Atlanta/Hawkins Trip Day 6+7

   I slept in a little and Kellie got up early and got breakfast at the Bluebird Cafe. When she told the staff that she was seeing Finn Wolfhard in concert they said how he had been there yesterday with a group of 11 other people. Apparently they had been the quietest large group they've ever had. He was definitely hanging around Atlanta the day before, so we could have run into him. Another restaurant said that his group had ordered smash burgers from them the day before. 

   Kellie met back up with me at the AirBnB and we decided we would go walk around. Upon seeing a small line already at the venue, Kellie decided she wanted to start waiting in line. It was probably around 10:45am at that point. I went to the coffee shop next to the venue to get a latte, and gathered some snacks for sitting in line the rest of the day. We met fans in line that even had hand-made costumes to match the album cover. I had never spent most of the day in line before, but it was a positive experience and went by way faster than I thought it would. We made friends with the people in line, and were able to take turns leaving the line when needed. Kellie grabbed her beads to make more bracelets after giving some out. We were probably person 8 and 9 in line. (The longest I had waited in line prior was around 3 or 4 hours when Tyler Oakley decided to come to Milwaukee one day last minute in 2016. My friend Laurette and I were 3rd and 4th in line, and got center middle seats.) There was also a Mexican restaurant right next to the venue so Kellie and I were able to take margaritas to go to drink in line. (I think a lot of people in line were mostly 19-23 age range and mostly women. (Finn is currently 23 so it makes sense.) There ended being an injured? bird that joined the line like an hour before doors. From the line we could even hear Finn soundchecking some of his songs. In line I also colored in my Stranger Things coloring book to help pass the time, and played heads up. Kellie dropped off our stuff at the AirBnB before the show. A couple hours before the show the venue employees separated us by general admission at one side of the venue and VIP/fast pass at the other side. We were sadly separated by our new line friends who had VIP tickets. The people who had VIP tickets got to go in first, and it was a long line. (I get that VIP does usually get in earlier, but it was so sad seeing SO many people enter the venue before us after being one of the first to get there. Our hope of getting to be close to the stage became less and less as time went on. They also let in a group of people for ADA accessible seats before us.) At this particular venue there was floor space and then rows of seats. (Side note: There was a marquee outside the venue with no text on it and not lit up??? Instead they had a concrete slab with the current month of performances outside the venue). When they split the lines Kellie and I were 2nd and 3rd in the general admission line. A girl who had driven there from Florida had gotten to the venue at 8:30 that morning and was the first one there. She also had made a ton of bracelets to give out at the show. Before the VIP entered the venue the two girls we had become friends with told us to come find them when they made it in, and they would try and safe a space close to the stage for us. (This is how we ended up getting pretty close to the stage after all). I felt bad walking in front of people but if they had known we had been waiting outside for over 8 hours I think they would have approved anyways. Kellie was around the 2nd row area and I was behind her in the 3rd row area. 

   The concert was awesome despite there being a huge man pushing into my space throughout the night. It was so surreal seeing Finn Wolfhard in person after spending a few days doing Stranger Things related stuff. I'm so glad his performance landed during the time we would be in Atlanta. It was definitely the icing on the cake of this trip. It was his first show of the 2nd leg of the tour he was doing, and he seemed especially locked in and serious. There wasn't much interaction with the audience, but it seemed like he couldn't hear us very well anyways. I really enjoyed the Tom Petty cover he did, and him playing harmonica with it. (Kellie and I ended up being posted on Finn's Instagram twice. The first time being a picture of the crowd where you can barely see our heads ha ha. The 2nd was a compiled clip of the show that showed both of us outside the venue at the very beginning.) The girl next to Kellie in the crowd had a small banner with Finn's face on it probably when he was around 15 years old doing heart hands. He did seem to glance at it, but didn't comment. With us being so close to the front it did seem like he glanced at me a few tines throughout the set or maybe I'm just delusional. 

   After the show we stood in the merch line, and Kellie bought a few things. After that Kellie and I walked to a nearby bar for cocktails. The description of the bar seemed cooler than what it actually was, but it was also crowded in there. We had our drinks outside before walking back to our AirBnB for the night. I ended up eating Kellie's nachos from the night before going to sleep. 

    The next morning we packed up our things. It was sad leaving the AirBNB, it would have been nice to stay there longer and maybe explore actual Atlanta a little more. We stopped at Little Tart before heading to the airport. The bigger location this time. I was hungry for another chocolate croissant so that's what I got along with an iced Chai. We returned our car before parting ways to opposite ends of the airport. Apparently one side of the airport is specifically for Delta flights which is who Kellie was flying through.  One of the perks of her job is getting Lounge access where she was able to work remotely while waiting for her flight. 

     

        

Atlanta/Hawkins Day 5 (10/05/26)

     We checked out of our hotel before getting our final coffee at LuLu's. I ordered an Eleven themed coffee as my last choice. (Maple sugar and cinnamon flavored coffee). Kellie ordered a Mike flavored coffee. (Mileven.) Kellie had only Eleven and Mike coffees over the 4 days, and I tried a new coffee flavor each day. If I were to rank the coffees I would put Eleven first, Will 2nd, Dustin 3rd, and then Mike. Kellie wore Mike's outfit from the epilogue where he is sitting staring at the library, and took a picture of her doing the same. (The bench is no longer there, either is the memorial which was apparently made of styrofoam.) It was sad to leave Jackson. The whole community had been so kind. 

     We headed off to visit some more filming locations before checking into our AirBnB in Atlanta. We first visited the Byer's house. The Byer's house is now an expensive AirBnB and had cameras everywhere so we took a picture quick and left. We then found the spot where Billy was flayed in Season 3 through the fence. We think that part of the day the gate must be open because there is a bar located there. They still have Billy's car outside of that location. Kellie wanted to visit the location of the Squawk to see if there was anything there even though it had been torn down. There was unfortunately nothing there, just overgrown grass. The final location we visited was the filming location of the Quarry, which was located in Westside Park. The outlook we saw over the water didn't look much like the scenes from Season 1, but it looked cool with the Atlanta skyline in the background. There was no path to stand on the cliffside of the quarry, which might have made it seem higher up/more striking. 

  We visited the Krog Street Market to visit Little Tart Bakeshop. Noah Schnapp (Will) and Finn Wolfhard (Mike) had talked about frequently visiting Little Tart when they lived in Atlanta when filming Stranger Things. The one at Krog Street was a smaller version since it was a place with all different food vendors. Little Tart actually had a bigger location on its own which we visited on Wednesday before going to the airport. (The location Finn and Noah actually visited). Little Tart is known for their croissants, and I got one with chocolate filling. Our AirBnB was super cute. We chose it due to its proximity to the music venue we would see Finn Wolfhard perform at the next day. The AirBnB was gated and had 3 codes in order to get into it, so it was extra safe. Our AirBnB was the top level of a townhouse, and had windows on the ceiling with skylight. It had cute modern decor, and had cute little extras throughout the place. Local recommendations, extra hygiene products, bath salts, etc. It even had a washer and dryer. I wish we could have stayed their longer. The bedroom had sliding doors and tons of decorative pillows. I rested when we first got to our AirBnB while Kellie did some work. We listened to Finn Wolfhard's discography on the way to Atlanta in order to prepare for the concert the next day. We listened to Djo as well. 

   In the evening we walked down the street where the venue was located and visited a record shop called Criminal Records. (Criminal Records is also a place Finn had recommended in the past as a place he liked visiting while living in Atlanta.) The record store had both of Finn's albums. The newest one was on display, while his older one was hidden under the letter "X". We then visited a thrift clothing store with a HUGE selection. It looked like they were getting new donations throughout the day and stocking the floor with donated clothing. There was a whole wall of belts. Literally so many things. It was really fun to look through. The secondhand clothing store was called Rag-O-Rama. We went over to the Atlanta beltline to find something for dinner. The beltline is a pedestrian path lined with restaurants where no cars are allowed. We saw a lot of people using it for running, and biking. There were also a lot of people walking dogs. (I just looked up the beltline and apparently it's 22 miles long!). We were lured in to a restaurant by Panic! At the Disco. They were playing the song "Let's Kill Tonight" as part of a Halloween playlist it turned out. "Let's Kill Tonight" is a way lesser known song and wouldn't just play on the radio. The restaurant was called McCray's and we ate outside as the weather was really nice. I ordered a southwest bowl with a lemonade. It was beautiful seeing the restaurants lit up after dark. I would definitely like to explore it more if I go back to Atlanta. Back at the AirBnB we made bracelets to give out at the concert the next day before going to bed for the night. 

    

Atlanta/Hawkins Day 4 (10/04/26)

   We started off the day by going to the Stranger Things panel. (My body was sore from running and walking so much the day before, as well as falling during roller-skating. Thankfully I was really only sore this day.) Outside of the panel were different Stranger Things themed vendors mostly. There was a little boy who was trying to sell his mom's book, and themed slimes. He was actually a pretty convincing salesman for how young he was, telling me to feel or smell the different slimes. I did not end up buying any of them. Another vendor had Stranger Things ornaments. I ended up getting a Stranger Things themed charm bracelet from one of the vendors. It had a lot of different charms related to the show such as a Christmas light, headphones, camera, bicycle, Hawkins police badge, etc. This Stranger Things panel had Carol from Season 1, Chrissy and Jason from Season 4, 2 other bully characters, and one of the Russian actors. They answered audience questions about their audition process for the show, etc. 

  We went to Lulu's for the 3rd day in a row and this time I got the Mike themed coffee with a cinnamon roll. There was no long line today, and we were able to catch up with Caroline for a little bit before going to Hopper's cabin. Caroline ended up signing up for the same tour so we could spend a little more time together before she left town. The Hopper's cabin tour wasn't much of a tour actually. The cabin was located at a pumpkin farm, the same pumpkin farm used for the pumpkin patch scene in Season 2. (The one with the diseased pumpkins.) The tour guide lead you up a path into the woods where the cabin and a shed was located. They said Netflix had contacted them about their farm and had built the cabin brand new, but roughed it up to make it look new. They then basically told us we could go take pictures, and when you were done looking and taking pictures then that was basically it for the tour. It would have been nice if they gave us more information about the different scenes, but maybe they didn't have that information. Still it was super cool looking around the cabin. There was a picture board in El's room with pictures of Mike, her and Max, Lucas, and even a picture of Steve. On El's bed there was a diary with different entries. I didn't go all the way through it but there was an entry about not wanting to keep the door open 3 inches, and how Mike was a liar. In the living room they had Hopper's chair and the sensory deprivation tank that was used in Season 5. They had the table where Hopper and El ate eggo extravaganza's on Halloween in Season 2, and even had a box of Eggos in the fridge. (Hopper's cabin is used for tours but it is also used as an Escape room part of the day as well.) El's room also had an alphabet wall with Christmas lights which is not accurate to the show.

  After the tour we drove to the other side of the pumpkin farm in order to see the Merril's farm sign. The pumpkin farm was actually really beautiful and had different fall themed backdrops throughout. Kellie and took a picture on a swing with a fall backdtop. A lady that worked there seemed confused when we said we were looking for the sign, but we did end up finding it. Instead of there being pumpkins there, there was a patch of wild flowers instead. We said bye to Caroline afterwards, and then went to Tiffany's for an early dinner. On the way to Tiffany's we stopped at the filming location for Palace Arcade (Season 2) and Blockbuster (Season 4). Both buildings are abandoned now and boarded up with graffiti. It was fun to see the different quotes other fans had written on the boards. The building used for the arcade still had colorful tiling in the building. Tiffany's is the filming location of Benny's Burgers from Season 1. (The restaurant El goes to after escaping the lab.) We ate at the table next to that one, but did recreate the scene during our visit. A British couple who had also done the Hopper's cabin tour did too. It turns out they were on a film tour for the last few months. The table has a reserved sign on it specifically for pictures. The restaurant was actually "Breakfast at Tiffany's" themed and had pictures of Aubrey Hepburn up on the wall. Kellie and I both ordered burgers and curly fries. The restaurant had other food besides burgers but we wanted to be on theme. (People we had done the walking tour with in Jackson also appeared) It started raining after we finished dinner around 4pm. The forecast was pretty adamant that it was going to rain all day that day, but luckily for us it didn't. We decided to make the drive to Henry Creel's house from Season 4 and 5. not knowing when we'd get to chance to again since it was further out of the way then most of the other locations.

   On the way we passed a gas station with the name Quick Trip, which hurt my feelings as a Wisconsinite. The South also seems to have narrower freeways with fewer lanes, and a lot less construction. I don't think we came across any construction on our drives, and we drove so much. (Well Kellie did :P). There was a short burst of heavy rain, otherwise it mainly sprinkled. I stepped in clay textured mud once we made it to the Creel house. The Creel house was super cool to see in person, and is apparently currently for sale. We found out that the asylum from Season 4 was a 15 minute drive away from the Creel house and headed over there. The Elmhurst Asylum filming location is actually located at Berry College. There was 20+ deer roaming around the campus when we got there. The campus staff let us in to take pictures, before we had to make the 2 hour drive back to the hotel. (Robin and Nancy go to Elmhurst Asylum in Season 4 to visit Victor Creel, in order to try to solve the case of what was causing the murders in Hawkins.)  On our drive home we listened to the Pretty.Odd album (Panic! At the Disco), and Live in Denver. (A Panic! At the Disco live album (the best live album). We sang along to Live in Denver even matching the different inflections and comments that Brendon and Ryan made throughout. I'm kind of shocked at how well I have it memorized after not listening to the full album in awhile. I must have listened to the recordings way too much to remember all of that, but so did Kellie, but we met through being Ryan Ross fans originally. :P) (Kellie was wearing Season Will Byers film accurate clothing that day). 

Atlanta/Hawkins Trip Day 3 (10/03/26)

    We started off the day doing a 5k. Neither of us had done one before. Kellie had been training for a few weeks beforehand, but I hadn't. I thought it would feel long, but it surprisingly felt a lot shorter than I thought it would be. It was also in the mid 80's and nearly 100% humidity. I was able to walk at a brisk pace the whole time, and ran part of the course as well. I finished around 47 minutes, which isn't super great, but I enjoyed it. One of the houses even had a Green Bay packers sign in their yard. The route was close enough to the hotel that we were able to walk back after we finished. We both showered before putting on our semi-cosplay. (I wore a romper that Eleven wore in Season 3, and Kellie wore screen accurate clothes that Will wore in Season 3, with faux bangs.) I was hoping to find a Scoops Ahoy costume, but wasn't able to get one in time for the convention. 

   We headed to LuLu's for coffee, and this time there was a long line. It was the busiest day of the convention, probably because those local to Jackson visited for the day. There was even a black lab service dog in the coffee shop. I tried the Dustin themed coffee off of the menu which had coconut, macadamia nut, and salted caramel flavoring. I also got a biscuit to eat. We headed to the Stranger Things panel afterwards. We got there late but luckily for us the panel had just started when we arrived. The panel that day featured the actors for young Will Byers, Mr. Clarke, young Henry, Holly's friend Mary, and one of the cops. The cast members answered questions from the audience, and it turns out the actor who plays Mr. Clarke has a way different personality than his character. He's more like a Murray in real life. Definitely more unhinged. 

   That afternoon there was an event called the Upside Down party in the next town over. The actual party didn't really lean into Stranger Things very much at all, and could have gone harder. The party was held at a park with themed gardens, and had a stage where people could do karaoke. The advertisement said there would be food trucks, and vendors. I remember only seeing one food truck, and a vendor selling candles. The town the park was in was really cute though, and was had a little scavenger hunt going on. We went into an antique shop, and discussed different records with the shop owner. A local artist was selling drawings of Stranger Things characters on cards and T-shirts that she had done. I ended up buying one of the T-shirts. The shop owner even had a record player in store, and played different records to show off their quality. We completed the scavenger hunt and then got lunch at a local barbecue restaurant called Fresh Air Barbecue. 

  We signed up for an Escape Room, and were actually surprised that a time slot was still open for that day. Downtown Jackson has a building made for Stranger Things themed Escape rooms. I had never done an escape room before and thought a Stranger Things Escape Room would be fun. The escape room we were able to get was a Dungeons and Dragons themed room. Your mission was to escape the dungeon, and get to Mike's basement before a Demogorgon would come. It turns out having Stranger Things knowledge was not helpful for this escape room. Kellie and I were paired together with an 11ish year old girl. In the escape room you started off with one foot shackled to the floor. As you figured out the different puzzles you would get keys to unlock the shackles releasing each person one by one. I was the first to be able to unlock my foot. Kellie started out shackled in a corner where she couldn't see the rest of the room. She was the onlt one who had done an escape room before so that was definitely a disadvantage. You would have definitely needed to have completed escape rooms before in order to know what kind of clues to look for. I felt like I thoroughly explored the room, but it wasn't helpful. There were multiple fake cockroaches on the wall and it mattered which direction each one was facing. There were letters on the wall that spelled out a name that happened to be a code to open a box etc. We never made it into Mike's basement, but one of the staff who worked there explained how to complete it after, and took our picture in Mike's basement. 

  We went back to the hotel after the escape room, and found out the convention was holding a costume contest in front of the library like the town had the day before. Kellie and I decided to go down and enter, even though we weren't fully dressed up. There wasn't as great of a turn out as there had been the day before. The day before the people around voted for their favorite costume where there was set judges this time. For participating in the contest you were able to get a photo with one of the actors that was there that weekend. That is how I got to meet James from Twilight. 😂You were given a card with an actors name circled and I had gotten his. Kellie got Chrissy's actress, but was unable to get a picture with her. Neither of us won the contest. 

   We ended the night with 80's themed roller-skating where they also had unlimited pizza, and drinks. I was slightly scared of falling the whole time since I did not want to break something or end up in the hospital during vacation. I did end up falling, on the carpet of all places, really hard. I suddenly started falling backwards and fell right on my tailbone which sent a shock up my spine to my head. I was a tiny bit concerned that since I felt it in my head I could have somehow gotten a concussion, but I was fine. Kellie didn't make it very far and stuck to just skating around the railings, while I went out on the skate floor. (This and the escape room I also wish could have been a little more themed to Stranger Things, however the roller-skating place did put a sign on their building that said Rink O' Mania, which is what it was called in Stranger Things.) You were given a raffle ticket with admission and every half hour or so they would call a few raffle ticket numbers to earn prizes. Kellie's number was called, and she was able to choose a Stranger Things themed poster. She got one with the Squawk van on it. During roller-skating there was a little girl also dressed like Season 3 Eleven, but in a different outfit, and a little girl dressed like Holly skating together. They were both excited to see me in my Eleven outfit. The Mike cosplayer from the day before was wearing Mike's roller-skating costume. It looked like a spitting image of Rink-o-mania Mike from the back. Another event that was going on that night that we didn't end up attending was a cover band called "Atlanta Vice" They had Eddie's guitar double play guitar as well. (The guitar double was the one that played "Master of Puppets" in Season 4. 

Atlanta/Jackson (Hawkins) Trip Day 2 (10/02/26)

    After getting ready we headed to downtown Jackson to get coffee from a local coffee shop called LuLu's. LuLu's has a seperate Stranger Things menu for fans as well. I was able to try four different drinks from the menu during the time we were there. The coffee shop also features Max levitating inside the coffee shop. As my first pick I got the Will Byers themed coffee, and Kellie got the 011. To go along with the convention Kellie was dressed in Season 5 Mike clothing. The Will Byers coffee had coconut and vanilla flavoring and was made with coconut milk. The 011 drink had cinnamon and maple syrup flavoring. We also had bagels with our coffee. 

   After eating our bagels we headed over to the Stranger Tours building for our walking tour. The front room of the Stranger Tours building is meant to look like a Blockbuster, and had a Stranger Things themed pinball machine. If you walk down the hall of the Stranger Tours building there is a room made to resemble the Byer's house living room. It has a couch with the alphabet Christmas light wall, a small TV with 80's VHS tapes, a kitchen table with board games from the 80's, a hot wheels track on the floor, and an Atari with different games. You could spend a lot of time in there, and we definitely would of if we could. Across from the Byer's themed room was a rainbow room themed lab for making slime. Kellie played Stranger Things pinball while we waited for our tour to begin. 

   Our walking tour started in a WSQK room in the building. You weren't allowed to go into the room unless you were doing the tour. For the walking tour you were given a viewfinder that had pictures of what the scene looked like during filming and how it looks now (without the viewfinder.) We learned during the tour that the signs that they had in the show were being remade by a local colleges art department. They were also putting together a Mac Z scene to match Season 5. The signs had been put up, but they were still finishing up the Mac Z scene. The convention didn't technically begin until the next day, but the town had already been putting on special events starting that day. It was fun getting to walk down the alley where Steve and Jonathan fought, and quote and think about the different scenes being filmed in the exact places we were now standing. (I've begun rewatching Season 1 since getting back from our trip, and it hits different after being to some of the sights, and comparing it to what we saw.) The tour concluded with some Stranger Things trivia at Hawkins Headquarters. The trivia questions were pretty easy ones with 5 from each season. If you got all the questions right for a season you got to pick a prize. The prizes were shutter glasses, 80s themed tattoos, and different candies like candy bracelets. Since we were in Hawkins Headquarters after the tour I put on a Hawkins letter jacket from the costume closet to pose with the Hawkins High School desk/wall. I also put on Will's Season 5 jacket and posed as if I were attacking a Demogorgon. The costume closet also had a basket with cardboard cutouts of the actors and actresses faces. I couldn't find Noah's (Will's actor) but I guess it was in there. (I saw another fan using it a few days later.) 

  After the tour there was a someone with a merch table selling handmade Stranger Things items. I got a Season 3 themed Scrunchie, and Kellie got a Squawk themed tote bag. One of the people sitting by the table was dressed like Season 3 Steve after he gets beaten up by the Russians. There was also a very convincing Murray in a bathrobe that walked by. We got ice cream at Buddy Blu's after visiting the table. Buddy Blu's has a giant mural of the Stranger Things characters in their front rooms. I was hoping they would have more Stranger Things options, but they only had two. We drove the route of the 5k happening the next day that we had both registered for. I hadn't trained so I would only be running part of it, while Kellie would try and run most of it. It seemed long while driving the route so it made me a little nervous about actually doing it. In the past I had done different charity walks, and those had felt fairly long. We also stopped at the church that was used heavily in Season 4 and 5. We drove back to the hotel afterwards due to Kellie having another work meeting. After a little bit I walked over to downtown Jackson while Kellie finished her work meeting to check out the different stores we hadn't been to yet. I also played Stranger Things pinball in the Stranger Tours building and chatted with the employee there. It turns out she was in her early twenties, so she had really grown up with the kids in the show. One of the shops had wine slushies, and that's when I met back up with Kellie. We took pictures inside the surfer boy pizza van before sitting outside on the grass by the library. A Hawkins police van was parked outside the library with a Hopper cosplayer. We saw people taking a ride in the van, so we decided to ask for a ride when they got back. It turns out the Hopper cosplayer had only seen parts of Season 5. His wife ran the Stranger Things Escape rooms and had gotten him to dress up and even redo his car. He was chatty and even asked us if we wanted to go anywhere else. We declined and he drove us back to the library. Apparently the county doesn't put a lot of effort into their tourism even though they could literally easily pull Stranger Things fans. The county where Jackson is, is called Butts County, and people do at least make puns with the name including the water tower which read "Welcome to Beautiful Butts County". (I'm sure the Stranger Things actors had a field day with the name.) There was even a T-shirt for sale that said "Big Beautiful Butts right in the Crack of Georgia" with the outline of Georgia and a peach on it. 

   We checked in to our 5k that would be happening the next day, and were given our race numbers and T-shirt. We got dinner at a restaurant called Bradley's which was located in the filming location of the Hawk Theatre. Inside they were playing the Season 5 finale. It was really surreal seeing the library on film when we could see it from the restaurant as well. We both got appetizers as we weren't super hungry despite not eating much that day. The town was putting on a costume contest in front of the Hawkins Library so we walked over after eating. People really put a lot of effort into their costumes. There was a lady that looked exactly like Winona Ryder that had missing Will posters in her hand. There was also a girl dressed up like Ms. Driscoll from Season 3, fertilizer bag, and rats and all. There was a costume contest for the kids and the adults. For the kids a boy that looked exactly like Season 5 Dustin after he had gotten beaten up won with a little girl dressing up as Max as 2nd, and a boy dressed like Henry that got 3rd. For the adults a girl dressed like Season 5 Finale Mike won, but it was probably due to the fact she had an vintage bike as a prop. 2nd place went to a guy dressed like Eddie and his dog with the demogorgan petals around it's head. In 3rd place was a guy dressed like Henry mid-transformation into Vecna with a tree-like hand. There was also someone dressed as Season 5 Holly, finale Steve, and finale Dustin. 

  We went to 80's themed bingo to finish off the night that was being put on through the county. As snacks for bingo there were mini eggos, trail mix, pizza rolls, and different candy. There were also themed cocktails you could buy throughout the night. I got a cocktail called Vecna Venom which was made with blue curacao, lemonade, sprite, and grenadine with a cherry. They did a mini costume contest at Bingo as well and Ms. Driscoll won that time thankfully. There was a lady who looked exactly like Karen Wheeler, and I was almost convinced that maybe the actress that played her was hiding out. She wasn't even dressed like Karen, just looked a lot like her. I went up to her and told her so, and it turns out no one had ever told her that before???? There was a total of 10 Bingo games, however Kellie and I did not win any of them, It was still a really fun time. Twice throughout the night we had a karaoke break where everyone sang along to "Sweet Caroline" and "Don't Stop Believin" (the classic white people karaoke songs.) We were given glowsticks which people used to sing into. We made a friend who was sitting at the same table as us named Caroline. Caroline had made magnets with different scenes from Stranger Things on them. I got a magnet of Season 1 Will. 

    We met up with Caroline after Bingo and walked around Jackson Square (downtown Jackson.) The art students had finished up the Mac Z scene by then, and the glowing lights of the entrance to the Upside Down made it look even cooler. 

Atlanta/Jackson (Hawkins) Day 1 (10/01/26)

    Back in May of this year my friend Kellie had found an advertisement on Instagram for a convention called "Halloween in a Small Town" that would be held in the place they filmed Stranger Things. (Jackson, Georgia.) The same people putting on this convention also put on a convention at the Gilmore Girls filming location each year, and go all out. I had met Kellie online in 2018 as someone who would also be flying over to Los Angeles too see Ryan Ross perform live. Most people know Panic! At the Disco for Brendon Urie, but our favorite band member was Ryan Ross. We also both ironically ended up becoming big Stranger Things fans, and both had Will as our favorite character. I don't think I've met anyone else besides her who has also picked Will as their favorite character. Kellie travels a lot for work so we were able to meet up nearly a year after seeing Ryan Ross, but that had been the last time I had seen her in person. Pre-pandemic and even college graduation, so it had been awhile. We have stayed in touch throughout the years though, mainly through Instagram. 

   Kellie decided for sure she was going to go, and said she was fine going solo if I couldn't make it. I made the decision to go in early July, and booked my flight to Atlanta. Kellie had already booked a hotel room that would have two beds. We made sure both of our flights landed at similar times, and it worked out well. No delays for either of us thankfully. It also turned out that Finn Wolfhard (the actor that plays Mike) would be performing his music in Atlanta two days after the convention ended, so Kellie also got tickets for that. The Gilmore Girls convention was able to get in more major characters than the Stranger Things convention including Scott Patterson (Luke's actor). The Stranger Things convention was originally going to have the actor for the character, Barb but she had a scheduling conflict. The characters they were able to get for the convention included: Mr. Clarke, Chrissy, and Jason for the bigger characters, and Holly's friend Mary, little Henry Creel, little Will, the other bully characters, etc. The convention also had the actor for James from Twilight coming in and two of the actors from Halloweentown. As a nod to Halloweentown Jackson Square had a giant jack-o-lantern outside of the welcome center, and the bus stop signs from Halloweentown which free shuttles stopped at for the weekend. 

    It was so fun planning what we were going to do during the trip. I was more than excited to see downtown Jackson transformed into Hawkins with signs that matched how it looked in the show. I was also stoked to get to see the Wheeler and Byer's house in person. They had sadly already torn down all the schools they built for the show, the lab, and the radio station. I was excited to go somewhere still experiencing summer weather to hold onto the warmer weather for a little bit longer. The period of warm weather in Wisconsin is so short. Originally it looked like it would be a rainy weekend when I checked the weather a few days before leaving for Atlanta. Saturday looked like it would have on and off rain, and Sunday looked like it would rain all day. The forecast luckily was wrong. A lot of the activities were inside, but it was still nice to be able to walk around and be outside. 

   We flew in on Thursday so we had a little extra time with the conference being Friday-Sunday. We got a rental car through Enterprise which was right at the airport. The rental car process was surprisingly very quick and they told us to pick any mini van. A mini van for two people was kind of a strange pairing, but apparently it was the cheapest option. We went with a black minivan, and Kellie put in the address of the Wheeler House. The filming locations of most of the houses happened to be closer to the airport then to Jackson Georgia. We figured we could hit the other houses when we stayed in Atlanta Monday and Tuesday for Finn's show. Seeing the most recognizable house from the show besides the Byer's house felt really surreal, and so was walking in downtown Jackson when we finally made it there. Kellie was able to book a hotel just down the street from downtown Jackson so it was only a 10 minute walk from our hotel, however parking downtown was actually pretty easy. We took pictures of the Wheeler house quick before checking into our hotel. Kellie had a short work meeting before we walked downtown from our hotel. The town was putting up the signs on the building to match the show when we got there. It was so surreal seeing the downtown area, which had been in so many scenes throughout the show. It didn't look how I thought it would. Seeing the massive welcome center used as the Hawkins library was definitely a highlight. We went into an 80's/Stranger Things themed store that had all kind of different Stranger Things merchandise, different photo op places, and even costumes for characters from the show. We decided to buy the stuff we wanted that day in case the town got crowded for the convention. I got a fridge magnet that said "I've been to Hawkins, Indiana Jackson, Georgia", and a pin of Castle Byers. The store also had a blacklight area with arcade games. Outside of Hawkins Headquarters was the Surfer Boy van parked on the street. The van remains parked on the street and is even unlocked so fans can take pictures inside of it. Papa John's is across the street from where the van is parked, which made us hungry for pizza when deciding where to eat dinner that night. We did not go to the Papa John's but an actual pizza restaurant called "The Brickery". The next day the restaurant actually had a "Surfer Boy Pizza" sign outside of it to be on theme. Kellie and I shared a magherita pizza, and then walked back to our hotel for the night. The people of Jackson Georgia seemed excited to have the convention in town and were super sweet. We even saw a sign outside a gas station before entering Jackson that said "Welcome Stranger Things Fans!" The small town feel was definitely felt.  

Colorado Day 4: Sprague Lake, Alberta Falls, Grand Lake (6/23/26)

    My 4th day in Colorado was the busiest, due to it being my aunt and uncle's last full day there. We started the morning off by visiting Sprague Lake. Sprague Lake is one of the lakes in Rocky Mountain National Park that you don't need to hike up to. It is fully accessible. There's a trail around the lake, and the lake isn't too big so it doesn't take long to walk around. Surrounding the lake is marshy areas where moose like to hang around. We didn't end up seeing a moose there, but we did see a massive male elk laying in a grassy area before we even started walking around the lake. There is a point of the path where you can see the lake with the mountains in the distance, with their reflection in the water. It's not as incredible as the other sights in Rocky Mountain National Park, but is always pretty peaceful. You're allowed to walk off the path (within reason) so at different points we would go off to the side of the path to see if there were any animals in the marshy areas further away. There wasn't from what we could see, but with all the trees and grass you never really know how much wildlife is around in any given moment. A lot of the animals are used to people, especially the elk and chipmunks. (There's usually elk roaming around town in Estes Park even though there is usually a lot of people around. You usually see chipmunks along the hiking trails, and sometimes they'll even come right up to you to see if you will give them food.) People have more luck seeing wildlife during the early morning when the park first opens. 

  After walking around Sprague we drove to the parking lot for the shuttle and took a shuttle to the Alberta Falls trailhead. Alberta Falls is one of the waterfalls in RMNP. It's an incredible view that only takes a short hike to get to. Near the beginning of the trail there is a choose your own adventure option where you can walk across rocks in a stream or walk across a board of wood over the stream. I took the rocks across the stream. :P You can continue hiking further up the mountain after making it to Alberta Falls, but we never hiked any further. Along the hiking trail I spotted a male mule deer up further on the trail. The deer walked a little closer to get a look at the group before walking into a more wooded area. I hiked up some boulders to get a closer view of the water, before sitting down to eat snacks. (I was surprised by how not sore I was, I figured my legs would hurt a lot especially after the steep climb at Red Rock.) My thighs hurt a little bit when I would bend, but it was very mild. 

   We took the shuttle back to our car after getting back down and drove on Trail Ridge Road to go to Grand Lake. Trail Ridge Road is a road that takes you further up into the mountains. The road is narrow and goes back and forth. At the top of the mountain is a visitor center with a gift shop and some concessions. The road has places where you can pull off and look at the view along the way. You can also hike up a really steep set of stairs near the visitor center to get a better view of the mountains, but my family has never done that. (In the past we have had our minivan breakdown at the visitor center, my family had a lot of car troubles when my brother and I were growing up. :P ) According to Google Trail Ridge Road is the highest paved road in the United States at over 12,000ft. elevation. Trail Ridge Road takes about an hour drive, and ends at Grand Lake. Grand Lake is a tiny tourist town with a lake known as "Grand Lake." The actual population is around 500 people. Along Trail Ridge Road there are long sticks at the end of the roads that act as markers for where the edge of the road is for skiers to follow during the winter when the snow gets really deep. Trail Ridge Road opens around Memorial Day, and usually closes around Mid October. We stopped at the visitor center along the way, before finishing our drive to Grand Lake. From the car you can see the peaks of the mountains and huge snowbanks at a closer view. Along our way to Grand Lake my mom spotted a moose way off in the distance at the side of the road when we were no longer on the narrow road going up the mountains. There happened to be a parking lot closer to where the moose was so we could get a better view. (A female moose). We maintained our distance, and attempted to get pictures of the moose. (I've only saw a moose one other time while visiting Colorado. We saw a male moose from the car while driving, and it was pretty close by.There is also another road that takes you up into the mountains that's unpaved and way scarier to navigate called "Fall River Road." It's a one-way street you can take up the mountains, but you have to take Trail Ridge Road back down. I'm not actually sure if we've ever driven on Fall River Road before, but I don't think so?) 

   Once we got to Grand Lake we had an early dinner at Sagebrush Barbecue and Grill. I think it was around 3pm at the time. I ordered a 6oz sirloin with cooked broccoli and hashbrowns as the sides. After dinner we walked over by the lake and checked out the shops. I got soft-serve ice cream, and got to pet a half wolf/half dog that was walking down the street. (The owner lives in town and said he walks his dog around everyday to get treats from one of the shops.) As it is a tourist town a lot of the stuff in the shops was expensive. (Same with Estes Park but maybe not as bad.) 

 On our way back from Grand Lake we spotted yet another female moose near Milner Pass (the continental divide). This one was on the other side of a pond. We were able to take pictures of it from across the water. It was also not at the narrow part of the road, so we could more easily pull off to the side of the road. We had to drive the whole hour drive back to Estes Park after that, and got back around 6pm. We again watched shows before going to bed, this time we were able to sleep in a little more, as we weren't planning on going into the park the next day. 

Day 2 and Day 3 (Traveling to Estes Park and Lake Haiyaha 6/21 & 6/22)

   I woke up around 9am and packed up my things before putting on my new Red Rocks shirt. I checked out of my hotel before returning the rental car. When I arrived a guy came out and called my name. The shuttle to the airport from the rental car place arrived right away.  My shuttle to Estes Park would be at 1pm, and at that point it was 10:45am. I thought I might have to leave the airport in order to get lunch, but then I saw a cafe on the level above. It turned out there was a cafe and also a Caribou coffee on the level above. Since that part of the airport was under construction those were the only options. I opted for Caribou Coffee since they also had sandwiches available. I got a sandwich and an iced vanilla latte. Once I got my food I noticed there was no operating down escalator, however I had overheard an employee directing people towards where the elevator was, which was kind of hidden. I found a bench area to sit at while I waited for the shuttle. I colored in my Stranger Things coloring book and directed people towards the available food options when they asked aloud. I turns out the other cafe place had smoothies. 

    I started heading towards the shuttle area at around 12:40, and got to the place where the shuttle would pick up at around 12:50. When booking the shuttle the website said the shuttle would arrive at around 12:50, and leave at 1pm. There were two other shuttles that stopped in the same place where the pickup was, but the website had also said the shuttle picking us up would have Estes Park shuttle written in green lettering on the side. Neither one of the shuttles had that. When it got to be 1:05 I got scared that I somehow had missed the shuttle, and there wouldn't be another one until 4pm. The shuttle however arrived shortly after 1:05 and was just running late. Thankfully, I found other travelers that were also nervous and called the shuttle company. The shuttle left around 1:15, and took about 1.5 hours. The shuttle dropped off passengers at various locations in Estes Park, but dropped off at the visitor center first, which is where I had selected to be dropped off. I somehow was the only one to asked to be dropped off there, but maybe most people had wanted to be dropped off closer to the mountains. I let my parents know when I was close to the visitor center, and my dad picked me up from there. I thought he was going to crash into me for 2 seconds before realizing it was him. On our way to our rental I saw an elk at one of the pumps at a gas station. (This is very typical of elk in Estes Park, where you'll just see them roaming the town.) There were even signs that stated that elk were extremely active and to remain cautious. My dad showed me my room in the condo we had rented for the week through Vrbo. The Vrbo was a two levels with 2 bedrooms and 2 and a half bathrooms. The bedrooms were on the first level and living room and kitchen on the 2nd level. The second level had a balcony, and the 1st level had a small fenced in area off of the master bedroom. After that I caught up with my parents on different life happening and the Red Rocks concert the night before. My aunt and uncle Scott and Tori had also decided to go on vacation in Estes Park from Friday(6/19)-Wednesday(6/24),while my parents and I would be there from Saturday 6/20 to the following Saturday (6/27). Scott and Tori came over shortly after I arrived. I went to my room to rest for a little bit before dinner, but was unable to sleep. We had sliders to eat for dinner. Scott and Tori hung around until after 7pm. They were planning to come back around 6:30am so we could get into Rocky Mountain National Park early. Since 2020 you have to get a timed entry pass, which you have to purchase at 7pm the night before. We got a timed entry pass for 6-8am entry. I think if you enter before a certain time, or after a certain time you can get in without a pass. Like early morning before 5am, and after 4pm maybe? The timed entry pass only costs $2 fortunately. In the past if you were in line, but got to the front of the line after 8am they would have you turn around. (Kind of like buying concert tickets right when they go on sale.) Rocky Mountain National Park keeps getting more and more popular as the years go on, so there were a lot of people at the park when we got to our trailhead at 7:30am. (You could see a lot of ground squirrels and bunnies from the balcony.)

   My mom decided to stay back as she didn't want to overdo it. The hike to Lake Haiyaha is a moderate hike that is 4.2 miles roundtrip. At the very end you have to climb up massive boulders in order to see the lake which is a bright blue color. I had only hiked up to Lake Haiyaha one other time, I had opted to hike up to Emerald Lake in the past which is a little closer. I think Lake Haiyaha is even more breathtaking than Emerald Lake but both are incredible and worth the hike. This is obvious, but hiking mostly upwards is a lot more strenuous then hiking on flat paths especially when you gain 700ft. in elevation during the hike. At the start of the hike my heart was already pounding, and I wondered if I'd be able to make it up the whole way. I had hiked these trails many times in the past even once with a bad cold so I wasn't actually too worried. (You initially take the same trail to get up to Emerald Lake and Lake Haiyaha.) (I was also afraid my aunt and uncle would be more in shape than I was and hike the trails more quickly, but that did not happen.) We stopped frequently along the sides of the trails to let other people pass who were quicker, and/or catch our breath. I had just gotten new to me shoes for hiking, and they were kind of loose so my dad helped tighten them along the way. We came across a family with young kids and the mom shouting something along the lines of "I said no more gummi bears you're going to hurt someone or yourselves." Sad to report the only bears I saw in Colorado were gummi bears. :( We didn't end up actually seeing any wildlife on the trails besides chipmunks and stellar jay birds. We had to take a shuttle from a lower parking lot due to the fact that most of the parking lots fill up right away at Rocky Mountain National Park if you don't get there right at 6 or earlier. They can cram a surprising amount of people in the shuttles though. My dad and I like to scale the side of giant cliffs to the sides of the trail while hiking up the mountains. It's like rock climbing in real life. (I will go back down if the cliff is too hard to climb, which happened on our last full day.) After we were heading down my dad started climbing a cliff, I made the comment "I'm my father's daughter." to my aunt and uncle before also climbing the cliff. (Being taller makes it a lot easier to climb down cliffs, as you can reach further down). I noticed I seemed to be more and shape and less exhausted after hiking to the top, then I have in previous years. It was also nice seeing Colorado with 20/20 vision for once with contacts. I was able to spot so many more things. :P (an also obvious comment.) I climbed up a strange looking tree with a ton of branches poking out everywhere. Our initial plan was to hike down to where the trail divides in two and hike to Emerald Lake, but at that point it looked like it might rain so we decided to hike down instead. My mom downloaded and I have the Life 360 app downloaded on our phones, and because of it she could see my location while hiking through the mountains which was neat. It also gives you markers like what the mountains around you are called/trail names. It never ended up raining on our way down. (Colorado rain is weird, the sky gets dark and then it might sprinkle or downpour for a few minutes before turning to blue skies again. The rain doesn't usually last too long.) 

   My mom had bought stuff to make sandwiches while we were gone for lunch time. We left the parking lot after the shuttle took us back around noon. We ate the sandwiches and then rested after the hike. Tori and Scott went back to their rental for a couple hours to rest before coming back for dinner. We sat out on the balcony while listening to classic rock music, and watching the ground squirrels below. My mom had bought blue raspberry wine coolers for me for the week. It did start sprinkling for a couple of minutes before dinner. We had steak sandwiches, and again my mom and aunt attempted to obtain timed entry passes for the next day at 7pm. My aunt was successful, and we got the 6-8am timed entry again for the next day. Which meant waking up at 6am again. 

The Journey to Denver and Phantom Planet at Red Rocks (6/20/26)

    To get to Denver I set my alarm for 4am leaving my apartment at 4:30am for my 6:45am flight from O'Hare. My sister-in-law showed up to my apartment at 4:30 and off we went. I said goodbye to Astro and took him out quick. (Shout out to my brother and sister-in-law for taking care of Astro while I'm away in Colorado for the week, and also shout out to my sister-in-law for taking me to the airport at 4:30am.) There was a McDonalds right next to my gate so I got a breakfast sandwich and iced vanilla latte. It was time to board soon afterwards. My seat was next to the window, and the middle seat remained empty. I slept for about an hour of the 2.5 hour flight. The airplane actually made it to the Denver airport quicker than expected. I think we ended up being 15 minutes or so above schedule. The airplane was able to go to it's gate right away, by the time I made it to the baggage claim I only had to wait like 5 minutes until my bag appeared on the conveyor belt. I then made my way to the car rental shuttle, and again only waited like 5 minutes until the shuttle came. It was the fastest I've gone through an airport. My car rental reservation wasn't until 10am, and I got to the car rental place at around 9am. I used the car rental bathroom to change out of my comfy clothes and put on makeup to kill some time. Afterwards I decided to wait in line to see if I could rent my car early. They allowed me to take the car early, but also threw on car protection insurance, and a toll pass which sadly took the total of my car rental from $56 to $115 for just renting a car for 24 hours. (Still a little mad about it.) I was afraid though if I got out of the car protection insurance then I'd for sure get into a crash so I didn't risk it. I was given a silver 2025 Nissan Versa which could be turned on with a button. A car that also shuts itself off, after a few minutes of idling as I found out. When I got the car I sat in it for around 10 or so minutes to decide what to do next as my hotel check in wasn't until 3pm. What I didn't know was that after a couple minutes of being parked with the car on it shut itself off. The screen was still off, and the vents were still blowing out air so I figured it was still on. Even while off you're able to put the car into the different gears. I put the car in drive, and it began rolling backwards so I quickly hit the brake and tried again. I didn't want to hit the car parked behind me so I hit the power button to turn the car off and it turned on instead. (Without an actual key and just a key fob I was so nervous I would lose the key or lock it in the car, thankfully though I was able to keep track of it.) 

   I decided to drive to the 16th street mall, and found cheap parking through Spothero. (The 16th mall is basically central downtown Denver that has a ton of different stores and restaurants. There's a free shuttle that runs along 16th Street to take you to specific sections of downtown quicker. It's a big area.) I typed in the address to the parking reservation I had made, and ended up in a private apartment parking garage. Since it didn't seem right I had Google Maps start the route over assuming I had driven past the actual parking garage I was supposed to be at. It lead me to the same parking garage. Thankfully it was easy to back out of, and there were a few parking spaces in the entrance before you went in where I was able to figure out what was happening. I went to the reservation listing instead and clicked the navigate button which took me to the correct parking garage. I accidentally ended up in a bus lane, and was unable to get out right away which made the bus behind me angry. :P The parking garage was right next to Union Station so it was an easily remembered marker. In front of Union Station there was an art installment over a splash pad of colorful streamers blowing in the breeze. Apparently it had just been opened to the public the day before, so it's very new. The installment is called, "Sun Splash." (Picture taken by the Denver Post below with the art done by Patrick Shearn.) 

   

  I took the shuttle to Larimer Square, which is a neat little section of the 16th Street Mall that has stringed lights that weave back and forth over the street, with Colorado flags hanging down from the lights. Since it's also pride month, there were pride flags hanging as well. When I went to Larimer Square in 2021 it had a few vintage shops that were no longer there, but they did have one. There was also a window display in an alley that contained pig statues with disco balls. May have been another artistic display. After this I wandered around the 16th St. Mall Road, and bought some bottles of water. I was getting hungry at this point, and looked up restaurant options nearby. I found a burger bar that also had milkshakes, and decided on that. (They also had icecream drinks with alcohol, and other cocktails/beer available.) It turned out to be 6 blocks away, but I made the walk, and the restaurant was actually right next to Union Station. This was a pretty perfect location with it being so close to my car. At that point there was a craft fair happening in front of Union Station next to the streamer art display. I looked at a few booths before arriving at the burger bar. At the burger bar I got a classic burger with cheese, mayo, lettuce, and onion along with an Oreo milkshake. In the bar there was a sign pointing to the bathrooms that said "Whiz Palace." The burger bar was called "Hopdoddy Burger Bar." On my way to the restaurant I saw another  window art display of giant straws. I called the hotel to see if I could check-in early, but they didn't have a room for 1 person available, and said they would call me when one became available. I hung out at the table a little longer to pass more time before heading to the hotel which was a half hour drive. Denver has a high homeless population so it'sa little sketchy to navigate alone. (At around 1pm Phantom Planet started posting pictures of them being at Red Rock on Instagram. A few fans from Patreon happened to be there at the time, and were able to see them from a distance as they checked out the stage and took pictures). (A few days before the show I direct messaged the Phantom Planet account to see if they would have anytime to say "hi" before the show thinking probably not with it being such a huge show. Unfortunately they were not able to, and of course are free to say no under any circumstances. 

      I arrived at the hotel at around 2:45, and decided I would see if a room was available yet at the front desk. As I was walking in the employee at the front desk was in the middle of trying to call me to tell me a room was available. I was able to check in a whole 15 minutes early. The hotel was technically a Motel 6. There wasn't much to each room, but it was good enough to have as a place to sleep at quick before leaving the next day. I laid down and tried to rest, since I had basically been up since 4am but was unable to nap. I got ready for the concert before arriving at Red Rock around 5:00 with doors opening at 5:30, and Phantom Planet going on stage at 6:30 as the opener for Gavin Degraw and O.A.R . I was surprised that the park already had stop and go traffic at 5pm. Most people were there to see O.A.R which wouldn't go on until 8:30, but if they had general admission maybe they wanted to be as close as possible. The upper lot was completely full so I was placed in one of the lower lots. Not the lowest one though thankfully. The hike from the parking lot to the ampitheatre was pretty steep and strenuous. You went up one set of stairs only to go up another set of stairs from the upper lot to the theatre. On my way up to the upper lot a snake was slithering on the left side of the stairs. It looked like a typical garden snake, but it was still wild. No one else seemed to notice, or maybe that's just a common sighting in Colorado. It was around 85 degrees at that point so not great for such a steep walk, especially with other fans following behind me. The increase in altitude is no joke and my lungs really felt it. Once getting up there instead of heading right to the general admission section I went to go fill my water bottle at a water filling station. I figured general admission was still pretty far back so I'd be okay sitting further back if it meant I didn't die of dehydration. That particular water bottle is filled with Phantom Planet themed stickers and other fun stickers. The Phantom Planet themed stickers being created by Jody from Patreon. (Shout out to her, the fun stickers encourage me to drink more water.) The line for the water filling station was actually longer than the bathroom line, until we found out there was two, and not just one filling station. I had gotten up to the ampitheatre probably close to 5:45 and then went to go find a place to sit around 6pm. (Shoutout to Alea from Patreon as well for selling me her ticket for way cheaper than the normal Red Rock price after she couldn't make it to the concert. Tickets usually go for $200+ even for general admission.) It ended up being a sold out show.

    The reserved ticket section was not blocked off, and none of the employees were double-checking to make sure you had reserved seats. Due to this if you didn't know any better you would probably assume that it was all general admission seats. There was only a single yellow rope that didn't go all the way across that marked where general admission would be. I talked to one of the employees to double-check and she said that the ledges on the sides of the theatre and Row 44 and back was general admission. I sat on one of the ledges, before deciding to find a ledge closer to the stage. I made sure it was okay with the lady already sitting there that I could sit there as well for the opening act, to which she agreed. (the ledges could fit multiple people and were pretty wide.) Around 5 minutes before Phantom Planet's set a loud sound occurred that sounded like a missile was about to hit. It turned out to be a fighter jet, which just appeared out of nowhere to fly over the ampitheatre which was really jarring. When I posted about it on the Patreon Darren said that the noise had scared them a lot too, and that it was the loudest noise he had ever heard. I would have been pissed if I had died right before Phantom Planet's set. 

     There was quite a bit of empty space in the reserved ticket seating area so it was tempting to go over into the area to get a more clear view of the stage. The temptation did end up winning especially with them being the opening band. The general admission section was pretty packed by then, but much more empty near the front. Probably 99% of the reserved seating people were sitting down as well which was a bummer. Especially for such a special moment for Phantom Planet to be able to play there for the 1st time with their band being over 30 years old. I walked over from the ledge into the 13th row. Since I was technically breaking a rule I didn't want to be way up front. (If someone happened to come and claim the spot I was standing in, I would have left right away, but that didn't happen.) During this show and the show the previous night the original bassist played with them. (Phantom Planet went on a 11 year hiatus, during which Sam was hired by Maroon 5 to be their bassist.) While in the crowd I spotted the touring bassist who must have had the same idea as me sitting in Row 12 a few feet away from me. We made eye contact before turning back to watch the show. (He definitely recognized me.) I found out that people like to tailgate in the parking lot before the main act. I stood and danced to the songs while singing along, and was even put on the big screen during their last song. Some O.A.R fans also got up and danced during the last song which is also their most famous song, "California" (The OC theme song). Their set was only 7 songs long, but really impacted the crowd, and a ton of the crowd stood up at the end for a standing ovation. It made me so incredibly proud of the band. Alex talked about how amazing it was to play at the most beautiful venue they've ever played with such a massive crowd. Towards the end of the set Darren must have accidentally hit Alex with his guitar in the side. After they finished a song Alex talked about how we couldn't hear him, but he had just shouted "Owww" at Darren. He said he thought he had broken his rib due to Colorado and it's altitude? (Allegedly it happened on their day off the previous week when Alex traveled to DC for the UFC fight at the White House. I thought he had just been there to watch the fight not participate. Just kidding.) After their last song I walked out of the reserved seating area, and missed them taking a selfie with the crowd in the background due to that. (I think I might have still made it in though). During the set their tour manager Scott was filming the crowd and them. I found out later he had livestreamed a couple minutes of the show to Instagram. I went and got lemonade and brought it back to the ledge, and watched a little of Gavin Degraw's set when he came on, but didn't really get into his music. It sounded like a mix of country and pop. His singing voice reminded me of Adam Levine from Maroon 5. I do appreciate Maroon 5's stuff, but I'm not a big fan of pop songs in general. I much prefer meaningful lyrics over catchy songs with shallow lyrics. I headed to the top of the theatre to take pictures from above the ampitheatre, and explored the visitor's center. The visitor center had been redone since I last went inside in 2018. They had an updated wall of famous acts up until 2020 now with a huge 3D map of the Red Rock grounds. The 3D map took up a whole wall. It was cool seeing a 3D map of where I had come from the lower lot up to the theatre. I bought a Red Rocks shirt and cool keychain while in the visitors center as well. Red Rocks had a strong weed smell, which made it just like every other outdoor concert I've been to in the past. I stayed for a little bit of O.A.R's set as well. It was really cool seeing the ampitheatre light up after the sun went down. You could also see the Denver city lights way in the distance. I didn't stay for all of O.A.Rs set due to not wanting to deal with the after concert chaos of getting out of the park which supposedly can take up to 2 hours. The lower lots have get out of the park faster which is an advantage, but I decided to leave especially since I would have to get up early the following day to return the rental car and get back to the airport for a shuttle to Estes Park. The stairs down to the lower lot were lit up and looked really cool at night. 

Phantom Planet/Augustana Show (Chicago) 6/07/26

     I had originally been deciding whether to go to the Chicago date or not, but was leaning towards going. Last summer Phantom Planet had played in Milwaukee at Summerfest, and then played in Urbana, IL three days later. I regretted not attending the Urbana show even though it would have been a 3 hour drive there and back on a Sunday. With Chicago being even closer it made sense to just go. For work I haven't had a consistent 9-11am client in over a month so I usually end up going in at 11am instead on M/W/F. I was banking on them not scheduling me until 11am on Monday and thankfully that was the case, as I arrived back to my apartment around 1:30am. With traffic it's over an hour and a half drive, without it's a little over an hour. After posting what shows I was planning on going to on Patreon a fan who ended up not being able to go to the show sent me her ticket for free. I hadn't upgraded to the VIP package for Chicago so I was planning on getting there when the doors opened around 7pm or after. I was sad I wouldn't be able to talk with the guys before the show, but it would have been a bit expensive, especially with doing VIP and Madison and then staying in a hotel for the night. After the Madison show I ended up writing personalized letters to each member, as well as their tour manager. I also gifted them sour patch gym which is a favorite of Alex and Darren. Since I wouldn't be doing VIP for Chicago I was going to hopefully be able to give the letters to the tour manager to give out to the band, and then maybe get to say goodbye after the show. They really love interacting with fans after shows if they can. 

   Having Saturday as a buffer day really helped. With it I was able to explore Madison and recover a little bit before the Chicago show. Driving back from Madison and then driving to the Chicago show seems crazy stressful. That way I wouldn't have to feel rushed either.  During Sunday afternoon I was talking with a fan, and mentioned that I was a little sad I wouldn't be doing VIP for the show, to which she encouraged me to ask to be added to the VIP list. They know most of the people from Patreon by name, and are always excited to see fans from the Patreon in person.  The other fan said that she thought that they felt more comfortable when we were around. On Instagram since I follow the Phantom Planet page and Darren's account and they follow me back if I direct message them on Instagram it pops up towards the top of their inbox. I respect their boundaries and don't usually send them messages. The most I interact with them on Instagram is replying to their Instagram stories. I decided to give it a shot and ask not thinking they would actually see it in time. The worst they could do was say "no", and I would totally respect if they did. To my surprise Darren replied within a couple of minutes saying "of course" and that "it was done." I would now be on the VIP list for the Chicago show. 

     Since I was leaving earlier for the show than originally planned I took my dog for a longer walk, and fed him early before leaving for Chicago. When I got the venue VIP had already started. I'm not sure how much I had missed. I'm assuming only a couple of minutes though. They did some songs acoustically, but this VIP session was Q+A heavy.  I asked what their favorite place they had gotten to go to so far had been meaning stores or restaurants not specific cities. Alex answered saying he had really enjoyed visiting a vintage clothing store in Madison. The store owner had just opened the store, and was excited to show off his collection. An audience member asked Dan (Augustana) what inspired him to write music. He answered that his family still inspired him especially his eldest daughter who had taken up songwriting and had been doing really well at it at. (She's 20). Alex said something along the lines of being intrigued to hear music from the product of his loins??? That is a really weird way of saying he was excited to hear his daughter's music at some point. 🤣 He also talked about the importance of keeping a piano in his house. Since Dan is a fan of Phatom Planet himself he asked them what their favorite show they had played was during their career. They answered with opening for Incubus at Madison Square Garden, and opening for Guns N' Roses in Las Vegas, both of which took place in the early 2000s when they were at the height of their career. They told about how Axl Rose had requested all 20 dressing rooms be his, and how no one but the band was allowed at soundcheck. As a small way to rebel Phantom Planet snuck into the soundcheck and hid behind some chairs, and thankfully weren't caught. Their dressing room ended up being in an alleyway outside the venue with a singular chair next to a dumpster. They emphasized that they were very thankful for the opportunity, and still very much respected Guns N' Roses even after all of that. They were super convinced that the Guns N' Roses fans would not like them, but they actually did. Dan said his favorite Augustana show was in Minneapolis when they played at Prince's venue, First Avenue around 2005. He also stated Minneapolis is his favorite city to perform in, in general. A fan I recognized from Patreon, Andy asked if Phantom Planet could play one of their unreleased songs from the upcoming album entititled "Never Apart". (On Patreon Phantom Planet has done livestreams playing through the unreleased songs for us to hear.) 

     Since Phantom Planet had just played a song, it was Dan's turn to perform. He suggested that they do a song together. When thinking about what song to do Dan suggested doing a Beatles song.  (Dan however didn't know any Beatles songs even though he suggested it 🤣). This lead to Alex attempting to make his way through "I'm Only Sleeping" while not knowing half of the lyrics just the guitar parts. I sang what I thought were the correct lyrics. (If Alex doesn't rehearse the songs he's written years ago then he forgets the lyrics, even though he wrote the lyrics. It's a normal thing, but I guess I never took it into account before.) Dan then asked them what each of their favorite Beatles was, stating that a person's favorite Beatle says a lot about them. I would have liked him to elaborate on that. Alex said Ringo, but it's unclear if that was his actual favorite. Andrew and Dan said Paul, and then Chris and Darren said George. (Justice for John Lennon.) (Paul McCartney is my favorite, but since no one picked John :P) Darren's dad had texted him asking what he was up to so he recorded the whole crowd saying "Hi Harvey". They said Chicago had the biggest VIP crowd yet, and Alex said how he recognized pretty much everyone.

  They then began taking pictures with fans. For my group picture this time I told them I wanted to do a silly photo and asked them if they had any ideas. Alex said that for some reason he thought I was going to say, "I want to take a silly picture, are you guys wearing underwear?" ????I am still confused. 😅 They didn't have ideas for the picture but did last second poses. I had handed Alex my heart sunglasses to add to the fun of the photo. Alex jokingly said that the sunglasses were his now to which I jokingly agreed. He handed them back and patted me on the back. I handed them the bag with letters and gum before the doors opened for the general audience. I then got situated by the stage. I ended up being the tallest person in the front row for Phantom Planet's set I would find out through pictures and videos of the show. I would also find out through videos from other fans that I in fact did not look cool dancing in the crowd, but cringe. (Definitely humbling.) 

      The person stood to my right was a big Augustana fan and insisted to his friends that they come right when the doors opened. He was able to secure a front row spot. He said he had invited his friends to come along and bought them all tickets. Apparently he makes a lot of money at his accounting job. He introduced me to his friends, and said they had been out bar hopping before the show but only had 2 drinks so far. His friends seemed cool, and joked about him being so close to the stage. Ironically one of said friends would replace him during Phantom Planet's set after she had gotten wasted....The accountant guy was well over 6 ft and she was like 5'2 or shorter, which made sense as to why she would want to switch. It turns out the 5'2 girl goes to a lot of concerts, over 50 a year.

  Between Augustana's and Phantom Planet's set beer bottles were placed on the stage, one right next to the guitar pedals. I might have gotten electrocuted if the beer had accidentally spilled. To open the beer bottles Chris brought a balisong (butterfly knife) on stage and handed it to Alex. Alex told us up front not to worry that the knife didn't have it's blade. They like to tricks with the knives to pass the time, and Alex even wrote a song called "Balisong". They had a hard time opening the bottles with the balisong but eventually got it. The stage was lower so you could easily lean and grab things on the stage if you wanted.  Alex for some reason left his beer toward the edge of the stage and jokingly told me and the girl to my left not to put drugs in or spit in his beer. Man is too trusting. I would never leave a drink out in the open like that, especially as a more well-known person. He did take drinks from it throughout the show after leaving it unsupervised to go backstage before their set. It did turn out to be fine of course, but there were definitely some crazier fans at this particular show. With everyone being in an older demographic I thought there would be more mature fans and I guess that is true for the most part, but there are still some. 

   Alex was less talkative this show between songs. During the beginning of their set Alex talked about how if they had any money they would move to Chicago, because they love being there. Dan from Augustana had actually wrote some of the Augustana's songs in Chicago as well. (I could go on a whole rant about this but it does really irk me that you can't really make it as a musician anymore financially, unless you're one of the biggest artists. Otherwise you spend a lot of money producing songs especially if you're not signed to a record label which would also take your money and leave you with less creativity. Going on tour is also expensive, and most bands just break even and rely on merch sales or platforms like Patreon with paid subscriptions. Streaming songs has taken away the desire for physical media, and getting your songs streamed also pays very little unless you have a lot of big hits.) 

   During the beginning of their set Alex had said that he already had made way to much eye contact with the audience already. Alex is very philosophical minded and told us that we are all apart of the same tribe, and it's fine if you haven't accepted that yet. Being in Chicago the venue had a strong smell of pot in the air. Alex ended up playing guitar at the edge of the stage in front of me this time. A setlist was placed a few inches in front of me on the stage after Alex complained about not being able to see it again. I was excited because that meant I could easily grab it after the show. (I'm sentimental and had yet to get any setlists or picks from a show. I do think after you've gotten one item you should let other fans get items too so you're not hoarding items. Unless you go to a ton of shows in general and pay a lot of money then I think it's a little more acceptable.) After playing the song "Drive On II" someone in the audience shouted "Bone Zone", which was the original title of the song. (If you know, you know.) Alex performed a little snippet from it before moving onto the next song. During "Lonely Day" Alex had Darren start the vocals to the song. Darren quoted "The Goonies", and because of this Alex stated that quoting things is a form of echolalia. (As a Behavior Technician I can say he wasn't using the term correctly. Echolalia is more repeating sounds of things repeatedly, whereas quoting shows and movies over and over again is known as scripting. The more you know.) After one of the songs Alex said how Chris had the last note on the upcoming album, and was basically a member of the band now. Chris made sure that the audience heard Alex say that. (Chris has been the main bassist of the band during tours since 2024. Their official bassist also plays bass for Maroon 5, and when he's not playing with Maroon 5 he's with his family. It's hard for him to have time for anything else, but he did record most of the bass parts for the upcoming album.) At the end of their biggest hit, "California" someone shot their bra on stage. Alex ended up picking it up and wearing it like a blindfold before handing out a drumstick to someone in the audience. (I thought it had been a pair of underwear at first, so I'm actually kind of relieved it was a bra, not that Alex would have done the same with underwear). Since Alex was wearing the bra like a blindfold and trying to decide who to give the drumstick too I thought he might throw the drumstick into the audience like a bouquet toss at a wedding. (That would be pretty dangerous though.) The two girls stood to my right ended up playing rock paper scissors for it. When the other girl had one, the girl stood right next to me asked if she could have the bra. Alex was definitely confused as to why she would want the bra, but didn't want it himself so he handed it to her. (This is the same girl I mentioned before who was very much super drunk at this point. She hadn't even been there originally to see Phantom Planet, but in her drunken state must have taken a liking to Alex.....). She did the very strange action of putting the bra into her cleavage. While doing the action Alex asked if she was putting it on, to which she pointed to her chest and said she had put it in her cleavage. (A revealing shirt of course.) Alex made the statement that, that was even weirder than wearing it, and you could tell he was visibly uncomfortable at that point. (Women get away with objectifying men more than the other way around. It's really gross either way, and irks me especially after forming a friendship with these guys.) 

     Phantom Planet played their "last" song before security was adamant about everyone leaving the main part of the venue. One of the techs on stage told the main security person that Alex had wanted to come back out into the audience and perform acoustically. That kind of ruined the whole encore thing, of having the audience shout to get the band back onstage. With the security being strict some fans had already left the venue not thinking there would be an encore after that. (The cringy lady from before ended up reaching over and snatching the setlist that was in front of me, after the show had ended.) It's made me sad especially since she hadn't even been there to see Phantom Planet in the first place and was acting really entitled. I decided to see if I could get one of the other setlists by asking the stage techs. I pointed to one kind of hidden in the back by the drums, and he went and got it. However, he ended up handing it to another fan that was reaching towards the stage when he came to the front, saying after that, that there were no setlists left???? I guess I was just really unlucky. 

   Alex did come into the crowd, but since we weren't allowed to stay in the main part he lead the crowd to the front/bar area of the venue which was even more intimate for an acoustic show.  I stayed towards the back during that. Alex sang "Anthem" as everyone else sang along. He then went into the soldering iron story like he had in Madison before performing "Local Black and Red." After mentioning Jason Schwartzman Alex also talked about how all the members current or past are featured on the upcoming album, and I love that! The 5'2 girl had been standing pretty close to Alex during the performance, and in her drunken state had thought she would be able to bag either Alex or Darren apparently. Alex went backstage after the show instead of lingering like he had done with the rest of the band in Madison. The security then wanted people to start leaving the bar area due to shutting down the venue for the night. I left when I was told. Before I did the 5'2 girl got another beer and told me how it had been so nice to meet me while slurring her words. I was nice back despite not really feeling the best way about her. Around 6 fans stood out front to hopefully talk to the band. I was hoping to say goodbye to the band before leaving as I wouldn't be going to anymore shows. (I do have the Red Rocks concert but it will be so huge that I won't be able to talk to them.) They didn't end up coming out to talk to fans that night and I wonder if it was because of the 5'2 girl. (She was actually a woman in her mid 40s). I told the fans outside that I thought they would for sure come out because they loved interacting with fans.  While the bar portion of the venue was still open Darren did come out, and talk with some of the fans left inside. I was outside at that point. I pointed out to the fans outside that Darren had come out so he would probably come outside soon. He didn't, but the girl did. While waiting for her Uber she chatted to me again while now hiccuping and slurring her words. She told me about other concerts she attended, and how her 16 year old daughter had been doing the same now. How she had slept with various band members in the past (her not the 16 year old) and how she quote "was not a slut." I listened politely, and chimed in occasionally. (Just to say if it's consensual than it's fine.) After talking for awhile she asked me if I wanted both the bra and the setlist, since I had actually been there to see Phantom Planet. I declined the bra, but said that I would really appreciate the setlist and thanked her. She thought she had made a connection with Darren and said something to another fan that I didn't hear, but must have been about that. The other fan had thought she was talking about Dan from Augustana and stated that he had a lot of kids, and has been married for a long time. (He has 4 kids.) She pulled up a picture of her and Darren that she had just taken with him moments before and said "him." To which I replied, "Darren???" (Darren is definitely in a serious, committed relationship with his girlfriend so there's no shot he was actually interested and was just being nice.) I didn't tell her all that though. Chris (touring bassist) came out after that with two friends, thanked me for the letter, and gum before walking off, and hugged me. (Phantom Planet had the day off the next day so I think he ended staying with friends that night.) The 5'2 girl greeted him and asked for a picture before hugging him before he left as well. At that point the girl's Uber had arrived and she hugged me before leaving. All that was left was me and one other fan, but she was also waiting for her Uber at that point. (It had only been 30 minutes of waiting outside so not that long for anyone wondering.) I started walking back to the parking garage after that, as I was walking I saw Phantom Planet's band drive past. You could tell it was them because their tour manager was up front driving with their tour photographer in the passenger seat. I waved, but they probably didn't see. I had only walked a little ways down the sidewalk at that point so I went back to tell the fan about how I had just seen their van drive past so she would know they were actually gone.

    The way back to the parking garage was confusing as it was 4 streets intersecting diagonally. Both the parking garage and the venue were located on the same street, but I couldn't figure out where the road continued at the intersection. I headed to where I thought I had come from, but secondguessed myself when Google Maps was pointing in the opposite direction of where I had come from. I walked that way for a few minutes before turning around after I didn't recognize any of the places I was passing. I ended up figuring out which road was the correct one and finally came upon the parking garage. What should have been a 5 minute walk turned into 15. (Thanks Google Maps). (To anyone nervous the venue, Lincoln Hall, was located in Lincoln Park which is one of the safest/richest areas of Chicago, I was clutching my pepper spray, made sure not to look down at my phone too much and walk quickly.) I got home around 1:30 and thankfully didn't need to go into work until 11am the following day.