Yes, I know it's been like a week and a half since the end of PAX. It's taken me this long to write more about it because it's actually taken me this long just to recuperate from the awesomeness that was PAX '07.

And I know everybody else has been saying it, but I'll reiterate in case you somehow lost your access to the Internet in the past couple weeks, and are now getting online for the first time (and are naturally visiting my Community Blog as the first thing you do with Internet access), but if you did not come to PAX this year, you really should come next year. That was in bold because I really mean it.

First off, Seattle is an awesome city in the summertime. The weather was perfect, and there are plenty of things to do around the downtown area even if you're not going to the convention (which would be ludicrous unless you arrive a few days early). My friend and I went to the Space Needle (and saw some Space Noodles). We went to the Pike Place Market, which is an apparently famous outdoor-ish farmer's market type deal. We wanted to ride a ferry and go to the art museum and the science fiction museum, but alas, there was just not enough time.

Naturally, this was because we were spending just about every waking moment at the convention center. I'd like to mention some things I forgot to (or didn't have time to) on my previous posts at PAX.

At PAX, I'd say one out of every five people is actively playing on a DS. PAX was the first time I have ever used Pictochat with other people. For my inaugural Pictochat post, I drew a penis. Somebody else in the room copied my penis and added hairs to it. It was just as I hoped it would be three years ago when I first bought a DS.

I got pictures with both Tycho and Gabe. They're really friendly (and extremely dorky) in real life, taking the time to chat with essentially a nobody who happened to recognize them walking around the convention center. I talked to Gabe about the Pokemanz, and he actually challenged me to a battle, which he won fairly easily (but in my defense, his Pokemon were about ten levels higher than mine on average). It reminded me, though, that even though these guys started this huge convention, and they run an extremely successful charity event (see: Child's Play), not to mention what is probably the most popular gaming webcomic in existence, they're still just dudes who enjoy playing video games. It's very refreshing to think about.

It was the same with the Destructoid editors and regulars I met. Here I am, just a guy who has been on this website for awhile, posting on the forums and commenting on the blog posts, and that somehow warranted a big ol' robot hug from Niero when we first met, and some quality time spent with Colette and Nex at Gameworks.

Other quick things I'd like to mention: at PAX, they have a handheld tournament thing, which if I had known about beforehand, I would have brought all of my DS games. You basically challenge anybody to a game to rack up wins, and the person with the most gets some sort of prize. I pretty much only brought Pokemon and Picross, so I didn't get to do battle with anybody (the former because I know I'd lose, and the latter because nobody else had it).

There was also the TerraDrive thing, which was the "massively multiplayer live action RPG" that was played by anybody at the convention. Battles were best of three rock-paper-scissors matches, but there were also powerups (which you had to either purchase, or win from somebody who did). I had about an even record, but I ended up losing the last of my life tokens to a little kid. He pulled the Avalanche on me; I was totally not expecting it from somebody so young.

There was an entire tabletop gaming area, stocked with games you could check out. Essentially, Settlers of Catan and Carcassonne were just wasting space in my backpack because I could have just borrowed them if I had wanted.

Speaking of my backpack, by the second day in Seattle, my shoulders were killing me. My legs were shot, too, from all the walking. Since I was staying with my friend's cousin about a mile from the convention center (and since we walked down to the water a few times), I'd estimate that I walked a good fifteen to twenty miles over the course of five days.

Over the course of the four nights, I got twenty-two hours of sleep. That is not an estimation.

And on the evening after the PAX doors closed, I had nowhere to sleep. Luckily I had met up with the Destructoid crew, and tehdopefish happened to have space in his room open. I paid them $40 to sleep in their room for the night, and was out to the airport before any of them were awake in the morning.

Meeting up with the Destructoid crew wasn't exactly easy though, because I had to drop my friend off at the bus station, and then walk to the Hurricane Café, where they were getting some food. Tristero told me that it was near the Space Needle, so my first instinct was to hop on the monorail that takes you straight there. After I arrived, I pulled out my downtown Seattle map and immediately realized this was a mistake. Walking from either end of the monorail to the Hurricane Café is just as far as the other. (Tristero, if you're reading this, just because you can see the Space Needle, doesn't mean you're near the Space Needle. It's a big building. Thanks for trying.)

By the time I got there, everybody else was getting their food, and by the time they were leaving, I still hadn't gotten mine. I had it boxed up while a few people lingered in waiting. While walking back to the hotel, I ate my burger, and CTZ, Atheistium, and Puppet went into a sketchy looking sex shop.

All in all, great times, and I'm eagerly looking forward to next year's PAX. YOU SHOULD BE TOO. I will see you there.

[EDIT: One last thing. I got to wear the Mr. Destructoid helmet. It was excellent.]