So, we ended up going to Tennessee last weekend to see some friends (And well, go to Worlds while there anyway), which if you check my Twitter or are subscribed to my Youtube channel, you likely already knew :P But anyway, it was nice to go somewhere new. I had never been to Tennessee so I had fun just enjoying Nashville.
Before we get into the general trip stuff, I’ll talk about Pokemon and Pokemon Worlds a bit :)
So, we picked up our badges on Thursday afternoon. Figured it was best to get that and the shop out of the way ASAP.
I think I generally liked the colors/theme of the Worlds 2017 stuff better, but I still really liked the lanyard at least. I loved all the Pokemon with the different instruments. I kind of wished there was more merchandise featuring all the Pokemon for this over just Pikachu. They did, however, give out this free poster which was perfect (And we were even given a few extras!):
So, while we didn’t really buy any of the exclusive stuff, we did get these adorable plushies:
And here’s the bag by itself:
We also got some packs of cards with our spectator badges and these were essentially the highlights from our pack openings:
I did not get nearly as nice cards from opening the digital versions :P
They also had a demo station for the Let’s Go games! I was really excited to try them out:
And even got this cute Pokeball stress ball for playing:
I actually had a lot of fun with it. I really like the look of the game and how Pokemon show up and just exploring. The world feels so much more alive which is really nice. The Pokeball controller worked well, though, I found I accidentally would hit the button versus moving it sometimes, but I think that’s more just because I was getting used to it. It also reacted fairly well, but I couldn’t figure out exactly where the timing was for Pokemon who move around a lot and sadly, my time with the demo ended before I could play around with it more.
I’m really looking forward to it though. Now to just… finish Ultra Moon.
Some other miscellaneous tidbits:
-Apparently the demo wasn’t planned. The person we spoke to said they only found out about doing it like a week ago and it was super last minute.
-You may remember the curve ball demonstration during E3. The guy who was walking me through the game said the feature was removed and not in this build. He seemed unsure if it’d be brought back for the main game or not, but it was at least not in the newer version of the demo.
But yes, some pictures from the Pokemon Center, the main room, and where it was being held:
The view was so nice.
The Prize Wall
I want one of these in my house.
One of the various stands around. Meloetta was the Pokemon available to download. If only it was able to come with a ribbon…
Part of the Stage! I love the building names.
All the set-ups were genuinely really neat.
They’re really nice. But honestly, the card artwork is my favorite.
I really love these so much
I was so tempted to buy one of these, but $50 was too much for me… :(
I really loved the stage. I love the buildings being all Pokemon world themed and it just really makes me wish there was some big combined Pokemon game of all the various cities and things we’ve gotten from every game. The Pokemon World is already so huge and there’s so much to see and I wish they’d actually use that versus constant new regions. At this point, I’m just kind of tired of new regions and new Pokemon. I’d mind a new region less if we could visit it alongside familiar ones, but I think there’s plenty of Pokemon at this point :(
Moving a bit more outside the convention center, I wish we got to do more in Pokemon GO, honestly. We seemed to manage to miss every single raid, there weren’t too many Pokestops actually in the main room, my GPS was constantly a bit finnicky, and I just didn’t have much luck with spawns either. I at least finally got a Sneasel and I did get a shiny Sunkern:
Also Tom traded me one of the Shiny Mareep he caught when we had visited back in April so yay :D And I at least got a lot of gifts to send back to people. Since I don’t go out much (and sometimes just can’t especially with the weather lately), I don’t usually have many chances to give gifts out :(
But yes, as to one of the biggest reasons for going, it was to pick up this from a very amazing friend:
This was one of the prizes for the first winner of the Sylveon Girls Battle in 2016 in Japan and one of my most wanted items that featured Mega Audino T~T My next big goal will be Mega Audino Ddakji:
So, if you’re in Korea or know someone who could maybe help with those, let me know! ❤
Going into general Tennessee, it’s time for various random tourist-y pictures and food tours :P
I couldn’t help but take pictures of some of the things at the airport when we landed
This was in the center of the hotel’s main entrance. Though, this was taken as we were leaving…
Close-up because of the cute bird in the tree!
Fireplace in the lobby.
Flowers in the hall.
Our hotel room!
The breakfast at the hotel! It was nice.
The hotel actually occasionally had stuff for dinner too though.
And for lunch as well!
And they switched it up a bit. Some nachos with chili and cheese! They also always had cookies–chocolate chip and oatmeal raisin.
Our very first meal was at the Corner Bakery Cafe that was right at the corner of the hotel. I had a Club Panini with Chicken Carbonara.
My husband had the BBLT with the Asian Wonton Salad. The drink was a Hibiscus Lemonade. I actually really liked this place, but due to the hours, we didn’t manage to go there again sadly.
This pig was near the entrance of Martin’s Bar-B-Que Joint. You’ll see we ate there a few times :P As it was my husband’s favorite and pretty much everything we had there was good. I wonder if this pig has a name. I will name him Sir Pig for now.
Meanwhile, I got a sausage sandwich and potato salad
My husband’s pulled pork and corn bread~
Dessert! I got pecan pie while he got their fried pie to try.
On another day, my husband got the “redneck taco” and potato salad.
Meanwhile, I got the sausage platter with hush puppies and cornbread.
On our final day, I had actually still been sick from the day before and so, we didn’t have lunch (paired with just not many people being open on Sunday). In combination with that and it being our last day and my husband still wanting to try a lot, we kind of overdid it a bit. I got a brisket sandwich with a side of mac & cheese and a baked potato. He got the the Brisket Burger with the cornbread, and then Loaded Fries and Catfish for sharing. And a strawberry cake for dessert.
They also had homemade brownies. I miss this brownie.
Also cheesy bread to share.
And olives! My only issue is only some were pitted and it wasn’t even just like… one specific type that wasn’t pitted. It was a bit random.
My husband’s pizza~
This is from Hot Diggity Dogs :) I got a normal hotdog and the Polish Sausage while my husband got the Nashville and Bratwurst. Also cheese fries.
Straight down from the convention center was Al Taglio, a pizza place. I got an all cheese pizza.
Wild Bill’s was essentially a soda stand in the convention center. They had all kinds of different soda’s and if you got one of their special cups, you could get free refills on Friday and Saturday. While soda isn’t really my thing, my husband enjoyed it.
One thing we saw a lot was a Party Bike. Which was like a Party Bus… but with a group of people biking. They were always kind of amusing to see.
Butterfly we saw at the airport!
As for Pokemon Worlds next year… We don’t have too many plans, but Washington DC is a pretty good location for us, so maybe~