~Asyr

Weeeell... after one week, I finally feel ready to write up an MFF 2023 post-con report. One of the reasons is that I finally got over my con crud. Luckily, it wasn't covid. I tested negative for the last five days. But a lot of unlucky folks caught the mean bug during the con. I wish them all a speedy recovery!

Okay, let's start! Of course, I was travelling the whole time with  dreamandnightmare who shall hereafter be referred to as Night.


Day 1
Our flight from Hamburg started with a delay of 30 minutes, because the aircraft that started before us had a bird strike and the airport staff had to check the runway for any remains before we could take off. But after that it was a smooth flight to our transit destination Copenhagen. After passport control there, all passengers who went on to US flights had to go through an additional security check, that pretty much just consisted of someone asking us questions like "Did you pack your baggage yourself? Did anybody else put anything into your baggage? Did you recently acquire a new electronic device?"
After that, we had an eight hour flight to Chicago ahead of us, which was rather uneventful.
During the flight, I had prepared Night for a lot of questions at Customs & Immigrations, based on my previous experiences - at one point, the border patrol officer even asked me about my job. This time was quite different, though: not only did we not have to wait in line long, the officer who handled us was apparently so bored with his job that he just checked our passports, took our photos as well as Night's fingerprints (they probably still had mine from last time, which was eight years ago) and asked us "Why are you here?" And after we answered that, we were through. I was a bit dumbfounded by how fast it went.
Luckily, all three of our suitcases (we had an additional one to transport our fursuits) had arrived, we picked up the rental car and drove over to the Hyatt Regency O'Hare to check in, then had a nice dinner at the hotel restaurant.



Day 2
The con hadn't started yet and our friends not yet arrived, so we decided to take the car into Chicago proper that day. Weather was clear and sunny, so we head up to the Skydeck on Willis Tower (still prefer Sears Tower), which offered us a beautiful view over the city and the flatness that is Illinois. Took a lot of pictures, then went down again for our second stop, the Field Museum of Natural History. It has an impressive collection of artifacts and fossils, exhibits about evolution, ancient cultures and biology. We had a lot of fun there and got to see Sue, the most complete remains of a T-rex to date.
Getting back to the hotel was a nightmare, though. The expressway was clogged, so the GPS sent us on a route through the city to get out of the city - an option many other drivers chose as well. We barely moved forward and in the end it took us one and a half hours to get back to Rosemont. Oy!
After dinner at Outback's, our friend  skaylez - hereafter referred to as Fluke (the husky) - arrived, who was sharing a room with us. We also went grocery shopping with him that night to get a few things for the next days, mainly water.



Day 3
Registration day, weee! After going out for breakfast with Fluke, we went over to the convention center to get in line for MFF registration to pick up our badges. Lucky for us, we were in the sponsor group and also relatively early - didn't have to wait long. When we returned to the con center later, we were shocked by how long the line was! :o
But Thursday was finally an opportunity to meet and greet people. Our friend  alsong came in that day, we hung out together and he introduced us to  scyvvir wo joined us for dinner at a German restaurant that night. Food was surprisingly good!



Day 4 ,
Now the con really started! And oh boy, there were so many people! I think the final headcount this year was somewhere around 15,000 people. Night spent three hours at the Dealer's Den that day at the Fenris Publishing booth, handing out merchandise with his art and signing autographs, the old popufur!
I took the opportunity to hand my sketchbook to awesome artists  donryu and  cooner who did wonderful sketches for me which you can already find here in my FA gallery. Later that night, Night, Alsong and I also went to a dinner that Fenris Publishing hosted for their artists and writers. Another guest at the table was  colson who is a very nice guy and it was great to meet him in person. Been following his comics/stories for years!
We also ran into  taggcrossroad and  yerkelayh for the first time that day. We'd bump into those guys a few more times while they were fursuiting.



Day 5
The day  popping came to visit, who lives in Chicago and spent the day at the con. We hung out with him, his buddy  lazysmeargle and Alsong, did some fursuiting on our own (which we also did on the previous two days, I forgot to mention that) and had a good time!
We also bumped into  brooding,  deckarorca ,  nex_anima_canis,  conal and  zeeme123 who are really swell guys and it was very fun to just block an aisle in the Dealer's Den to talk to them x3
Went to the nearby mall that evening with Night, Popping, Lazy and Alsong for some ramen and boba tea. Fursuited some more later that night and checked out the dance.



Day 6
The final day. Night and I decided to have a rich breakfast at the hotel, because we figured we wouldn't get a chance to eat properly until late in the evening on our plane back home. Unfortunately we had to check out in the early afternoon, so we took our suitcases to the car and then hung around the hotel lobby for a few more hours before going to the airport. Had to say goodbye to Alsong, we left on an earlier plane. But it was also amazing how many people we ran into whom we hadn't seen at all the days before. I found  the-b3ing (whom I followed on Xitter until then, now found him oN FA as well) and  dulynoted and got a chance to tell them how much I enjoy their artwork! <3
Special mention also goes to  kaydex, whom I wanted to meet ever since I found out he would be at MFF as well. Last day is the charm, I guess. Kaydex is a wonderful and friendly guy and we talked for over an hour, having a good time.
I'm also glad that I finally had the chance to meet  daxterdingo in real life - two times in fursuit and one time out of suit x3 He is a really energetic puppy, but very friendly and just charming, so I was very thankful for the opportunity! :D
Because I think most people were leaving on Monday, it was still very crowded in the hotel lobby when we finally decided to head to the airport. With a heavy heart, because we had an amazing time and it was so hard to leave all those people like Fluke and Brooding and the guys behind!
The flight back to Copenhagen as well as the connection to Hamburg were uneventful, but we were quite exhausted when we arrived back at our home.



MFF 2023 really was a very special experience. It was Night's first trip to the USA and to an American con, and it was wonderful that so many people recognized him and love his art. For me, it was very interesting to be back after eight years of absence. Midwest Furfest certainly has grown a lot - there were three times as many people as the last time I was there. It was fun to meet new people and to see some old acquaintances again, and also to greet people I've only known online until then in real life for the first time.
We are certainly looking forward to our next trip across the pond - maybe for MFF, maybe for another American fur con. It won't be in 2024, since we'll have a wedding and Eurofurence next year where all our budget will go to, but maybe something could happen again in 2025.

Anyway, thank you for reading and please accept my apologies for every name I forgot to mention in this journal!