Scranton Story - The Drive Down/Registration

Hey Dunderheads! It's story time! And boy do I have a lot of stories to tell. This long weekend in Scranton for the official Office Convention was amazing. So much to share, so let's get on with it - shall we?

After watching some of the cast on The Today Show, NP (TwoCents Staff Photographer) and I left the driveway and pointed the car towards Scranton around 12:15pm on Friday afternoon. At 12:58 we crossed the border into New York state and at 1:58pm New York gave way to Pennsylvania!

Getting closer to Scranton, in the POURING rain, we start to notice signs with names we recognize. Places like Lake Wallenpaupack (Booze Cruise) and Honesdale (Schrute Farms). It was starting to become real.

Pulling off the exit of 81 you come around a bend and before you know it - BAM - there's the Welcome to Scranton sign. Not the one filmed by John Krasinski and used in the opening of the show, but the new and improved sign. We make a vow to get a picture of it next time.

You come around another bend and in front of you is the backside of The University of Scranton. You pass under a bridge and the walls of the ramp is painted with Welcome to Scranton (The Electric City) signs and all kinds of colors.

The Radisson Hotel is an old train station and incredibly beautiful to look at, even if it is from under our Dunder Mifflin umbrellas. We luck out and get a parking spot directly across from the hotel, grab out information and run in.

Making our way to the the grand ballroom of the Radisson we are greeted by nice ladies handing out Scranton tourism information, the Univ of Scranton bookshop and then a nice volunteer in a royal blue Convention shirt shows us the way. The registration is set up in lines leading to a LONG counter. To the left is a huge screen showing Office episodes. Behind the counter are enormous painted cut-outs of many of the Office characters and a separate booth for each ticket level for the Convention. I need to find my Convention contact - Tucker Hottes and I'm pointed towards a bearded man hunched over a laptop.

After a few brief hellos, he takes our picture for our Corporate Convention IDs and we sign in. Upon sign-in we get a manila inter-office envelope filled with important information, a souvenir program, a black shirt with the Convention logo on it and then the woman behind the desk says "And you get.... a World's Best Boss mug ... signed by Steve Carell." I was stunned. BONUS! NP got a copy of the painting Pam did of the Office's building, autographed by Jenna Fischer. Already it's a great trip!

Tucker then introduces us to his partner in crime on the Convention Committee, Matt Smith, and we start to realize that even amid all the chaos of registration that everyone from Scranton is SO nice. Matt informs us that it's going to be a WHILE for the ID passes to print and we might as well come back later on.

So we check out the Dunder Mifflin Infinity booth (GO DANBURY BRANCH!) and make our way back to our car to head to the hotel to get ready for the VIP Casino Night later that evening. But that's a different' story.

Trip Down Photo Album
Registration Photo Album

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