This weekend, Anne and I went to Portland for Rose City Comicon. While we were there, we visited my sister and her family, saw a strange ball of fire in the sky that I don’t usually seen in Portland, and had an absolutely fantastic time at the convention.

I took a bunch of pictures, and I think they tell the story of the weekend very well, so this is mostly a picture post. I’m going to put the rest of this behind a jump, so my blog doesn’t take forever to load.

Welcome to the other side of the jump. We have cookies.

So my sister took us to this landmark that she really wanted us to see:

Anne and I got a little excited about it.

We taught my nephew that he should always be himself, unless he can be Batman.

Teaching our 2 year old nephew that if given the opportunity, always choose to be Batman. pic.twitter.com/VzpJQN4qhl

— Anne Wheaton (@AnneWheaton) September 19, 2014

What that picture doesn’t capture, unfortunately, is how my nephew started the whole thing by posing with his arm out, and going, “ARRRGGHHH!” When we put the Batman masks on, he knew exactly what to do.

And this is pretty funny to me: after we did this, his dad (who is Dallas Cowboys Super Fan Number One) gave him a Cowboys football, and told my nephew, “take that to uncle Wil!”

My nephew looked at it, handed it back to my brother in-law, picked up both Batman masks, and gave them to me.

This kid gets me, and I am a very proud godfather.

Later, we went to dinner. S and I spent a lot of time examining the menu. He ordered the chicken, and I had about 600 pounds of sushi.

"Excuse me. I believe we are ready to order now." pic.twitter.com/9HHJfOkVPB

— Anne Wheaton (@AnneWheaton) September 19, 2014

We didn’t play with our food, but we did have a whole lot of fun together.

My two year-old godson, everyone. He's making me proud. pic.twitter.com/eOndoR7kMF

— Wil Wheaton (@wilw) September 19, 2014

He’s a really great little guy. He’s just turned two, and though the last time we visited the twos were terrible, they were terrific this weekend. I just love my godson, and I love how happy he and his parents are together.

Anne and I walked a whole bunch while we were in Portland, because it wasn’t infinity degrees outside like it has been in Los Angeles. Here’s my favorite bridge in a city with a lot of great bridges:

Steel Bridge has some really great history. It also has some sad, but beautiful graffiti on the East side.

We, of course, went to Voodoo Donuts so Anne could take care of some very important business.

It was very important for @AnneWheaton to have this donut. https://t.co/nUiNVyi408

— Wil Wheaton (@wilw) September 19, 2014

We also went to Powell’s, so I could pick up a couple of books that I need (yes, need.) Because I just finished Prisoner of Azkaban, I got Goblet of Fire, and I also picked up Broken Monsters, based on this review at NPR.

We didn’t have as much time as I wanted while we were in Powell’s (we never do), but I had a bit of a revelation while I was walking the aisles there. I love bookstores and libraries the way some people love the beach, or the mountains, or a museum. When I’m in a bookstore or library, I feel like the rest of the world doesn’t exist, that the only world that matters — well, worlds that matter — are contained within its walls, between the covers of the books that line the shelves. When I’m in a place like Powell’s, that has tons of used books that go back decades, I can find and hold and look at and lose myself in the covers and stories that remind me of my youth, and pretty much any time in my life that I care to touch again.

Stephen King says that writing is a form of time travel, and I’ll take that a step further: a bookstore or library is a portal to anywhere in the multiverse; it’s Sigil made real.

I told Twitter that, while it’s convenient to order books online, going to a bookstore and finding a book is an experience. I love that experience, and I don’t want to live in a world without bookstores and libraries.

After Powell’s, we went to a shoe store for Anne … and left with two pair of fancy new shoes for me. I love them, especially because — and I actually said this out loud — I really like the way they make the cuffs of my pants break. #smh

Because that wasn’t enough, we then went to Nordstrom, where I bought pretty much all of my Fall wardrobe. Oh, and I had nitro cold brew coffee from Stumptown and it was amazing.

Normally, when I visit Portland, I consume a swimming pool full of delicious craft beer. This time, I didn’t have any beer at all, because I’m on a “don’t drink very much alcohol and keep sugar to a minimum” diet ahead of Tabletop, and also because the bar in our hotel had some of the best pre-Prohibition cocktails I’ve ever had in my life. It turns out that I’m crazy for something called a Vieux Carre, you guys, and this one bar made the best one I’ve ever had. It made sticking to Project: Drinks Just Have One very difficult.

So on to the convention, then. I took almost all of last year off from the convention circuit, because I was starting to burn out after 2012, and I needed to spend more time working on new things than I was spending promoting old things. With the Wil Wheaton Project coming to an end (fear not, fans of the show! I hear that the network is trying to do basically the exact same show without me, and I’m encouraging them to hire the same staff, so hopefully you’ll get your weekly dose of Skeletor back sooner than later, which will be awesome for all of us) I had an opportunity to attend Rose City Comicon for the first time.

This con was wonderful. It was big enough to bring in a wide variety of creators, actors, artists, and merchants, without being so huge that it was overwhelming. I met a ton of super creative people, including some truly outstanding cosplayers. Behold Sparks McGee:

This amazing woman also cosplayed as the Glow Cloud from Welcome to Night Vale.

There was this fantastic Ash crossplay:

I was so excited about this woman’s costume, I shared it with Twitter. Of course, creeps were creeps, and someone complained that she was holding a Winchester Rifle instead of a shotgun. I have to admire Twitter’s ability to completely miss the point of everything so consistently.

R2-D2 was there, disguised as L3-G0:

Just a full-sized R2-D2 made out of LEGO, that talks and does R2 stuff. O.o pic.twitter.com/gCzGGO7MKv

— Wil Wheaton (@wilw) September 21, 2014

This one is for the handful of people who are with me in the Venn Diagram overlap of Physics Nerds, Avengers Nerds, and Beatles Nerds.

I wish I could hide spoiler text here, so you can solve it for yourself, but since I can’t … oh! Just put your mouse over the next picture if you want to know why I love this cosplay so much.

Genius, right?

Finally, everyone in the world is on notice: you need to step up your cosplay game after this couple did this:

Dear @feliciaday. Look at this. https://t.co/4HRqDJltGg

— Wil Wheaton (@wilw) September 20, 2014

I was very happy to see these signs everywhere, but also sad that they needed to be everywhere.

I made a bunch of Cards Against Humanity cards, as usual:

I have no idea what that last one means.

I saw that Wesley Crusher is back … in POG form.

I got a wonderful, handcrafted Sparks McGee.

And I got to have my picture taken with two of my heroes:

I saw a family who named their team after me:

And I got to take a duckface selfie with Kelly Sue DeConnick, who is not only one of the most amazing writers I know, she’s also one of the most amazing human beings I know.

You may notice that our respective spouses are photobombing us, which is kind of wonderful.

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So that was my weekend, and it was great. I got to spend quality time with my family, got my geek on at a convention, and met tons of really great people. I haven’t left a convention feeling so rejuvenated in a very long time. I usually feel exhausted at the end of a show, but Rose City Comicon was so positive and enthusiastic and awesome, I actually felt like I gained back some mana and hit points while I was there.

I’ll probably keep my convention calendar light again next year, because it really is important to me that I write and create more stuff, but if Rose City will have me back, I’ll do everything I can to attend.