Pictures from my Minicon 36 trip

Minicon 36 was held in the Hilton hotel in central Minneapolis, officially between Friday 13th April and Sunday 15th, though people were arriving on the twelfth, and the bar was still full of convention-goers when I left at 1am on Monday night.

As far as I know, I was the one Englishman present; Ken Macleod had come from Scotland, Jo Walton from Wales, Emmet O'Brien counted as Irish for this purpose, and I didn't see anyone else from east of Newfoundland.

I'd arrived earlier in the week, spent a few days staying with Geri Sullivan at Toad Hall and helping carrying things - her later recollections give my most useful role as pointing out that the con suite did not need six water-filled bubbling lamps, even if they were on special offer at the Mall of America. For the con itself and the two days before it, I stayed with Doug Wickstrom, and got to sit in the flight simulator he operates and crash a C-130 Hercules transport plane vertically into the ground two minutes after take-off. On Monday night I was taken home by Beth Friedman and spent three days staying with her, exploring Minneapolis and buying several hundred dollars' worth of second-hand books, before getting on a plane home Friday afternoon.

The hospitality accorded me was absolutely exemplary; I'd like publicly to thank my hosts.

But now, on to the pictures. Pick a gallery:

Scenes from the convention

Scenes from the city

The Tam Lin tour of Carleton (coming soon)

The air base, featuring the Giant Computer