Hello! It is Memorial Day weekend in the USA, and Mel had a surprise for us all! We spent the weekend at the World Steam Expo in Dearborn, MI. It's a Steampunk Convention! It was very strange and fun!
The first day that Mel took us was she didn't dress up, but went mostly to hear the band that was playing that night. We went to the concert for the group Tartanic. They had bagpipes, and Mel and her friends danced a lot! The light wasn't good for toy photos, but here's one of the band Mel took.
By then it was past our bedtime, so we headed back to Mel's best friend Shannon's house for the night, knowing the next day we would be up early to go back!
This time Mel and her friends Shannon and Naarah dressed up! And we started the day with another concert, this time the band was Abney Park. It was the first of two concerts by them, and it was very fun!
Mel had brought a lot of toys to the con this day, and Naarah took this photo of all of us with Mel in her costume. Raven and Amelie are Mel's dolls from George Etc., then Buzz Bluejay, and us, and Horatio and Vanilla!
Then we walked across the street to the mall to find lunch. This is the hotel that the con is held in.
On the way back, we stopped to watch this class on how to use a whip. It was outside for safety.
Then we went back and shopped some more before we found a yummy dinner and then went home to sleep before the long day on Sunday...
That day started with lessons on fighting, and then went to a class on making bustles. We also spent a lot more time in the dealer's room. We saw this cool Mad Scientist type guy!
This nice man let us play with his zeppelin... Naarah held us up...
This was exciting! We met the author and artist of the Girl Genius comic, Kaja and Phil Foglio! They are fun people, as you an see. 
Then Shannon, Naarah and Naarah's husband Rob went to another concert while Mel helped turn people into zombies! There was a whole line of people wanting zombie makeup so Mel did a couple. We gave advice. Here is one she did all by herself.
Mel bought us toys a crocheted top hat to play with! We all think it looked best on Riin!
There was another Abney Park concert, and more concerts, and more shopping, but us toys were pretty tired out and just let Mel carry us around for a while. Eri tried to get lost, but we found her fine after only a few minutes of panic.
Then we relaxed at Shannon's apartment while Mel nursed her blisters and enjoyed not being in a corset. Mel and her friends are already signed up to go again next year!
