NANCY DREW 2012 CONVENTION
GOLD CANYON, AZ
March 19-25 - Part 1
Monday, March 19:
Our 12th annual Nancy Drew convention took place in Gold Canyon, AZ this year from March 19-March 25. We set up "camp" at the Gold Canyon Golf Resort, located right smack dab in the middle of the setting from the Nancy Drew book, The Kachina Doll Mystery, near Apache Junction and right by the Superstition Mountains. We try to bring the book to life for fans, and I think in the setting we succeeded!
With an ambitious week long schedule of touring and then resort presentations and activities plus the mystery weekend, Sleuth Gina arrived a few days prior to help me wrap up all the details. I was so under the weather that she was my lifesaver! My Mom was hard at work on our finale treasure piece--the Witch Kachina painting that would mark the treasure at the resort (vouchers anyhow to turn in for treasure) and we managed to get it all done in time for the arrival of the Sleuths for the Monday March 19 Meet & Greet. Everyone gathered at the bar & grille at the resort for an evening of meet & greet games and an activity to find their goody bags (in my casita!). A.B. was celebrating his birthday so we surprised he and Elizabeth with a cake. Though it was a bit loud thanks to a local musician, we managed to talk him into zipping it for a little bit so we could make announcements and then we sang Happy Birthday to A.B. Gina and Kelly put together some fun games that included a fun Wanted Poster activity:
Tuesday, March 20:
Everyone bused from the resort to Queen Creek where I live to have lunch and tour my collection. I gave a quick talk about collecting using the collection as a learning tool which I think was fun--it also jazzed people up about collecting for the book hunting stops we headed to next. Book Gallery and Alcuin Books, you can thank me later ;-)
We served a lunch of chicken salad, potato salad, coleslaw and broccoli slaw, pinto beans, Texas brisket, rolls and croissants, veggies, fruit, iced tea & assorted beverages, sugar cookies and cheesecake. Saguaro cactus shot glass favors with skittles and jelly beans were given out.
We headed off to two bookstores in Phoenix and Scottsdale - Book Gallery and Alcuin Books where Sleuths had the opportunity to purchase a plethora of series books from Nancy Drew to Judy Bolton to Tom Swift and more obscure series too. Most had dust jackets too. Each store had a nice selection as well. There was an opportunity to do some souvenir shopping at Gilbert Ortega for Indian jewelry and Kachina Dolls plus other nearby shops. Lindsay found a Kachina Doll skirt for the Saturday mystery dinner which was incredibly cute!
Our next stop was Sleuth Judy's home in Scottsdale for an early dinner. Mexican was the fare and we sampled chips and queso, salsa, guacamole, taquitos and tacos, meatballs, and a cute cake with our Kachina Doll convention logo.
Our next stop was the Poisoned Pen bookstore in Scottsdale where our AZ Sleuths meet every other month for a Nancy Drew book discussion. We held our book discussion on the Nancy Drew theme books, The Secret of Shadow Ranch and The Kachina Doll Mystery which was fun and informative.
We trudged on the bus after a full day and headed back to the resort and stopped at a nearby grocery store so everyone could stock up their casitas with snacks and munchies. Leave it to book collectors to also be on the ball about book related items--James Keeline was spotted with a bottle of lighter fluid to remove price stickers from his books. Clever!
Stay tuned for part 2 tomorrow...
1 comment:
I wish I could come on one of these trips!
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