The Rest of the Trip...

I'm not one for excuses, but if you look back at our 2 Idiots Strike Back blog, you'll see that once we get to the show, our blogging frequency drops considerably. Basically, we're out the door to the convention center first thing in the morning, and by the time we get back and finish dinner, we're too wiped out to recount the days events.

So, better late than never, here is our recap of the final days of Star Wars Celebration VI through our trip home.

Day 7

Friday got off to a grand start when we were visited before the show opened by Roger Christian and Robert Watts. Roger won an Academy Award for set decoration on Star Wars (utilizing Ralph's early paintings for inspiration), and Robert's amazing career includes being a production manager on Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey, a production supervisor on Star Wars, and a producer on the original trilogy and Indiana Jones films.

Robert owns one of the very few original Ralph McQuarrie paintings from the Star Wars trilogy that resides outside of the Lucasfilm Archives: Vader's arrival on the second Death Star from Return of the Jedi. It was a gift from George when he completed his work on the films.

John and Robert bonded over the fact that they both hold Raiders of the Lost Ark as their favorite film. 

Robert Watts & John

Also on Friday was our long awaited premiere of our Ralph McQuarrie tribute video. We closed up the booth for the duration, and made our way upstairs to the main stage where it would be shown. Prior to the screening, Jon Berg and Dave Filoni (supervising director of The Clone Wars TV show) talked briefly about working with Ralph, and how his work continues to inspire those working in the Star Wars universe.

Stan the Producer before the doors were opened to the public

The screening was well received, with a little less than a full house, which was pretty impressive considering we were scheduled directly opposite an hour with Anthony Daniels, the man who portrayed C-3PO in all six Star Wars films. Several people were kind enough to stop by an offer words of praise for the video, and even those who didn't attend got a taste of it when the first four minutes were posted on the official Star Wars blog.

We returned to the townhouse for another of Vonna's home cooked meals, and got another night's rest after a long day at the show.

Day 8 

On Saturday we gave a presentation on Collecting Ralph McQuarrie to a small but passionate group of McQuarrie fans and collectors. Much to our surprise, our audience contained an employee of Proctor and Gamble, the company responsible for PUFFS tissues, that had a Star Wars license in 1980 for the release of The Empire Strikes Back. As a result of this fortuitous connection, we may end up with some original, unfolded PUFFS tissue boxes featuring Ralph's Empire artwork.

That night, Vonna prepared a special dinner for our guests the Sanda's from Japan. Everyone enjoyed the meal and dessert, which was a bit more relaxing than another night out

Day 9

Sunday seemed to fly by, but brought with it the announcement that the next Star Wars Celebration would be a return to Europe next summer. In Germany, to be precise.

John was particularly pleased to have acquired the first Star Wars playset ever produced, a Sears Exclusive Cantina Adventure Set in the original box, noted for containing a rare variation 'Blue Snaggletooth' figure. That figure alone often sells for more than John paid for this vintage find. 

The show closed at 5pm, and we had our booth broken down and palletized within two hours. We decided to celebrate our last night in Florida with a trip to a different Brazilian churrascuria, Fogo de Chao. Everyone enjoyed it, and it actually managed to edge out Texas de Brazil as our favorite churrascuria in Orlando.

Day 10

Florida was clearly unhappy to see us go, as it decided to cry Sunday when it was time to leave the townhouse.

We met the Sanda's for brunch at the Peabody hotel (home of the ducks you may recall from our last blog) before heading out to the airport for our flight home.

Fortunately, Vonna was able to upgrade us to First Class on the first leg of our trip to Houston, and an emergency exit row for the rest of the trip home (where the added legroom was appreciated).

We managed to avoid delays to Houston (thanks, Hurricane Isaac!), although we would have welcomed it while we were in First Class...

Our flight to San Jose was delayed by almost an hour while maintenance attempted to fix the headset jack in a single seat (not even in First Class!). Crazy.

The sky was appropriately painted with McQuarrie clouds on our way home.

We arrived in San Jose to see that our bags had flown First Class the entire way, as they were waiting for us when we got to baggage claim. And just like that, another adventure was behind us.

We'll see you next summer for Zwei Idioten in Deutschland!

Day 6 - The Celebration Begins

The show got off to a grand start, with heavy crowds through the first hours of the day. Several of our one of a kind items were quick to disappear, and several of the most popular images have sold out or are down to our last copies.

It was nice to see lots of familiar faces from prior shows. We took a minute during one of the lulls to snap a shot of the booth, of course we could only do that when we weren't too busy helping customers. 

John picked up a few interesting Ralph McQuarrie items. More on those in a few days.

After the show, Paul and Athena headed to the Force-Cast party, while the rest of us joined the Sanda's and Tom and Terri Hodges for another amazing meal at Charley's Steakhouse—with a different waiter named David (disappointing in that he wasn't Stan's preferred David, but acceptable).

Before

After

We had forgotten how hard it is to find the time to keep the blog updated once the show is underway! Friday we have our video presentation, so that will definitely be interesting to report on. Until then...

Day 5 - The Party

We finished setup yesterday, and as our other compatriots arrived we put them to work signing their tribute art prints. Tsuneo Sanda and Mark Raats survived the challenge, getting all 250 of their prints signed and numbered in the exhibit hall that still lacked air conditioning...

One of our most desirable items has already sold, and we anticipate quite a rush on Thursday to snap up some of Ralph's most popular images while they last. We have an extensive selection of signed items, but once these are gone, they're gone for good.

We left the exhibit hall and got back to the townhouse where Vonna had prepared for our informal get together with artists and friends. We did a few hotel runs to pick folks up, and before you know it, we had 19 people comfortable mingling and enjoying Vonna's snacks.

The menu included fruits and vegetables, mini chicken salad sandwiches, roasted mushroom risotto, garlic bread buns, and a selection of meats, cheeses and crackers. 

Joining us for the festivities were Jon Berg and Lorne Peterson, two veterans of the early days of ILM and colleagues of Ralph's dating back to 1976.

We held our first public screening of our video, Ralph McQuarrie—Tribute to a Master, which was very well received by all. We're looking forward to showing it to an even wider audience on Friday at the show, and are honored that Jon Berg will be introducing the video.

We ended the evening with a group shot (thanks Vonna!).

Tomorrow—The Celebration begins! Wish us luck...

Day 4 - The Set Up

After a light breakfast, we made our way to the un-air conditioned confines of the convention center. We picked up our banners from our friends at eFX Collectibles, and got those hanging so it was clear to everyone that Team McQuarrie was in the house.

Once our pallets arrived, we got to work on building out the booth. We've got what is probably the largest selection of Ralph McQuarrie autographed material that we've ever brought to a Star Wars Celebration, along with our Celebration Japan Art of Star Wars book, Celebration V Gallery book, and our brand new Remembering Ralph McQuarrie tribute book. Early birds are sure to be very excited by some of the extremely limited offerings we'll have Thursday morning.

While we still have some finishing touches to work on Wednesday morning, we left the space in pretty good shape around 5pm. 

After a brief rest stop at the townhouse, we ventured out to our next favorite eatery in Orlando—the churrascuria Texas de Brazil. Paul and Athena enjoyed their vegetarian fare (including an amazing potatoes au gratin), while Vonna, John and Stan devoured a selection of leg of lamb, top sirloin, filet mignon, flank steak, chicken sausages and more. John's a particular fan of the cheesy eyeballs.

Once again, we settled on some desserts to go (except for John, who's still working on a mountain of carrot cake). Unfortunately, the desserts from Texas de Brazil paled in comparison to those from Charley's.

We also scoped out the theater on the premises, which we plan to utilize Wednesday night for a special screening, but full details on that will come in tomorrow's post.

Day 3 - A Day of Rest

Overall a quiet day for the 2 Idiots. 

John spent most of the morning finalizing the Collecting Ralph McQuarrie presentation, which he thinks is officially good-to-go for Saturday. 

We made our mid-day trip out to the airport to pick up Paul and Athena, and retired to the townhouse. 

Vonna set out a dinner consisting of Giada's Quick and Spicy Tomato Soup.

Additionally, she (Vonna, not Giada) prepared Penne with Pesto, Potatoes and Green Beans alongside a tossed green salad.

After a quiet evening in relaxing and catching up (and Stan getting a few minutes of football in to tide him over), we all settled in for a good night's rest. Tomorrow is our first day of setup, so the grand adventure is about to begin...

Stan getting his well deserved rest.

Day 2 - The Idiots Feast

As it turns out,  Sunday was all about food. We had planned our day around a trip to the airport (as noted in our last installment) to pick up Paul and Athena. Fortunately, before we braved the trek back to the airport, we realized they weren't actually coming in until Monday. Doh!

John spent much of the morning working on the 'Collecting Ralph McQuarrie' PowerPoint presentation for the show (don't get him started on PowerPoint—that was the requirement of the event hosts). He was excited to find these interesting wall murals online, and can't wait go get back home to work with Vonna on determining which walls in the house will get one.

We decided to head out to breakfast, and since the line for IHOP extended out the door and into the Florida heat, we opted for Denny's instead. The fact that the line did NOT extend out the door into the heat should have been our first clue, but heck, if it was good enough for Jameson Kenerly, Miss Georgia's Outstanding Teen, we figured it had to be good enough for 2 Idiots and Vonna.

Good luck, Jameson!

The food was what you might expect from Denny's, and the service was certainly lacking. The memorable moment from the meal was when the two small kids at the table behind us started swinging their toy lightsabers around, and one decided Stanley's head looked just a little too similar to a training remote and swung for the fences. Needless to say, we won't be returning to Denny's on this trip, Miss Outstanding Teen contestants or not.

Vonna dumped us back at the townhouse and proceeded to the Publix grocery store to stock up on food (in part to ensure we wouldn't have to eat breakfast out again). She bought enough to warrant getting help out to the car—timed perfectly with the arrival of a rainstorm. Once safely back within the confines of the townhouse, the question was where to put everything?

Since we determined that we didn't need to head out to the airport, we decided it might be a good night to return to our favorite Steak House in Orlando, Christopher's. Unfortunately, we determined that the restaurant we had been telling people about for the past two years doesn't exist. Our challenge became to find the Steak House not called Christopher's that we had enjoyed so much in 2010. First stop—the 2 Idiots Strike Back blog. No luck. We don't know how that meal didn't make it into the blog, but as we were sure that we had taken a picture of John's head (for scale) next to several raw cuts of beef, it was just a question of where those photos ended up. 

Used for illustrative purposes only—this is NOT the same meat (but that IS the same John).

Thanks to Facebook's unending archive of everything you've ever said, done or posted (let that be a lesson to you all), we found it. Unfortunately, we didn't mention the name of Not-Christopher's Steakhouse there, either. With minimal Googling, we were able to ascertain that the restaurant in question was not Christner's Del Frisco, but Charley's Steakhouse. Success!

Charley’s Steak House has created a unique dining experience unsurpassed in the industry. Featuring only Midwest grain-fed USDA Prime & Choice beef, aged  on-site for 4 to 6 weeks, and have management cut meat daily and season for 30 hours to create distinctive flavor. The steak is then flame-grilled over a 1200-degree open pit, fueled with a combination of oak & Florida citrus wood. This carefully monitored process provides for quality, tenderness and a tantalizing taste that elevates Charley’s to the ultimate steakhouse experience.

Lest there be any doubt, one just had to view the array of meats in the case up front to know we were in the right place.

We did find ourselves mocking the third dessert from the left on the top shelf. Either the runt of the litter, or a dessert mistakenly delivered to the wrong restaurant... in any case, it warranted documentation here.

We were graciously welcomed by our evening's entertainment, David, who gave us the introductory lesson on all things meat (imagine the tray above without John's head). Stan decided on the Rib-Eye, Vonna opted for the smallest selection in a 10oz Filet Mignon, and John chose the Porterhouse (the 24oz cut, not the fabled 50oz cut seemingly not fit for human consumption).

For startes, Vonna and Stan thoroughly enjoyed the Escargot, as well as a Beefsteak tomato with Vidalia onions.

The bread served with dinner had a baked cheese topping and was brushed with Rosemary butter before serving. The house salads were unremarkable in comparison to the rest of the meal, but Stanley enjoyed his Blue Cheese smothered Iceberg Wedge salad with smoked bacon. John enjoyed a nearly-fully stuffed baked potato with his meal.

David made sure we were well taken care of all night, and kept Stanley's drink glass full as the evening progressed (sorry, no double-mug shots today. You'll have to use your imagination!).

The main courses were amazing (with a disaster promptly averted when it was quickly identified that the kitchen brought out a Bison Rib-Eye for Stanley in place of his requested Moo Rib-Eye).

We new better than to try and eat everything served, so we left plenty of leftovers to bring back to the townhouse for later enjoyment. We also took advantage of the dessert cart on a to-go basis.

Vonna selected the caramel cheesecake with a layer of chocolate (front right). John jumped at the chance to wrestle the huge wedge of carrot cake into submission (middle back), and Stanley chose, of all things, the runt of the litter we had spotted earlier—a deceptively small slice of key lime pie (front and center).

At this point in the meal, John remembered the parting words of Stan's roommate back home—Stan was required to make at least one new friend on this trip. After several hours of his putting up with our antics (and he certainly held his own)—we decided this distinction would be awarded to our delightful server, David. Our apologies in advance to any future applicants. The position has been filled.

Stan and his new friend David

We had a grand time, only to find ourselves amidst a downpour as we were leaving the restaurant. Vonna made a mad dash for the van, and swung around to pick us up, minimizing the drenching of our voluminous leftover and dessert selection.

Once back in the townhouse, we settled in with our desserts (John seemed the clear winner in the dessert sweepstakes with the amazing carrot cake that will surely last the duration of our stay), and were able to view the final cut of our Ralph McQuarrie tribute video prepared for the show, which our pal Steve Ewertz uploaded for our review. We're extremely happy with how it turned out, and think Ralph's fans will really enjoy hearing stories from... well, let's not ruin any surprises. We'll have a full report on that in our Friday wrap-up later in the week.

So that's it for Sunday. Monday we'll make a trip out to the airport, and possibly check out one of the many theme parks this town has to offer. Until then 2 Idiots (and Vonna) signing off!

P.S. When in Orlando, be sure to stop by Charley's Steakhouse. And be sure to ask for David!

Day 1 - Thunder & Lightning & Margaritas

Yes, it's true. We swore it would never happen again. But that was two years ago. And a lot can change in two years. You can almost forget what it's like in Orlando in August. We didn't—but here we go again nonetheless.

We started our adventure at the San Jose Airport bright and early this morning, en route to Houston. The first leg of the trip went well, lack of leg/arm/body room in coach notwithstanding (these 2 Idiots still look back fondly on our business class trip to Japan in 2008... but we digress). We utilized our brief layover to pick up some jerky, cashews, pretzel nibblers, a chicken caesar salad and Turkey sandwich. Turns out we could have enjoyed some fine dining. We got back on our plane just in time to witness a thunder and lightning storm. 

After the storm subsided (30 minutes or so later), we rolled away from the gate. As we got to about 4th in line for departure—you guessed it. Blocked again. We eventually left Houston, and found ourselves entering the reasonable 80+ degree weather of Orlando about an hour and a half later than planned.

Since we learned on our last trip that they extort cash from you as you drive down the street, we stopped in the airport gift shop to get some change. Well, they don't just give change without a purchase, so we got some Florida favorites, including our first-ever Choco Gator.

Armed with a pooch-full of change (someone remind me to get a picture of the change pooch), Vonna  got us loaded into our mini-van and we headed out on the road in search of food. Fortunately, we quickly came across a Chili's. After a fulfilling meal (our first of the day), we performed our inaugural toast of the trip.

We've since arrived safely at our three-story townhouse just a stone's throw from the convention center, and are settling in for a good night's sleep. 

Tomorrow's agenda includes shopping for our basic food necessities, and a return trip to the airport tomorrow afternoon to pick up Paul and Athena from London.

Until then - 2 Idiots (and Vonna) signing out!