Chanb77's Weblog

Friday, March 22nd, 2013 ~

Steve and I were ready to go, and after a few hours of work in the morning, we were off to Secaucus, NJ. We made one refueling stop, but headed straight down to the Meadowlands. As we headed into the hotel, we weren’t there 3 minutes, before we ran into Harvey, from N.S.

We checked in, then walked over to the show, to see some of our favourite people.

Our first stop was Light Monkey, where we hung out with the fellas for a while.

Joel even showed us his Sears pose…

…and it looks like Derek has been bitten by the Captain!

There was a little bit of shenaniganry going on…

…and it seems that Corey was able to avoid my camera lens.

We then went to see the two and only – Susan and Faith – where they showed us the fancy final edition of the DUI heated undergarment.

We made our way over to Ultralight, where we picked up some of our items, for our new Go Pro scooter mount. Some of the best machined items, here… and fantastic service!

Well, I’d like to say that we saw more on the Friday evening, but we did not. We spent most of our time catching up with Becky, Corey, Joel, Susan, and Faith…. Then it was show closing time. Or – Time to go to the Tech Party!

We did have more fun than was probably allowed, but we managed to keep it under control. Doug Marcoux even has a video, to prove it. We met up with our other Canadian friends from 1000 Islands Pleasure Diving, as well as Bottom Time Diving, and many others!

We finally got to meet our friend, Jason! He even gave us a Whoooooom!

I have to send out an extra special THANK YOU to Jason Fisch, for trekking through the snow, 10 miles,  uphill both ways, for getting us these extra special Bud Lites. Jason… I salute you. 😛

Just as we were about to leave the Tech Party (yes, we were some of the last people there), Dougie told us a most hilarious story, that included some very graphic explanations (imagine that). He just happened to be explaining the most detailed part of the story, as of of the hotel managers walked by… and he had been trying really hard not to laugh, but could not contain himself. He was literally doubled over, in hysterics. Of course, Jolson became our new friend, and I don’t think he expected to hear what he heard, as he walked by!

Saturday, March 23rd, 2013 ~

On our elevator ride down for our hotel breakfast, we just happened to run into Alessandra. We joined her and Peter for breakfast, saw Ken, then Harvey and Ann, then off to the show! Harvey was going purse shopping… 😀

We were happy to run into Ed and Gina, who we had not seen in a while. Of course, we had to chat for a while, before going to any of the other booths!

After quite a while, we managed to get down to the other end of the first aisle, where we met Wayne F., and Santos…

😉

It took us even longer, but we finally made it over to the next row of exhibitors, where we found some more friends…

We made a visit to the Santi booth, and then it was time for lunch! There were 11 of us that went over to Chili’s, where we enjoyed food, laughter, and friends! *Insert pic that I didn’t take, here* 🙂

Well, we did make it back to the show, but we didn’t make it through all of the exhibits, since we were a little chatty. Oh well, there was still tomorrow, right??

Saturday dinner was with our buddies from DUI! I was honoured to have a seat beside Ms. Susan, and there were no shortages of laughter. In fact, there was quite a bit of shenaniganry going on.

Yes, I think Susan was planning something, here!

Steve, beside some of our NEUE friends. Piotr and Damian were collecting things to throw. Somehow, there ended up being a big splat on the wall, next to me… :O

After dinner, we made our way back, but… it was Cheeseburger In Paradise time! Steve elected to get some sleep, but I went out for some singing and dancing! Shenaniganry was still the operative word, here.

Pic taken by Edmund Grant, with Bob Sherwood’s Phone. I absolutely love Piotr’s expression, here…

What a blast!

Sunday, March 24th, 2013 ~

Up and at ’em! Down to breakfast, over to the show to see the last few rows, and say goodbye to friends.

At the Santi booth, we FINALLY got to meet Vicky, and got to see Gerard, from Hawaii! Jeremiah came in for the pic, too!

Pic taken by Forest Rothchild…

Gerard, Vicky, and our Santi friends! I think Jason was hiding…

We checked out some strobes for my camera (wishful), and finally made our way over to our Liquivision friends!

In other exciting BTS news…

Our very good friend, Becky Kagan Schott, was inducted into the Women Divers Hall Of Fame! We are so happy for her, and proud to call her our friend.

Congratulations, Becky!!! A David Schott shot, below… 😛

Becky, wearing her WDHOF pin! Pic taken by David Schott…

It was time for us to roll! We made it out of the parking lot at about noon’ish, and were on our way. Of course, I took a wrong turn, and ended up taking a little tour, but… oh well.

See you next year, Secaucus! No, the fire guys weren’t there on business… I don’t think.

Once we got near the border, we saw a sign for “Moe’s.” Since the one near us had been closed down a while back, I was very excited to go for a bite!!! Steve wasn’t as thrilled, but he was happy for me, so came along (yes, I will tell myself that he was happy for me).  It was my first time seeing a touch screen soda machine, and it threw me for a bit of a loop. Normally, I drink iced tea, but their sweet tea is a little different than ours, and I wasn’t in the mood for it. I didn’t aim for it, but I ended up with Cherry Coke. I wonder how long it will be, before we get those machines in Canada??

Ahhh… Moe’s….

So, while we didn’t get in the water this week, we were still able to see so many of our diving friends that we had not seen in so long. It was definitely worth the drive to Secaucus! *Cheers!*