LA + Portland

I've already been to LA, so it was good that we were only there for one night. Luckily we had Tara's friends Sarah and Hillary (LA locals) to show us around and they were so lovely!

The one night in LA included: Santa Monica for dinner, an amazing Mexican restaurant filled with lights and quesadillas and the Americans trying pineapple lumps for the first time. Santa Monica pier at night, mine and Catherine's first churro (**delicious!!!**), a gorgeous busker singing "You Are My Sunshine" at the end of the pier, taking photos of the moon, drinking in the lights, dunking our feet in the Pacific, driving home to the Lumineers and having the best sleep ever at the Hilton hotel.

We flew from a dry, yellowed LA to a lush green Portland. Portland is beautiful. The airport is the funkiest airport I have ever seen, and the city reminds me both of Wellington and Melbourne with all its bridges and hipster vibe. It's stunning. Our rental home was by the Willamette river, and was beautifully decked out with vintage wood and antiques. We had two days to wander the city before the Leakycon convention started, so we trawled the city and went to the Chinese Gardens, Voodoo Doughnuts (SO YUM), Powell's City Of Books (2 hours later and "Jamie, don't buy too many books..."), and we took the tram around the city.

How do I begin to describe Leakycon? It was basically 5000 crazy Harry Potter fans crowding the Oregon Convention Centre and there was so much going on, so many people to meet and so many laughs. It was a mixture of lectures, singalongs, celebrity signings and concerts. I met an awesome girl called Erin who became my BFF for the next four days; we played cards in line, waiting for celebrity signings, gossiping, going crazy with tiredness. I managed to get a photo with Devon Murray who played Seamus in Harry Potter, and we also managed to hang out with Laura Spencer from the Lizzie Bennett Diaries at the airport to NYC which was probably the best thing ever.

Highlights? The Wizard Rock Concert. The Whomping Willows. Hank Green. Look him up, he's amazing. The book panels at the con. The opening and closing ceremonies. Singing "Call Me Maybe" in the convention hall. The Disney singalongs with the celebrities (so much fun). The ball on the last night. Making dance circles and dancing with everyone. Ending the night with "Total Eclipse Of The Heart" sing along with the celebrities, singing so hard everyone basically went a bit insane.

It was great.
But then we went to New York.
New York is a whole nother story altogether...I fell in love with New York. Stay tuned for my New York love story.

x J