Cookout in Omaha: Day 2

On day two of the cookout, we spent a good deal of time catching up over laptops and sketchbooks while Fading Aura made French Toast for everybody in the kitchen (and also some yummy pancakes for me). One advantage in having a relatively smaller number of cookout attendees is that we can all fit in one house, but I’m always amused at how most of our web comics crew managed to retreat to our virtual world even when we’re all together in real life.

After a quick trip to the airport to pick up our blue-haired friend Aeridius, we all went down to the Henry-Doorly Zoo for the afternoon. I’ve never been able to visit all of the giant zoo before, but we were able to tour the aviary and gorilla valley before splitting up. I followed Fading Aura and Dragon Kingdoms into the desert dome, while everyone else went to look at penguins. It seemed to be nap time for several of the animals, but we still managed to catch a few of the critters on display before the park started to close. We met up with Telly outside and then headed down to the Old Market to have some much-needed ice cream at Ted & Wally’s before heading home.

That evening, two universes collided as our friends from Comic Genesis came to visit the Eagle’s Lodge to attend Jitterbugs Night Out. Only a couple of our fellow Comic Generators ventured out onto the dance floor, but it was still quite fun to see our friends from both sides of the screen meeting (and dancing together) for the first time. The rest of the gang seemed content to play games on one of the side tables as the temperature in the dance hall grew from bearable to sweltering. Fading Aura and Dragon Kingdoms split to do some "geocaching" while everyone else headed home.