. Though we didn't win, I think we did the club proud.
About an hour into the contest, we were approached by worried-looking local club workers. The conversation went something like this:
Them: "Go down stairs."
Me: "Huh?"
Them: "Go down stairs.... NOW.":angry:
Me: "Huh?" :unsure:
Them: "Tornadoes in this county, local air-sirens going off. Go downstairs... NOW." :angry3:
Me: "ok."
So yeah, we went downstairs to the back of house area and stood there for an hour. Not so awesome. We did run into Franny though, so that was cool.
After they let everyone up, we finished up the contest, but unfortunately, missed most of Laif's talk on "What's new in East Africa."
We ate dinner at the hotel bar and between being up for 40 hours and George making martinis, the rest of the night is sort of a blur. I know that it involved many beers, buying many fish out of the rental room and meeting many cool fish folks.
Friday
We woke up, ate, and went to go check out an aquarium store called Hoffer's. Friggin' ridiculous. About the size of TFP, with tons of cool display tanks, reptiles and furry animals. Nuts. Jim Peck got himself a rainbow boa.. cool little snake. Unfortunately, I don't have any pics of Hoffer's, but I believe Kev took a bunch. Maybe he can post some highlights.
On the way back, we picked up lots of beer and headed to the main room for the speakers. I was able to catch Ad Konnings' talk about Tanganyikan sand-dwellers before dinner. Great speech; got me a bit pumped about Tangs. We started drinking at that point and well... kept drinking.
The night finished up with the Babe's Auction. Probably the coolest auction I've ever been to (Sorry Bill). The club from Bermuda was mixing up free rum and ginger beer drinks up at the front table and the girls were handing out tequila shots as well.... Lots of cool catfish and CARES species up for auction, generally fetching a good final price. I picked up a bag of plecos early on and hit up Pat at the money table up front.... think I was the first to cash out, lol.
Saturday
While I felt bad on Saturday morning from the night before, I don't think I was the worst off.... by any stretch. I think the heavily-attended Babe's auction took a real toll on most attendees. I went down around 9 and it felt like a ghost town. I hit up a few talks on Saturday... the 2nd half of the Geophagus talk, Ad's Malawi sand-dwellers talk and Oliver Lucanus' Amazon Below Water Talk. All were excellent and made me wish I had hit more talks earlier in the week.
The banquet was a lot of fun. There was a nice reception out in the lobby before they seated everyone. After everyone took their seats, Mo Devlin and Ted Judy spoke for a bit, followed by Paul Louselle, giving a talk on CARES species. They handed out awards and then everyone partied into the wee hours of the night.
The CCA crew ended up taking over the large balcony outside overlooking the pool. Many beverages were consumed and many fish stories were told. Some of the folks that joined us were Felipe, Scott Arney, Chris Biggs, the Babes and Dave Schumacher. I think I stumbled up to bed around 4:30 or so (but honestly have no idea). Good times.
Sunday
(Gonna speed this up to avoid boring you, sorry) The auction was ridiculous. Started around 9:00 and rolled solid until about 7 or 8 I think. We sat there from about 1:00 on (after the dry goods were done), ate pizza, drank a few remaining beers and probably left with 150 bags. Yeah, packing was fun.
The ride back through the night went well. A lot quicker than on the way there and we had minimal DOAs when we arrived home on Monday.
Anyway, for those of you who couldn't make it, that's an outline of the event. I hope that some of the other folks can jump in with pics and details of their experiences. I'm tired of typing.
I'm still sorting pics, but will have some up here soon. Most of mine are from the Shedd or from fish in the show. I think Kev took a lot more pics of people. Hopefully, he can throw some up here.
If you're still with me, thanks for reading.
Cheers,
Tony
Allright.... I've been totally slammed at work the last few days, but wanted to get a quick story together and throw it out there for those who couldn't make it this year or had never been to an ACA before. This was written over a couple of days and started getting long, so I sort of edited it to make sure folks weren't falling asleep.
I figure I'll throw in a basic "Cliff Notes" version of events that stuck out in my mind and other attendees can jump in if they'd like to throw in the details and add pictures if they'd like.
Getting There
On Thursday evening, Jim, Richard, Kevin and Jumbie all met at my place in Gaithersburg around 8:30PM or so. With Kevin riding shotgun in the Equinox and Richard and Jumbie rolling with Jim in his Honda, we drove all night and arrived at the Shedd Aquarium at 8:00 AM Chicago time. Not sure about the other car, but between the excitement and not wanting the other person to fall asleep and wreck, Kevin and I got about an hour of sleep combined on the way there. Good stuff. XM Classic Rewind and 5-Hour Energy FTW.
The Shedd
We hit up the Shedd right when it was opening up and boy, was it worth it. Great place, but honestly, this part of the story would be much better with pics. Kev and I both took a bunch, so I'll post more later with descriptions.
Highlights for me included the new Amazonia section, the large central reef tank and the show... gotta love beluga whales.
Around noon, it started to get crowded and we were just about done seeing everything. We split and saw an absolutely absurd line coming out the front door, down the steps, down through the park and around the corner. Think I overheard that it was over 2 hours to get in and I don't think they had one of those "come back at 3:30 and we'll let you in then" policies. Glad we got there early, lol.
Getting to the Convention
Chicago traffic at lunchtime sucks. Like really sucks. Like Manhattan suckage. We were going to hit up some deep-dish action, but after total immersion in the suckage, we decided to abort and stopped in a no-parking lane for 20 minute while my man, Jumbie hit up Wendy's for us. It was good.
The convention was at the Olympia Spa and Resort about 40 minutes SW of Milwaukee proper. It was a very nice hotel with plenty of space for both the convention activities as well as after-hours activities (which there was an abundance of).
I checked in, showered and crashed for an hour.... probably the best hour of sleep ever.
Thursday Night - Aquarium Beautiful and Stormage
Walking down to the hall was very exciting for me. I was like a kid in a candy store. The tank rental room was nuts and the show room was even better. I'll save the description though for when I have my pics to post. Beyond those two rooms, there were aquariums spread throughout the main level of the hotel... seriously nice ($$$) ones that eventually got some seriously nice fish. The star attraction was definitely the 300 gallon (6'L x 3'W x 24"(?)T) Tang community tank... trophs, altos, cyps, gobies, julies, lamps, callochromis, the whole 9 yards. Simply stunning.
On the way there and in front of our tank, we ran into the whole crew...Jumbie, Kev, Richard, George, Jim, Alesia, Amanda, Pat and Tracy. We drew numbers for which tank (and fish already in the tank) we would get and pulled a ~40 gallon cube with some tetras in it. yeah. lol.
But we certainly made the best of our pick. We set it up with a couple pieces of large wood and a bunch of plants, both real and plastic. Though we didn't win, I think we did the club proud.
About an hour into the contest, we were approached by worried-looking local club workers. The conversation went something like this:
Them: "Go down stairs."
Me: "Huh?"
Them: "Go down stairs.... NOW.":angry:
Me: "Huh?" :unsure:
Them: "Tornadoes in this county, local air-sirens going off. Go downstairs... NOW." :angry3:
Me: "ok."
So yeah, we went downstairs to the back of house area and stood there for an hour. Not so awesome. We did run into Franny though, so that was cool.
After they let everyone up, we finished up the contest, but unfortunately, missed most of Laif's talk on "What's new in East Africa."
We ate dinner at the hotel bar and between being up for 40 hours and George making martinis, the rest of the night is sort of a blur. I know that it involved many beers, buying many fish out of the rental room and meeting many cool fish folks.
Friday
We woke up, ate, and went to go check out an aquarium store called Hoffer's. Friggin' ridiculous. About the size of TFP, with tons of cool display tanks, reptiles and furry animals. Nuts. Jim Peck got himself a rainbow boa.. cool little snake. Unfortunately, I don't have any pics of Hoffer's, but I believe Kev took a bunch. Maybe he can post some highlights.
On the way back, we picked up lots of beer and headed to the main room for the speakers. I was able to catch Ad Konnings' talk about Tanganyikan sand-dwellers before dinner. Great speech; got me a bit pumped about Tangs. We started drinking at that point and well... kept drinking.
The night finished up with the Babe's Auction. Probably the coolest auction I've ever been to (Sorry Bill). The club from Bermuda was mixing up free rum and ginger beer drinks up at the front table and the girls were handing out tequila shots as well.... Lots of cool catfish and CARES species up for auction, generally fetching a good final price. I picked up a bag of plecos early on and hit up Pat at the money table up front.... think I was the first to cash out, lol.
Saturday
While I felt bad on Saturday morning from the night before, I don't think I was the worst off.... by any stretch. I think the heavily-attended Babe's auction took a real toll on most attendees. I went down around 9 and it felt like a ghost town. I hit up a few talks on Saturday... the 2nd half of the Geophagus talk, Ad's Malawi sand-dwellers talk and Oliver Lucanus' Amazon Below Water Talk. All were excellent and made me wish I had hit more talks earlier in the week.
The banquet was a lot of fun. There was a nice reception out in the lobby before they seated everyone. After everyone took their seats, Mo Devlin and Ted Judy spoke for a bit, followed by Paul Louselle, giving a talk on CARES species. They handed out awards and then everyone partied into the wee hours of the night.
The CCA crew ended up taking over the large balcony outside overlooking the pool. Many beverages were consumed and many fish stories were told. Some of the folks that joined us were Felipe, Scott Arney, Chris Biggs, the Babes and Dave Schumacher. I think I stumbled up to bed around 4:30 or so (but honestly have no idea). Good times.
Sunday
(Gonna speed this up to avoid boring you, sorry) The auction was ridiculous. Started around 9:00 and rolled solid until about 7 or 8 I think. We sat there from about 1:00 on (after the dry goods were done), ate pizza, drank a few remaining beers and probably left with 150 bags. Yeah, packing was fun.
The ride back through the night went well. A lot quicker than on the way there and we had minimal DOAs when we arrived home on Monday.
Anyway, for those of you who couldn't make it, that's an outline of the event. I hope that some of the other folks can jump in with pics and details of their experiences. I'm tired of typing.
I'm still sorting pics, but will have some up here soon. Most of mine are from the Shedd or from fish in the show. I think Kev took a lot more pics of people. Hopefully, he can throw some up here.
If you're still with me, thanks for reading.
Cheers,
Tony
