Trip and Con report!
I have news!
First off I went to San Diego for a week for my cousin's wedding. This is, obviously, my first trip since, y'know, and also less-obviously, my first time in California! (Outside of very brief layovers)
The wedding itself was fantastic- outside in the park. The groom's family was really fun from the interactions I had (which included the guy officiating it- though as he's the grooms cousin in law that's super-far from me ^^). Reception had good food, got to talk with cousins-in-laws, lotsa great speeches, and my cuz and her new husband really seemed to click, good time all around.
Hit San Diego bookstores and comic stores, including Verbatim books at my cousin's suggestion and it did turn out to be the best used bookstore around.
Hit the Museum of Us (formerly the Museum of Man)- good museum, small enough to do in one day. Big cannibal exhibit, which was kinda surprising (I think a temporary one- you know, have one space for the big 'event' exhibits?). I liked the monsters of the world one the best, and the beer of the world exhibit was fun too. It had that thing a lot of museums have where newer exhibits have a lot of in-depth information while older ones are more barebones 'this was a thing from X which was important Y', but it was mostly transitioned into the newer type, with the Mayan exhibit under construction to make the change, and the Egyptian one more old-type.
Hit the aircraft carrier/USS Enterprise museum. Which is literally an aircraft carrier. Had some interesting audio-guide things.
Tried to do a scenic train ride at my dad's suggestion but the train had some weird power problem so it stopped and we took a lyft back- the first time he's ever had to abandon train and he's a railroader for life! Not actually too big a hassle, but a story.
Then on the last day my dad and I did the Zoo for six hours. It's a big zoo! We managed to do a pretty solid proportion of it in that time, I must say- aided by the park busses. To my disappointment the arctic section was, one, not near one of the bus lines, and two, only accessible via walking *really steep hills*. My dad said it was too much and I agreed, so we went other ways. Did see elephants, reptiles, birds (we didn't even hit all the aviaries but the 'aviary way' had a ton of cool birds!), Koalas, giraffes.... a ton of stuff, really! Also ate at the lone sit-down restaurant in the park (they reeeally need more air-conditioned places for breaks. Though I gather it was unusually hot when we were there), which was alright but expensive. Anyway, animals everywhere, I approved.
Second, I discovered Blerdcon, one of my fav cons, was on this year but I missed it back in July :\ So then I discovered there was another con, Station Unity a new SF con, nearby the weekend after my return. So THEN I discovered there's a bigger con in DC the same weekend! I debated doing each for a day but trip recovery made me decide to only do Saturday, and went with the big one, AwesomeCon.
AwesomeCon is a big non-specific everything-geek con. There's comics, anime, sf, etc. On the bright side
The convention center let people in from the front which was the opposite side of the metro, which was just... don't make me walk around convention centers to get in! Then from the entrance had to walk half the center to reg, and then went down to the vendor's hall where the entrance to *that* turned out to be on the other side still. I'm glad San Diego had loosened my leg muscles but c'mon!
Walking issues aside, there was a lot there. Vendor's hall was *huge*. Got a couple comics and graphic novels and an art book of egyptian gods in designer outfits. Got a mask- surprisingly few artists selling stylish masks, which is totally a missed opportunity. Not actually a big haul- I think just the two GNs and three comics- but good stuff. It had a fair amount of space to novelists, and a number of SF clubs to specific fandoms with tables. Place was so big there were multiple food places too, but I didn't exactly trust eating near crowds so none for me.
Panels were good- though involved more walking. They had marine biology, some Star Trek panels, a couple random geek ones. I missed the LGBT ones (who were in a different area nearer the main entrance- which was yet more walking from where I was!) since the first one I tried to catch was cancelled and I was too busy in the other haul's for the rest. Small videogame room, I got to play some Smash- which I only just started learning on my 3ds during the San Diego trip, so that was fun!
I think, while they could've used *more* panels, the panels they did have had enough space to work and it's not like Katsucon which underallocates room and sometimes doesn't give alternatives if the one I want is full or not as fun as I thought. So that's a plus. I enjoyed the ones I went to!
All in all as a con, I rate it below focused cons like Blerdcon, Small Press Expo, and Escape Velocity (which I *think* might be dead... no word on if it's coming back post covid, which would be a shame), I had a smaller haul than I do at those, but for one day hitting and for being a year and a half since my last con? Fun times.
Oh, also the airplane *to* San Diego was horrible and uncomfortable (we got routed from our flight-with-stop to a non-stop... and yes we had to take an expensive taxi to DC's other airport), on the way back at least we got 'economy plus' which meant at least non-cramped legs but I remain a non-fan of long plane rides (the train ride that broke was better!), and Lyft makes getting around on a vacation *so* much easier.
Wore masks everywhere- both San Diego and here are big mask areas with high vaccination rates, and I feel lucky to do this stuff before Delta becomes too wide-spread. There's some risk of course especially with, like, the planerides, but a wedding's worth the risk when we're all vaxxed up, y'know?
Anyway, that's my recent doings, and probably my major outings for the year- any further cons will be reliant on both whether they happen and how bad delta gets. I didn't expect to do so much so close together (I literally had a limp from all the SD walking at one point! Got better pretty fast though, I know how to handle that situation), but it worked out that way and I had multiple blasts!
First off I went to San Diego for a week for my cousin's wedding. This is, obviously, my first trip since, y'know, and also less-obviously, my first time in California! (Outside of very brief layovers)
The wedding itself was fantastic- outside in the park. The groom's family was really fun from the interactions I had (which included the guy officiating it- though as he's the grooms cousin in law that's super-far from me ^^). Reception had good food, got to talk with cousins-in-laws, lotsa great speeches, and my cuz and her new husband really seemed to click, good time all around.
Hit San Diego bookstores and comic stores, including Verbatim books at my cousin's suggestion and it did turn out to be the best used bookstore around.
Hit the Museum of Us (formerly the Museum of Man)- good museum, small enough to do in one day. Big cannibal exhibit, which was kinda surprising (I think a temporary one- you know, have one space for the big 'event' exhibits?). I liked the monsters of the world one the best, and the beer of the world exhibit was fun too. It had that thing a lot of museums have where newer exhibits have a lot of in-depth information while older ones are more barebones 'this was a thing from X which was important Y', but it was mostly transitioned into the newer type, with the Mayan exhibit under construction to make the change, and the Egyptian one more old-type.
Hit the aircraft carrier/USS Enterprise museum. Which is literally an aircraft carrier. Had some interesting audio-guide things.
Tried to do a scenic train ride at my dad's suggestion but the train had some weird power problem so it stopped and we took a lyft back- the first time he's ever had to abandon train and he's a railroader for life! Not actually too big a hassle, but a story.
Then on the last day my dad and I did the Zoo for six hours. It's a big zoo! We managed to do a pretty solid proportion of it in that time, I must say- aided by the park busses. To my disappointment the arctic section was, one, not near one of the bus lines, and two, only accessible via walking *really steep hills*. My dad said it was too much and I agreed, so we went other ways. Did see elephants, reptiles, birds (we didn't even hit all the aviaries but the 'aviary way' had a ton of cool birds!), Koalas, giraffes.... a ton of stuff, really! Also ate at the lone sit-down restaurant in the park (they reeeally need more air-conditioned places for breaks. Though I gather it was unusually hot when we were there), which was alright but expensive. Anyway, animals everywhere, I approved.
Second, I discovered Blerdcon, one of my fav cons, was on this year but I missed it back in July :\ So then I discovered there was another con, Station Unity a new SF con, nearby the weekend after my return. So THEN I discovered there's a bigger con in DC the same weekend! I debated doing each for a day but trip recovery made me decide to only do Saturday, and went with the big one, AwesomeCon.
AwesomeCon is a big non-specific everything-geek con. There's comics, anime, sf, etc. On the bright side
The convention center let people in from the front which was the opposite side of the metro, which was just... don't make me walk around convention centers to get in! Then from the entrance had to walk half the center to reg, and then went down to the vendor's hall where the entrance to *that* turned out to be on the other side still. I'm glad San Diego had loosened my leg muscles but c'mon!
Walking issues aside, there was a lot there. Vendor's hall was *huge*. Got a couple comics and graphic novels and an art book of egyptian gods in designer outfits. Got a mask- surprisingly few artists selling stylish masks, which is totally a missed opportunity. Not actually a big haul- I think just the two GNs and three comics- but good stuff. It had a fair amount of space to novelists, and a number of SF clubs to specific fandoms with tables. Place was so big there were multiple food places too, but I didn't exactly trust eating near crowds so none for me.
Panels were good- though involved more walking. They had marine biology, some Star Trek panels, a couple random geek ones. I missed the LGBT ones (who were in a different area nearer the main entrance- which was yet more walking from where I was!) since the first one I tried to catch was cancelled and I was too busy in the other haul's for the rest. Small videogame room, I got to play some Smash- which I only just started learning on my 3ds during the San Diego trip, so that was fun!
I think, while they could've used *more* panels, the panels they did have had enough space to work and it's not like Katsucon which underallocates room and sometimes doesn't give alternatives if the one I want is full or not as fun as I thought. So that's a plus. I enjoyed the ones I went to!
All in all as a con, I rate it below focused cons like Blerdcon, Small Press Expo, and Escape Velocity (which I *think* might be dead... no word on if it's coming back post covid, which would be a shame), I had a smaller haul than I do at those, but for one day hitting and for being a year and a half since my last con? Fun times.
Oh, also the airplane *to* San Diego was horrible and uncomfortable (we got routed from our flight-with-stop to a non-stop... and yes we had to take an expensive taxi to DC's other airport), on the way back at least we got 'economy plus' which meant at least non-cramped legs but I remain a non-fan of long plane rides (the train ride that broke was better!), and Lyft makes getting around on a vacation *so* much easier.
Wore masks everywhere- both San Diego and here are big mask areas with high vaccination rates, and I feel lucky to do this stuff before Delta becomes too wide-spread. There's some risk of course especially with, like, the planerides, but a wedding's worth the risk when we're all vaxxed up, y'know?
Anyway, that's my recent doings, and probably my major outings for the year- any further cons will be reliant on both whether they happen and how bad delta gets. I didn't expect to do so much so close together (I literally had a limp from all the SD walking at one point! Got better pretty fast though, I know how to handle that situation), but it worked out that way and I had multiple blasts!