The '''Spring Equinox Festival''' on March 22nd, 2013, was held simultaneously in both Ottawa and Redmond ([[Ben]]'s home city), with Ben's parents joining the audience from Portland during the storytelling. It started a little before 1 PM PST when [[Brandon]], [[Shelley]], [[Sequoia]], and [[Ren]] arrived at Ben's apartment, then we all adjourned to a nearby sushi restaurant for a vegetarian lunch. Shortly thereafter, at 1800 EDT (3 PM PDT) [[Eric]] and his family also ate a vegetarian sushi meal in Ottawa.
At 1930 EDT/4:30 PM PDT, we began the storytelling via Skype and shared four stories across the continent:
*[[Sequoia]] shared a brief retelling of the story of Peter Pan
*[[Ben]] shared a [[Flight, Interrupted|story about a bird who lived through the Fifth Great Extinction]]
*[[Brandon]] shared a [[Unexpected Belligerance|futuristic tale of a girl choosing between immortality and motherhood]]
*[[Eric]] shared a [[A Clash of Trees|story of a battle between two hyper-advanced arboreal ecosystems]]
In Redmond, we finished the day with an excursion to the playground in my apartment complex and the neighboring riverbank, followed by dinner and sci-fi trivia at another nearby restaurant called Flying Saucer Pizza.