Note: I apologize for how long it has taken me to get this post up. I had so much fun at Jamboree but I also barely slept. It has taken me a few days to recover from the whirlwind weekend and a few days to process everything that happened. But without further ado, here is my post about Saturday.
Saturday was such a fun day! I couldn’t sleep much the night before because of my excitement. I was up by 5:30 AM and downstairs in the unofficial blogger hangout by 6:15 AM. I sat at the table with my large cup of hot tea and checked my email. No one was awake or downstairs but me and the hotel staff. I was anxious for the genealogy fun to begin.
Around 7:30 or so, Amy Coffin of the We Tree blog came downstairs. I was so excited to see her! I gave her a huge hug and the genealogy fun began. It wasn’t long before more bloggers began coming downstairs. I was on cloud nine.
In fact, I was so excited that I had forgotten to eat breakfast. By the time I realized I was hungry, I was short on time because I was a panelist at the Bloggers Summit Part 1 at 10 A.M. Gini Webb (Ginisology) and her husband Steve, Cheryl Palmer(Heritage Happens), and A.C. Ivory (Find My Ancestor) were all going to breakfast in the hotel’s restaurant. Following Thomas MacEntee’s advice for a quick meal, I ordered the mini buffet. It was so nice to sit with other genealogists and chat during breakfast.
I then ran to the Bloggers Summit. Thomas MacEntee (Geneabloggers) was our moderator and covered a lot of material in 60 minutes. My fellow panelists were Steve Danko (Steve’s Genealogy Blogs), Miriam Midkiff (AnceStories) and Randy Seaver (Geneamusings). We got a lot of great questions and Thomas did a brilliant job covering so much information in such a short amount of time.
Part 2 of the Bloggers Summit was just as interesting. Thomas MacEntee remained the moderator and the panelists for this session were Lisa Louise Cooke (Genealogy Gems), Schelly Talalay Dardashti (Tracing The Tribe), Kathryn Doyle (The California Genealogy Society Blog), and Craig Manson (GeneaBlogie). I learned a lot.
Then I went to lunch with Susan Kitchens (Family Oral History Using Digital Tools) at Panda Express. We made it back to the conference in time for Lisa Louise Cooke’s Genealogy Gems Live Podcast. The guests were awesome but I must admit, the cutest guest of them all was Lisa’s baby grandson, David. He is absolutely adorable and Lisa just shines when she talks about him. He is also a very well-behaved baby – he didn’t mind the loud clapping and cheering and even stuck in a smile or two.
I hung out in the unofficial bloggers lounge for a bit before heading over to the lobby of the convention center to watch Jean Wilcox Hibben (Circlemending) and her husband Butch play some music. Thomas MacEntee sang some songs also and he has such an amazing voice (on top of all the other talents!). Meanwhile, Miriam Midkiff and I drank Shirley Temples in celebration of my graduation. I drank a few too many and got Shirley-Templed (and yes – that is a term I coined up for the sugar overload that I recieved).
Then I went to eat dinner at the Greek restaurant with Miriam Midkiff and Liz Hall Morgan. My salad, pita bread, and humus was delicious. Mmmmm.
After dinner I did some more hanging out in the unofficial bloggers lounge. I chatted it up with all the bloggers. I was even lucky enough to meet one of my genealogy idols (who also happens to be a TV star): Megan Smolenyak Smolenyak
Photo taken by Drew Smith at SCGS Jamboree 2010
All of the Geneabloggers hung out for a long time in the unofficial bloggers lounge. I even proposed the idea of an after house pajama party for next year. Can you seriously imagine how fun that would be? We would have to have 2 rules though: Please keep the pajamas PG rated and no technology allowed (technology = some sort of evidence). I really hope some of you bloggers are willing to participate because if you are I will DEFINITELY MAKE THIS HAPPEN! I will start saving up for the hotel room and find some cute PJs to wear now. Like tomorrow. (Okay…maybe all those Shirley Temples are still in my system…but I still thinks this sounds like a lot of fun!)
I finally went to bed around 11:30 or midnight because I knew I had to be up early for my Using Your Computer, Video Camera, and Youtube.
Further Reading:
1.) “Blogging For Dummies” by Susannah Gardner
2.) “101 Brick Wall Busters: Solutions to Overcome Your Genealogical Challenges”
3.) “Who Do You Think You Are?: The Essential Guide to Tracing Your Family History” by Megan Smolenyak Smolenyak
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