The first place we stopped when we got to Scranton was the Steamtown Mall. It's mentioned in The Office quite a few times but we were there for more practical reasons -- Kyle forgot to pack a shirt and tie in his suitcase. While we were there, though, we found the original Scranton welcome sign that's shown in the opening credits! I read somewhere that they had moved it off the highway and into the mall so it would be easier (and less dangerous) for tourists to take pictures with it!
We took a LOT of pictures in Scranton so it took me a while to narrow down which ones to share, and even then I still ended up with 40 for this post. Yikes! I decided to do one of those "read more after the jump!" things so my blog won't take 200 years to load :)
Our first event was a cocktail party on Friday night. I wore my favorite lace dress, a black bow belt, black tights and black flats. I loved this outfit so much! On Saturday we attended a behind the scenes Q&A panel discussion, a parade and the farewell event at the baseball stadium so I went with something a little more casual. I wore one of my Dunder Mifflin shirts, a red button-up skirt and my favorite red flats. I also wore three of my wooden Office brooches (Creed, Kevin and Dwight.)
Outfit 1: dress - modcloth | belt - f21 | shoes - asos | brooch - sweet and lovely
Outfit 2: shirt - amazon | skirt - modcloth | shoes - asos | bag - asos
At the cocktail party on Friday night we were supposed to meet most of the cast but seven of them missed their connecting flight to Scranton and weren't able to make it. We did get to see Kevin, Erin, Phyllis and Meredith though! The fans kind of swarmed around them and me and Kyle aren't very pushy so we didn't get to meet anyone at the event. It was still fun though, and we got really neat gift bags to take home with a bunch of really awesome Scranton & Office themed stuff.
When we were walking back into our hotel, guess who was coming out! So we actually got to meet Kevin (Brian Baumgartner) after all :D Also, this is when we realized that all of the cast was staying at our hotel which was PRETTY DARN AWESOME. We stayed at the Radisson Lackawanna Station hotel, which is actually an old turn of the century train station! It's absolutely beautiful (you can kind of understand why Michael Scott thought doing business there would appear "snooty" ;)
After our chance encounter with Kevin we decided to go out to eat. One of the workers at our hotel recommended a little diner called Chick's, which turned out to be really neat! They had out of this world home fries (seriously, out of this world!!!) and those individual juke-box things that let you pay to play a song in the diner. I found Twilight Time by The Platters on the list and probably tortured most of the other guests by playing it five times in a row. I just really love that song :)
The next morning we attended a Behind the Scenes Q&A with some of the crew. It included Paul Lieberstein (Toby!) and Greg Daniels, the executive producer and creator of the American version of The Office. Everyone on the panel was so nice and down to earth, and they had so many fun stories! I really hope the whole thing will be on the season 9 dvd so every Office fan can hear it, not just people who were lucky enough to attend.
They also showed us a couple videos, including one of the storage facility where they are keeping the props and costumes. They saved EVERYTHING. The index cards that Michael put on everyone's forehead in Diversity Day, the yogurt lid medals and the paper doves from the office olympics.. seriously everything. One of the moderators asked what their plans are for the props and they hinted at maybe having a museum someday. Be still my heart!
The next event was the parade in downtown Scranton! All of the cast members had their phones out taking pictures of the fans, which was really cute! I'd love to see all of the photos they took! When Jim and Pam drove by it was like Cinderella and her Prince in a Disney parade. They are sitcom royalty, right?!
At the end of the parade route they had a stage set up where all of the cast members performed and gave little thank you speeches. Since I'm really short and we weren't first in line, we ended up standing on a monument on campus so I could see the stage. It was actually a really great view even though we weren't up close! (Kyle has a real camera with good lenses, hence the amazing pictures here. My iphone just didn't really cut it on this trip lol)
Rainn Wilson gave the beginning of "Dwight's speech" -- "Blood alone moves the wheels of history!" It was soo cool hearing him in character in person!
Creed sang two songs from his new album! He's really good! Later on somebody asked him where the fake Creed ends and the real Creed begins and he replied, "probably in jail" lol!
It was so cute to see Ellie Kemper and Jenna Fischer whispering on stage! Me and Kyle were pretending that they were gossiping about Angela and Dwight ;)
Jenna Fischer did air-high-fives with the crowd! It was the sweetest thing ever!! I'm usually not very comfortable participating in crowd activities (clapping, yelling, etc.) but I was like a totally different person on this trip! I was totally air-high-fiving with everyone else, and so excited to be doing it!
The girls from The Office singing "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun"!!
Andy Buckley (David Wallace) gave a rousing rendition of "Suck It," the jingle (if you could call it that?) for his character's invention on the show. I'm a big David Wallace fan so that was pretty fun! I loved that he had on a Suck It sweatshirt too, lol!
At the end of the show, Rainn Wilson called up creator Greg Daniels to the front and said that he really truly is the "World's Best Boss." CUE THE TEARS. I had a hard time keeping my composure all day but at that point I just totally lost it. Oh! Also! I met Greg Daniels during the parade!! I look terrible in the picture so it's for family eyes only but he was so incredibly sweet. I thanked him for taking the photo with me and he said "Thank you! I'm just surprised anyone would want a picture with me." I'd think everybody would! Without him we wouldn't have the show.
Later that night we attended the farewell event at PNC baseball field. I think the paper said the next day that there were 10,000 fans there!!
Originally the scheduled guests were Craig Robinson (Daryl), Rainn Wilson (Dwight), Ellie Kemper (Erin), Oscar Nunez (Oscar), Phyllis Smith (Phyllis), Creed Bratton (Creed), Paul Lieberstein (Toby), John Krasinski (Jim), Jenna Fischer (Pam), Brain Baumgartner (Kevin), Kate Flannery (Meredith) and Andy Buckley (David Wallace). And that was more than enough for me.
But then they announced what I thought was impossible -- Steve Carell was there. MICHAEL SCOTT!!! ahhhh!
Kyle took a picture of my reaction when they announced he was the surprise guest. I look like a complete buffoon but I think this is the only way you can fully grasp how excited I was lol..
I was crying, screaming, shaking... just SO excited. Michael Scott is basically my favorite character in any tv show or movie, ever. I just love him to death.
Andy Buckley took the microphone and gave "exit interviews" to each of the cast members. It was really sweet and so funny! You could tell that they all get along and really love each other. I think the photo above was taken after Andy Buckley asked Jenna Fischer what would be one quality that Jim has that she wished her real life husband shared. John Krasinski looked like "oh I'm interested in hearing the answer to this one" lol! It was so cute!
A little later they took questions from the audience and they picked me! I had a few minutes to prepare, so I asked the guy (who was the organizer of the event) if I could make a statement instead of asking a question, and he let me. I had promised Millie that if I had the opportunity I'd tell Creed that she loved him. Millie got me to watch The Office a few years ago so without her I wouldn't even be a fan! I figured it was the least I could do to say thank you :) So when it was my turn, I (incredibly nervously!) pronounced Millie's love! Creed said he loved her back. It was so fun but I was so so nervous that I'd mess up!
After the Q&A was over the entire cast took a bow. Goosebumps!!
Then they announced that in a few minutes there would be a fireworks show. I'm usually not very big on fireworks so I asked Kyle if he wanted to leave, but he was still taking some pictures of the cast members as they were leaving the field so we hung around. I'm SO glad we did because it was the most amazing fireworks show of my life. If you're a big fan of The Office this will probably give you goosebumps..
The fireworks started with The Office theme song blaring from the speakers, then continued while various audio clips and songs from the show played. I couldn't stop crying the entire time, it was almost magical. I feel like such a dork admitting this since "it's a tv show!!" but it is so important to me, I can't even describe it. It was just amazing.
When we got back to the hotel, there was Andy Buckley! Our mom's maiden name is Buckley, so Kyle told him that and he said "oh really? what's her name?" and when Kyle replied "Judy" Andy said "ohhhhh, cousin Judy!" It was really cute :) We immediately called our mom to tell her (she's a fan of the show too!) Now if only he WAS our cousin and we could hang out with him all the time, haha!
And now this was probably THE most exciting part of the whole trip. A whole bunch of weird things happened to lead up to this that I won't go into, but we ended up behind the bar at the Backyard Ale House along with the cast of The Office while they were tending bar. We were there for almost two hours I think, and it was just one of the best times of my whole life.
Fun fact! This was actually my first time in a bar. I'm 26 and the first time I'm ever in a bar I'm there with the cast of The Office. Not bad, lol! ;D
Seriously, this was just unreal. UNREAL, I TELL YOU!!
Me and Rainn Wilson! I had on my wooden Dwight brooch and he said he liked it, so I gave it to him. He wasn't sure what to do with it so I said he could turn it into a magnet, but now I realize I never said that I made it so he probably thought I was just some really weird girl giving him my jewelry. Well... I was some really weird girl giving him my jewelry I guess.
He was really sweet though and took it anyway :) I saw he posted a picture of someone with Dwight's face tattooed on their arm so at least I wasn't the most crazed fan of the day I guess ;D
And then of course there's this. sigh.
