The Road to BlogPaws

Sorry I wasn’t able to post this weekend while I was at BlogPaws!  I’m determined my Blogger app on my iPad hates me.  I tried to keep Riley’s Twitter and Facebook accounts updated though.  By the way–do you follow us on Twitter and keep up with us on Facebook?

Here’s a link to Riley’s Twitter account: @RileyACD

and…

Here’s a link to Riley’s Facebook page!

Whew!  Now that THAT’S out of the way…  I began to realize over the weekend that it will probably take me a week (or more) full of blog posts to fully cover what all happened at BlogPaws!  I’ll just start by saying it was awesome.  Purely awesome!  I’m so glad I went–it was definitely worth every penny!  (Psst–plus I brought my sister along, she shopped and vacationed while I was at the conference, so we split the cost of the hotel room which made it even more affordable!).  🙂

So today’s post will just be about the trip up to BlogPaws.  I know, I know, how boring!  Get to the good stuff already!  Patience, grasshopper.  I WILL say that big changes will be coming to the blog in the (hopefully) somewhat near future.  Stay tuned for those.

Me driving up there.  Glad my eyes were on the road and both hands were on the wheel!  (Oh, btw, those braces will be GONE June 27th!).  It was supposed to be a 2 hour, 45 minute drive from my house to Tyson’s Corner, VA (just outside of Washington DC), but ended up being more like a 4 hour drive because of an accident, construction, and the dreaded Northern Virginia traffic!

The beginning of a 16 mile traffic back-up.  An SUV had flipped off the highway and over a guard rail.  It was not pretty.  Hope everyone was okay.

We saw this little gem riding down the interstate around Fredericksburg, VA.  Luckily, they didn’t show up at BlogPaws!

We FINALLY made it to our exit!

My sister (Riley’s Aunt Baddy) took this picture…she thought the name was funny.  Luckily, we didn’t need to pull over and use Don’s John.

We have arrived!  You can’t truly appreciate the “gigantic-ness” of the hotel from this picture.  This was just the welcome sign.  The hotel was a huge tower!  We stayed on the 20th floor and my ears popped every time I rode the elevator up to my room.

Flat Riley was not happy that I forgot about her and made her ride in the trunk (although you can’t tell it from the smile on her face)!  She wanted to sit shotgun.

See how close Flat Riley is sitting to that video game controller?  She kept on trying to charge “luxury amenities” to the room…not on my dime, Flat Riley!

I tried to put Flat Riley to work, but all she did was sit there and smile at me.  SO unproductive.

We left our home in Hampton, VA, around 11 AM (whoops…was planning on leaving around 10:30) and arrived at Tyson’s Corner around 3:30 PM.  We also had to stop for lunch along the way, but still got in way later than I had expected.

I had hoped on going to a session put on by the AAHA (American Animal Hospital Association) called “Bloggers Vs Veterinarians: It’s Not a War, Folks… Come Learn How to Get Along.”  It ran from 2:45-4:15, but we didn’t get to the hotel until 3:30 and #1–I was pooped and #2–I was too chicken to waltz in 45 minutes late.  Oh well.  So the first thing I attended was at 6:00 PM, the “Welcome to BlogPaws 2013 Opening Event Pawty!”

But before that, I met up with some awesome bloggers that I’ve known for 3 years or so just through the internet and Facebook…more on that later!